Lesson 1: How NOT to Work as a Freelance Writer

Although I have been writing copiously for as long as I can remember and in various media (I have boxes of marble composition notebooks in my apartment) I gave up the ghost around the age of 16 when a psychic to whom I was brought by my mother told me I would never be a writer. There is just so much that strikes me as odd about it now but, for whatever reason, I took what the psychic said at face value and her words have haunted me ever since.

So, leaving aside all of the questions about my credulity and why my mother would bring me to a psychic in the first place, time went on and my writing got me accepted to a good school. Once there I filled my days drinking and, yes, writng some more.  I even became known to my friends as the guy capable of writing a 20 page philosophy paper in a matter of hours the night before it was due.

But, let me stop here for a moment and say this: my point here is not to recount my great deeds of writing or extol my literary virtue but just that I have always been able to produce large amounts of passably palatable text in little time. Perfect for college. Even better for Odesk.

Circuitous though it may be I can now get to my point: this talent to be a human article spinner is only as udeful as you make it and only as valuable as you esteem it to be. At present, as I build my portfolio I am fine with taking a number of low paying, high volume jobs but it is not something I would recommend as a general formula for success. In the last week I have written something on the order of 50,000 words and have yet to see a penny. And, when I do I will have made, at best, $200. It remains to be seen if my plan to garner experience and hook clients with the cheap stuff will work but, for the time being, I have no better plans.