I hesitantly clicked the send button this afternoon on the last freelance assignment--at least in this phase of my career. I'm not searching for any more writing assignments at this time. At first, it was in a push to finish a complete draft of my novel. But now it's even more imperative I cut down on my expectations for myself-- a baby is on the way.
This last assignment was really quite poetic; my last story was the first one I wanted to write, the one that compelled me to start writing again. The topic of pregnancy loss. In that more than 2-year period, I've mostly hit a brick wall on getting to write on that topic. I got to write about from a pro-life point of view in Celebrate Life; that was good, but it didn't have the breadth to make all the points I wanted to, nor did it reach a large general audience. It was a "preaching to the choir" kind of article!
While battling constant hunger pangs of morning sickness and fatigue, this article took more than twice as long as normal to write. Also, because the topic is so important to me, I labored over every word. For something less critical to me, I'd have more easily cut the length and turned it in--but for this, I agonized over more creative ways to fit more and more content into fewer and fewer words. Obsession is the word that might best describe. I spent the past 2 weeks shaving a few hundred words.
Getting this article in print will be my zenith, in some ways; it was completing a primary goal that got me started. But in other ways, it'd be funny to call this one my zenith--it is certainly one of the lowest paying assignments I've ever done! Both because the publication, a newspaper-run magazine, pays extremely low in comparison with other magazines, but also because I put so much extra labor into it. If you figure out my hourly rate....oh well, I really don't want to know I am going to get paid less than a dollar an hour, or something like that!
As in many things, a writer decides success not just by the money made. In this, my success is counted in getting the stories out there. I interviewed four phenomenal women who have lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss. Of course, the benefits to me go beyond the money. I learned a lot in interviewing them. Some people have a very dismissive, cavalier attitude toward pregnancy loss; I know the deep wounds that response creates. Most people just don't know what to say/do and most people stay silent, isolating the woman who just experienced tragedy. If my article can educate and help communities understand a little more about the experience and the kind of support that helps a woman piece her life back together and rise whole again, then getting paid little monetarily is worth it to me.
So here's a nice bookend to my freelancing career of my early thirties...Maybe I'll take it up again in the future. Who knows....
Now, once the morning sickness stops, I'll get back on the project of that novel....
Other published articles:
Choose Your Best Birth Options
Cloth Diapers Versus Disposables: Switching Systems
Are Schools Expecting Our Kids to Read Too Early?
Chef Jamie Oliver Versus School Lunches: Where Do The Dietary Guidelines Come From Anyway?
