50 Years a Writer: 10 Career Lessons from the Freelance Trenches

My professional career started ate age 19 when I took a reporting job on the weekly newspaper in my hometown of Lake Worth, Florida. It was a revelatory experience that informed much of my career moving forward. Over the years, I have benefited from a variety of other career lessons that sprang from specific writing projects or publications, including the value of patience, how to work well with editors, the necessity of revision, the importance of being a reader if you’re a writer, and much more. In this session, I will turn to 10 specific writing/freelance experiences to explore the many lessons that have made me a better writer and advanced my career. For example, an article for Military Officer Magazine, in which a source turned out not to be who they said they were, pushed me to reevaluate how I approached potential sources, and the need to confirm rather than taking someone’s word. In another example, nonpayment from a start-up magazine made me understand the necessity of standing up for yourself, because no one will do it for you.

Difficulty level: all_levels

Speaker(s)

• Don Vaughan

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