If you love music, don't do it. If you get anywhere as a freelance you'll be competing with a million other people who had the same idea and you can only write stuff that sells. If you're primarily into spotty teenage flavour of the month indie bands then fine, but otherwise it's not much fun. And the chances of getting a staff job on a magazine like Word or Q or Mojo is miniscule - have you ever seen a vacancy advertised anywhere? No, of course not.
And then there's the money, well, the lack of it. Unless you are a gentleman of means prepare to be poor.
If you love music and you love writing about it then go ahead, write about it, write about the music you love. But do it for the love of it, on websites, blogs, in fanzines etc. And get a decent day job if you want to keep your sanity as well.

but wouldn't it be fantastic to make a career of doing something you love?

I guess I'm approaching this in a wide-eyed naive sort of way, but someone has to make it don't they? Mind you, that's the kind of attitude that a deluded X-Factor wannabe has.

It's a conundrum...

(and many thanks for the advice)

Indeed it would, Joe! I think we all hope that such a thing may be possible - and you're right in a way: if you're not in you can't win. Then again, I recall an embattled record label MD telling me, with equal wisdom, a couple of years back 'yes, but if you're not in you can't lose either'. For him, that meant: the record market is in rapid decline... so batten down hatches and hope to ride it out...or... what the hell, just release more records because SOME records by SOMEONE will still buck the trends...' He's still in business, but then neither has he found a Duffy...

I was lucky enough, in a way, to write professionally on music for 7 1/2 years (1994-2001) and spare-time for a while after that - choosing to leave for a supposed career in librarianship (qualification being in my back pocket for a rainy day/eventual burn-out) at my own time for my own reasons. But Niks and Mr L are wise to urge caution: the media/music world has changed massively since 'my day' (essentially the end of the pre-internet era), as has the economy generally. I would strongly advise you also not to pursue it - at least not with any intention of making a living at it. That's not to say you don't have 'something to say' and couldn't become a blogging phenomenon upon whose views Sony/Universal/et al may one day come to depend (like certain web pundits in the film and theatre world in the US) - but I know nothing of that world and suspect that that kind of fame/influence happens through so many unplannable factors...

Then again... By way of a postscript, life can be weird: I thought a gentle twilight career in libraries might be restful and rewarding after the hand-to-mouth adventuring in music media - but 7 1/2 years on from starting (hmmm - this interval is becoming a pattern!) I've realised that I've become a kind of captain of a lighthouse (small, quaint, technologically backward college library) with ABSOLUTELY no prospects of professional advancement elsewhere. I'm taking home now almost exactly what I earned as a no-net freelancer 15 years ago. My books are, I find, on course reading lists in various universities, but I can't get a library job at even the lowest level in any of them! 'Proper jobs' have not, in fact, really worked for me.

So... I've now decided, after a year of failed efforts at professional betterment within academic libraries, to downsize to 3 days a week and spend the other 2 working on fiction. Possibly my friends wonder if this is wise, but I KNOW that it is, for me (for many reasons I won't bore you with), essential. And as you say: "I guess I'm approaching this in a wide-eyed naive sort of way, but someone has to make it don't they?"

They do indeed! And what I'm choosing to do has brought back Hope and Possibility into my life. I'd say this, Joe: as long as you can pay your way through life and still give/create room for Hope and Possibility in it, you're winning! That may mean sweeping-up at KFC by day, blogging/reviewing/novelising by night - but if you can make the sums work, and you're not yet crushed by life's viccissitudes, the sky is the limit!

Be lucky!

I've earned my living from writing commissioned guff of pretty much every description for 30 years now. In my experience it's either fulfilling or financially sustainable - very rarely both.

The only advice I'd give anyone wanting to start out as a writer is that the only way to learn is by doing it for real. Actively seek the work that at first sight is the least attractive: writing recruitment ads is much better training than writing poetry, because knocking crap into shape will teach you much more than expressing yourself freely ever could - it's not about "Hello, clouds; hello, sky" but whether "short-term strategy coordination" needs another hyphen.

Like a trainee pilot logging hours, have only one goal: to get your word count up as high as possible as fast as you can. When you've written the equivalent of fifty novels or so (at 5000 words a day - not a lot for a dedicated hack - that'll only take four or five years), you'll be skilled and versatile enough to be able to turn your hand to anything that comes up and get a result. A "result", as you may have guessed, is getting paid without getting caught.

