Pei Ling oh Pei Ling,
Beloved friend/much adored little sister/exceptional writer, thanks for reminding me about this article.
That's The Way the Cookie Crumbles, my now-defunct story-driven column in Quill (replaced with the more pragmatic Survival Tricks for the Freelance Writer) chronicled valuable lessons that may not be that obvious to wet-behind-the-ears freelance writers like myself.
Like this one dispensed by a Malaysian icon at an MPH event in 2006.
While purists ("What, how dare you equate writing to selling?") may balk, it still ranks as the best piece of advice (i.e. practical as opposed to hopelessly idealistic and not applicable to real life) I've ever received about freelance writing.
Reading this again, I detect decidedly Cinderella-esque overtones hehe.
Would you believe it - until now, I have not plucked up the nerve to tell him about this article?
To Eric Forbes and May Lee, thanks a million for the opportunity to write for Quill!
3 comments:
Your life is like a drama! I'll make a movie out of you one day.
:p
I can't read the second article! :/
Thanks for the first one though, I was wondering how one made it as a writer. I love to write, but I'm still wondering whether I'd get laughed away if I ever try to sell my stuff! :P
Pei Ling: Make sure it's before I become senile and start losing both my memory and my marbles ...
WP: Rats. I tried saving the image again but dunno why can't make it readable still. Maybe try downloading the image?
On your hesitation,
Just. Do. It.
Really. I harboured the same fears you did but went ahead anyway. If it's any comfort, when you write in to an editor for the first time, he or she has no idea who you are, so that should take care of the embarrassment part, right? :)
Post a Comment