Tonight I wanted to talk a little bit about my process. The first thing you ought to know is I’m lightyears away from even having one nailed down. I’ve had many more failures than successes, and one victory is not a universal for figuring out freelancing. You take a win as a win. You keep going. You adapt. Somehow you get better. It’s a lot like sharpening a knife in the dark. There’s a feel to it, and every so often you are going to cut yourself.
Teaching Yourself, and Realizing Your Limitations
I am always striving to educate myself on how to do better. How to promote myself. How to listen. How to push my boundaries. I read a lot of articles, I still buy books on writing, I watch YouTube videos, and I listen to podcasts wherever I can find them. Sometimes the algorithm gods are not kind and I wind up finding myself in a corner, listening to the same one or two travel writers/photographers/journalists. The algorithm is actually pretty lazy. Especially on YouTube and Spotify.
Out of the thousands of content creators out there, you are likely to only find half a dozen before your search meanders off into ADHD land, with music playlists, TV show clips, and whisperers tapping on shit in ASMR videos. Good luck getting much of a deep dive.
There’s another reason researching kinda sucks right now for what I do. All the books, podcasts, YouTube channels, and resources out there were created pre-pandemic. Hardly any of it is relevant today. Not in a post-pandemic world. Not in a time when potential clients would rather save a few bucks promoting “AI-written articles.”
Fighting an Uphill Battle Against AI
Read AI-Plagiarized in that last comment. That’s what it is. The information you get from ChatGPT isn’t created from whole cloth. It’s pulled from the same half dozen search results you could have gotten from the first few search results and it compiles them. Inaccuracies, satire, sarcasm, and lies are chucked in with all the rest. Nobody really wants to know how the sausage is made. What you need to understand is whoever wrote that content that is getting lifted and mushed together into “Facts” didn’t get paid for it. They didn’t even get a byline.
So, someone like me who has come late to the party trying to teach themselves how to make a living isn’t going to have an easy time of it. Most of the markets listed in print publications have folded. Large publishers have gobbled up smaller magazines and either turned them into affiliate marketing shells online, or shuttered them entirely. Even some of the podcasters I listened to are gone, with only a fraction of their advice anywhere close to being relevant these days.
Finding Your Path in a Post-Pandemic World
Covid really did a number on everyone. There’s a BIG rift in how things are done nowadays versus what worked even just five years ago. Figuring it out on your own is almost mandatory
So what do I do? Basically the same thing I’ve always had to do. I figure it out for myself. I send pitches, I get a feel for what is a good story, I try to find someone who might be interested in it. When I get ghosted by them, I try someone else. My pitches get better. My credits start stacking up a little bit at a time. The one truth that has existed in publishing for generations is the more credits you have the more likely someone is to take a chance on your story.
They Can’t All Be Bangers
It doesn’t hurt to be a decent writer either. Though some of the stories I’ve read suggest that isn’t all that important. Instead of having sour grapes, all you can do is just have confidence in yourself. I don’t hold a lot of stock in an editor who can’t respond to a basic email anyway with a simple “No thanks, not for us,” message. Getting ghosted by a professional editor is much like getting cut off in traffic by someone who has no concept of using their turn signal. Which is made even more ironical because they are pros in a field that is essentially communication. Yet here we are.
As I go, I work by how something feels. Sometimes I have difficulty with a story because either showing up to an event just tells me there’s no story there. I attended the Riverside/Encampment Rodeo and Lumberjack Festival in June. $10 to get in. After walking around for about 20 minutes, I felt ZERO vibe for a story here. It was a local gathering. People who had known each other for generations, drinking $3 Coors Lights and waiting in line for BBQ served on a styrofoam plate. The entire event took a few hours off so everyone could eat. It was a total bust. A waste of gas money, entrance money, and time.
Sometimes You Just Do The Work
I get lucky once in a while though. Luck with a story is NOT mutually inclusive with luck selling the story. One of my favorite experiences was waking up at 4am to drive an hour to Chaco Culture National Park for the Annular Eclipse last October. I got to witness the annular eclipse along a narrow line of perfection at a place that was built a thousand years ago, possibly as a place for viewing exactly this kind of thing. I survived the washboarded roads, the walk to the top of the mesa to take photos of the ruins. I met some really neat people, and my optimism was not overshadowed (pun intended) when a young staff writer from the NYT was there interviewing people. I thought this story was a shoe-in, and I had a different angle on the whole thing. The story, deep down in my soul, felt RIGHT.
Nobody wanted it. The one editor who actually replied said possibly the dumbest thing I ever heard. They already had enough eclipse stories and it was going to be a hard sell to their boss talking about it after the fact. As though I should have covered the annular eclipse at Chaco Canyon Ruins somehow BEFORE it happened?
Instead, I said Fuck It, and wrote the story anyway. It was a story that demanded to be told, and even if I’m wasn’t getting paid for it, you need to know when to listen to your Muse. Or else they stop helping you out. If anything, I am a vessel for the Story. The rest is arbitrary. I still wrote it. I love that story, and I enjoy telling people about it when they are curious about all the cool places I have been.
Figuring Out Freelancing in a Post-Pandemic World
I’ve had lots of stories go that direction. Stories that felt like they are gold shining up at you from the bottom of a pan full of mud. It’s frustrating when those don’t sell, and you pick up a magazine that is nothing but a bunch of articles about 12 All Inclusive Resorts You Will Never Be Able to Afford. Complete with the obligatory photos of blonde models in white swim suits diving into crystal blue infinity swimming pools.
I dunno. Maybe that’s sour grapes too. Only the part that annoys me is the reason they printed the article was because they are affiliated with travel companies, luggage companies, and other tourism companies centered around that resort. That, and those stories bore the absolute shit out of me. And it seems a little dishonest when it comes to the ethics of journalism. To me, that feels a lot like selling out. Which I will do, to a point.
Anyway, I know what my values are. I know what feels like a story to me and what feels like pulling teeth to hype something up I don’t really believe in. I’m making my own path with the limited resources I’ve got to navigate a world that might have an easier alternate in some Mandela Effect parallel universe. The one with the Fruit of the Loom Cornucopia on our underwear labels and where Tears for Fears sang “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” (Not Run the World). All you can do is to keep trying. Keep going. Pick up little lessons on the way. And let go of things that you realize aren’t as cool as they were ten years ago. Adapt. Keep moving. Find confidence in your victories and learn from your defeats.
What I’ve Got Going On These Days
Right now I am writing an article every week for www.VisitNorthParkCO.com. Recently I got to fly around over Rabbit Ears Pass and learn all about efforts to close the 12 mile gap on the Continental Divide Trail. I have a few articles coming out this fall for everything from a flyfisherman’s bookstore, to parasocial relationships in van life, to sustainability and vintage clothing. I will post links to those when they are published. I’m excited!
I also loaded all of my podcast episodes onto my YouTube Channel today, so you’ll have another platform to listen to the dulcet tones of my velvety voice. I plan on making more videos when I get back on the road again next month too. So please like and subscribe for more!
Other Resources
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Check out the link for Origin, which made a damn fine pair of boots for my travels and living on the road. Use the code HARRIS10 for 10% off your total purchase. I’ve been wearing mine for nearly 4 years and they are still taking me where I need to go. Fight some burnout by taking a hike, or walking through a new city you want to explore. In the nomad lifestyle, your boots can make all the difference in how far you can go.
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