How To Get That First Writing Gig

When I first moved from New York to Los Angeles, I wasn't sure how to network when it came to writing. First of all my background was singing and in New York, it's very easy to put yourself out there as a singer. There are so many venues to showcase your talents like, open-mics and clubs where you can put on shows as long as you bring in enough people and they're willing to pay the cover charge.

But since I was new to the whole writing scene having only written song lyrics, when I moved out here I wasn't sure where to start.

Thank goodness for the Internet. I didn't think I had enough writing experience yet to apply for a typical writing job, so I did the next best thing. I interned. I started out working once a week for an award winning PR firm and although the experience in terms of management was, to say the least, undesirable, I could not have asked for a better teaching ground. At the PR firm, I was taught to write celebrity and profile pieces, press releases and to write articles quickly while still keeping your audience interested.

It also helped me to network and I got my first freelance job that paid me $3.00 an article. Sounds small, but I was so excited having only lived in California for a few months. I was proud to see my name in print.

From there, I looked for other writing opportunities. For one, my church was starting a paper and needed a few writers. With just a little experience, I volunteered and in only a few months became co-editor for the paper. Although I wasn't making any money, I was able to work on perfecting my writing craft.

By then my experience as a writer grew to where I had enough articles in my portfolio to start looking for freelance work and get paid a fair amount.

And when freelancing wasn't creative enough for me, I decided to go back to school where I took English and creative writing classes and networked with other writers.

So when considering where to get experience as a writer, don't discount interning. Although it can be for little or no money, you can still gain valuable experience.

Much love,

SMB