Summing up: just say yes.

and then ignore them completely and do what your heart tells you to do.

My fluffy preconceptions are being shattered here - it's a bit like finding out the tooth fairy isn't real (for any small children reading, that's a hilarious grown-up joke, of course the tooth fairy's real).

I guess it comes down to skill, desire, hours upon hours of hard work and a big slice of old-fashioned luck.

I'm still not sure, really. I'd love to be an idealist and take the plunge but for some reason, the thought of constant criticism, rejection, writing about stuff you don't want to write about and lack of money seems to be holding me back.

All of the sage advice above is very much appreciated by the way, consider yourselves all owed a pint of something beery.

Start your own blog. Keep it up when you're not paying paid, and it'll demonstrate your commitment, and you'll learn whether it's truly the kind of thing you want to do full-time. And then, if you're good enough, the work will come to you. A successful, widely-read blog is the best CV you could have.

You need contacts, to give you exposure and (if you're lucky) paid work.

I have done odds and ends of freelance writing down the years - but never thought of it as a career. Most of the work I have been asked to do has been through knowing people, or knowing people who know people, or being known as someone who has some information on particular niche topics - in my case instrumental rock & roll, surf music, the MC5, Memphis, Rhys Chatham: I'm not an expert but I've been available and willing to meet a deadline with the right length of copy. And I'm closer to an expert than the other people available.

I have friends who are now trying to get out of journalism - all the newspapers are collapsing, firing staff - look at the Herald or the Record which is currently producing a scab edition.

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=43491

But - like the advice above - follow your heart. Be prepared to write about anything and everything. If you do take the leap - good luck!

if you're not too fussy about what you take on. I've written for the kind of magazines that are featured in the missing words round of Have I Got News For You. It pays okay - probably because everyone wants to work for Empire or Q but not so many fancy Heating & Ventilating News.

But it pays the bills and I get to say, 'yeah, I'm a writer, actually' to girls at parties. Of course, if they ask even one question after that you're going to be walking home alone, so it's not much of a bonus, frankly.

post the address, let us have a look!

A lot of sound advice up there. Here's my bit:
Keep up a day job until you are 100% sure you can survive without it. Yes, follow your heart, but that won't keep you alive and solvent.
Take on board the blog advice (esp. that from Fraser, up there)
Write for profit or write for fun, but keep writing (see Archie's advice up there).
Take any work at all (never say 'no' as Molesworth advises) - certainly until you can afford to be choosy.
Expect dozens and dozens of rejections, and expect a very high percentage of people to not even reply to you.
Love words, and equally, use them with love and care.
Never believe anybody who tells you that punctuation, spelling and grammar aren't important.

TD

Work your arse off and make friends with all the PR people.
Tell them what you're after...bob is indeed your uncle.

I worked for nothing for a year while holding down another job, got a CV written out full of the stuff I did, and eventually got taken on at the bottom end of the industry (which actually paid less than the warehouse job I was doing beforehand).

After working a similar amount of total hours in my funky meedja job as the two combined jobs earlier on, my income rose to just about acceptable. Doing ok now, in that I still work full time in spite of the rather dodgy economic climate.

The problem with media is loads of people want to do it, so at the entry level you are really easily replaced by someone willing to work "for the experience" (ie for free, as parents are wealthy enough to subsidize them). It's the major scandal within the industry and getting around that will be the trickiest thing for you. I can offer no proper advice for getting around this.

The thing is though, if you genuinely do good work at that stage you often find even if you can't get work you can be recommended for work. Reputable media outlets will generally recommend good people who have worked for them for other jobs.

Sorry to write all ifs, buts and maybes. I think I managed to carve my own career mainly through accident at first, the tenacity came once my foot was already in the door.

Doesn't ANYONE in the Massive have a real job?

I knew the people who frequent this site were a kind and helpful bunch, but I'm genuinely grateful for the response.

With regards to my blog, I hadn't linked to it myself because:
a) I know I'm not a fan of self-promotion on this site and I felt I'd hijacked the blog for my own means enough for one day
b) It's early days and I'm really finding my feet; what's on there so far hardly marks me out as the new Lester Bangs.

