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a year ago today, i started my first staff writing job after 2.5 years on the newsletters/audience side. i had never imagined that i could someday write for a living. i didn't know if i would hate it, or suck at it, or wish i had never left aud dev. anyway here are some thoughts:
staff writing doesn't mean being able to spend all your time pursuing dream longform stories. unless you have a rare senior position—correspondent, features writer, writer at large—you're probably mostly pumping out news, blogs, other assignments that you can't be precious about
you can dedicate maybe 15-20% of your time (if you're lucky) to those true passion projects, the big swings that you hope will make your career. often that means hours of extra evening/weekend work, especially if you're slow like me and need time to metabolize, synthesize, write
writing can be really lonely?? i went from having regular meetings, talking to editorial and product and data teams, to basically being left to my own devices most of the time. this is what i had wanted, but it can also be really isolating, especially if you're not in the office
i also had to get used to not knowing anything. as a newsletter/aud dev person, i was sure of what i had to do each day, what direction to build towards, which metrics to go by. as a writer, each new story is basically starting from scratch, and it never really gets easier? fuck
also: pay and career development! if i had stayed in aud dev, i'm certain that i would be in a senior role rn with a lot more $. not trying to brag or be coy or w/e, it's just a fact: there are fewer qualified candidates for those jobs, compared to all the writers in the world
i've never been a ft freelancer, but that's certainly at least 50x harder, without the benefits and "security" (in this economy??) i get, not to mention being able to work with editors who know me and are hopefully invested in my growth. and the huge perk of being in @vox_union
