Comments on: Freelance Writer Gets Criticism

By: Freelance Writers Errors | Sloppy or Overload

Freelance Writers Errors | Sloppy or Overload — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:57:39 +0000

[...] A couple recent blog posts drew this to my attention. At “About Freelance Writing”, Anne mused over comments she received in a blog post entitled: Freelance Writer Gets Criticism. [...]

By: Anne

Anne — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:03:22 +0000

lol, how true, Steve, and in truth I never thought of it that way. I think I’ll use this one for my Saturday quote post. Thanks.

By: Anne

Anne — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:55:50 +0000

Years ago I was working on staff at a tiny newspaper in a mountain community in socal. The editor there, whose name escapes me at the moment, was a classic ornery old guy who shouted was generally horrid to us about everything we wrote. But his criticism was right on. Eventually, I wrote a long cutline for a picture of an egg standing on end at noon on the equinox of all things.

I put it on his desk and cowered at mine waiting for the storm. Minutes passed. Eventually he growled, “come in here!” When I got there he read it again and muttered “not bad.” I felt like I had won the Pulitzer! Many of those lessons stuck to my writing.

By: Dolores

Dolores — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:14:32 +0000

In my former job as a staff grant writer, I had many a proposal come back with more red ink on it than a rack of Bic ballpoints! Most of the time, I rolled with it…of course after reaching for a piece of chocolate and wishing I could have had a bottle in my desk like the days of Mad Men. Then I went back to the computer and tried to figure out what she really wanted. After 8 years of being both soundly criticized and greatly praised (my boss had a PhD in English…yikes), I became a far better, more careful writer. I have been told that writing well and clearly is a rare talent, and I believe it. I now have a different full-time job where I don’t write every day, but now I freelance. I find that people are more appreciative of my grant writing as a freelancer than when I was a staff grant writer. Perhaps it is the clients (or maybe because I am a better writer now…dare I think that….) but I’m a lot more at peace with myself…because now I write because I choose to, not because I have to!

By: Steve Amoia

Steve Amoia — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:42:50 +0000

Anne, James Michener had an interesting quote on this theme: "Not too many people work in a job where, waiting out there are three or four hundred people who are paid to tear apart what you've done. And often they are brighter than you are, or they know more about the subject than you do, or they wish they had written a book themselves, or done a lot better. Or they just don't like it! And you have to live with it. I have been very well treated by the critics in the long haul." .-= Steve Amoia´s last blog ..2009-2010 UEFA Champions League Elimination Round: Beckham Returns to Old Trafford =-.

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:26 +0000

Thanks Allena…

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:53:40 +0000

Well said, Carol. Editors have taught me a lot and often made me look good as well.

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:52:46 +0000

Yes, Lucy, recognizing when we simply can’t do a decent job… I tend to get stupid about 4 in the afternoon… and honoring that can avoid all sorts of problems – even if it means a slipped deadline.

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:48:30 +0000

Yes, am always glad to know I’m not the only one. Thanks.

By: Anne

Anne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:46:17 +0000

Thanks Cathy.