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I try not to WEIGH IN on every dumb film-writing thing like I'm some in-demand expert BUT as someone who wrote for free for many years AND who runs a small website that has never paid anyone, I do feel like I have some stuff to say on this so, ohhhhhh nooooo a threeeeaaaad
I've gone back and forth on whether it's "OK" to write for free, not because it's my job to pass judgment but because I've literally been asked this by younger writers (occasionally, anyway) and I don't always know that I've had a good answer. So I'd say "yes, if.."/"no, but.."
My general feeling has been that writing for yourself is better than writing for free, because they both offer practice but one is unambiguously non-exploitative. If you have a blog or whatever and write for it out of enjoyment and desire to improve, that is a Positive Thing.
But! I wrote for free (or very little) for other outlets for literally years. Am I discouraging that because I regret it (a little!) or out of hypocrisy (also a little?)? If you want to write professionally, you eventually need clips, and yeah, a "real" site is better for that.
Small labor-of-love sites are a real thing. Not everyone can just bankroll a roster of developing writers and if you limited website editors who can, well, yeah... limiting. And pitching is horrible sometimes and I would not recommend some 20-year-old pitching all around.
THAT SAID! I do feel that if a site is trying to offer a smaller, scrappier version of the pros, it should be *offering* you something. This doesn't mean an army of copyeditors, proofreaders, and fact-checkers. (Plenty of "real" sites do not have this.)
Small sites should still offer genuine editorial guidance. They shouldn't let pieces go up as-is, barely or poorly edited, because they're "giving you a voice." You can give yourself a voice. An editor should be making you look good. If an editor doesn't have time for that....
....then they shouldn't be running a fucking website! Of COURSE it's nice to feel like you're being published alongside other writers in some kind of well-designed or curated experience, rather than throwing up your reviews on yr blogspot.
But if the editor or found or whatever just wants to have a website to HAVE A WEBSITE, and isn't helping you get better as a writer, then you should take your words elsewhere, even if "elsewhere" is, yeah, yr blogspot or whatever.
And while there is SO much inequality and general horribleness of trying to make it as a freelance writer, there also isn't anything wildly unusual about not being able to get in those doors at 20 or 22 or whatever. There's a very good chance that you need a lot more practice.
It is also true that women and POC are extremely underrepresented in these spaces. That and "many aspiring writers in their early 20s are not super-great at it yet" can both be true. Most people need practice -- so if you're writing for free, it should be beneficial practice.
And (deep breath) practicing in public is not ALWAYS the best idea! (That's where an editor -- and not an outsourced "experienced" copyeditor working for the occasional sawbuck -- comes in.)
I look at writing something like being a musician: A few people who do it are naturally (or supernaturally) talented. A few people get good through sheer force of fucking will. And most people have a combination of the two.
SO: If you're a young/unknown musician, and a very small record label wants to put out your stuff, that label may not make you rich, or even much money at all, but they should, at minimum, (a.) help your music reach more people and (b.) make you look more legit.
If you can't find that, you should maybe self-release. (And also not release everything you write.) Also like musicians: I'm very sorry to report you should not bank on writing full time and supporting yourself that way.
It sucks and we should have something like UBI that makes this kind of work more viable, rather than something you do in the tiny corners of your free time that's monopolized by a broken capitalist system. I hope in the future this changes.
But right now, you should not plan on writing being the thing that supports you. Especially at 22 (sorry to pick on the 22-year-olds). I am enormously privileged and have some bylines at places I could hardly believe! But I'm pushing 40 and IT IS NOT ALWAYS ENOUGH.
The freeing thing about this is that you really do not HAVE to give someone else your writing for free as soon as humanly possible! If you want to, and you're getting something out of it, awesome. But don't bet your freelance writing career on getting to write movie reviews.
And my website @SportsAlcohol is no kind of success model. We're a blog and podcast that makes no money. Loses money, in fact, because we pay for hosting. BUT I do think that collective model -- friends who like each other's work writing and editing each other for fun...
....MIGHT sometimes be a healthier one than buying into someone's dream of turning their website into... [[racks brain for name of unambiguously successful never-imperiled culture website and comes up short]]
OK THAT'S IT SORRY FOR ALL THE TWEETZ
OK THAT'S IT SORRY FOR ALL THE TWEETZ