To answer Captain Underpants' question (I can't believe I just typed that), I have a real job. In fact, when you consider my commute, I work thirteen hour days which is why my blog currently consists of album reviews for an online magazine, rather than more in-depth articles that I've written for myself. Again, thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read it.

Looks like there's a lot of hard work ahead of me and on the off-chance I do make some kind of career out of it, I'll remember all the helpful words I received. More likely though, if in a few years time, you pass a down-and-out on the side of the road holding a cardboard sign which says 'Will write 500 words on Tindersticks for food', it'll be me.

it was fantastically enjoyable. Now I still write for WORD while writing for The Guardian and The Sunday Times too. That's also fantastically enjoyable. It's not all doom and gloom and poorly paid hack work. At least, not from where I'm sitting. I think - I've always thought - that a lot of people think that being a "music journalist" means sacrificing your life to write about, say, Barclay James Harvest for 10p a word. Well, that's just not the case (unless you really do want to write about BJH, in which case 10p a word is a bloody good deal).

Keep a blog (*winces at how own blog has fallen into disarray*) by all means, post tiny reviews on Twitter if you like. But I'm always rather suspicious of this working-for-nothing idea. I wouldn't do it and I don't recommend other people do it either.

Does your plumber work for nothing? No. Why should you? There are much better ways to get that fabled foot through the longed-for door than by giving away your work. Plus, the sort of people who offer you unpaid work are the sort of people who will never, ever pay anyone anything.

So what's the point being "in" with them?

I would like to know how you can get paid to be one of those people that write "lifestyle" columns in the Sunday glossies. From my research so far, they are generally about their cat's bleeding anus or the new speed bumps outside their local Waitrose. I am always really angry at myself for wasting 2 minutes or so reading such drivel.

Alternatively, I would like a weekly column where I offer a wry, slightly askance view of the world. Has this ever been done? My surname is Sideways, so I thought "Sideways Glance" would be very original. Maybe with a picture of me looking out of the corner of my eye in a knowing way.

Sorry to add a further tier of 'advice' but there is further additional sensible info up there about working for 'free' - esp Rob F's piece.
I'm picking this up because I was ranting at considerable length about this last night.

One of the great scandals of modern times, and it has become accepted as common practice, is this business of getting (usually young people) to work for a company for nothing, under this absurd notion of 'internship'. There may be good examples of this, but I am not aware of any.
It is increasingly the 'norm' in media work, and prevalent everywhere. Get twenty young graduates to work for nothing for 6 months and then maybe (and only maybe) one may get a junior role. We imported this concept from the USA where conditions, lifestyles and laws are different. It doesn't make it right.

I do not write this from self interest. I am in the very lucky position where I don't have to rely on a steady stream of media work to survive. I can even afford to write pieces for 'free' because I enjoy writing them, but that is my choice.
Hooking young people in to work for free on a (at best) 20/1 shot of possibly but only maybe getting a shot at a 'real' media job, is skanky.

During my journalism course some 12 years ago I went on work experience to a magazine and got taken on, as they just happened to be expanding. Now I'm editor of a national magazine (that will remain, like me, anonymous). Right place and right time has a lot to do with it, but work experience is useful as it's like a week-long job interview. If you impress, they bear you in mind.

A lot of people want to write, but not everyone can. If you're lucky enough to be one of those who is a natural, then you must do your best to stand out from the crowd. You will get noticed. There's a lot of shit out there. It will happen for you, but you have to be patient.

I spent years in unsuitable jobs I hated before I took the plunge aged 30 to go back to college and do journalism. I had no idea what was at the end of it, but I knew I was doing the right thing.

Persevere.

...(ie local newspapers, etc) I've never been sure it's a go-er. At least not for many people. You can easily get trapped there/stigmatised as a 'local hack'. I've seen it happen to various people who'd have loved to have progressed to contributing to national publications.

When I started writing professionally in '94 (having endured a year of crazy-shifts proper job that was ruining my health, and which I had to get out of and still pay a mortgage by any means possible) all I had on the writer CV was a few pieces in Folk Roots and a few CD sleevenotes - all labour of love stuff. But that little bit of evidence of interest/ability (the equivalent today, clearly, being your own blog!) PLUS a tenacity and charm on the telephone to reviews/features editors of various national magazines and arts editors of various national (Irish and UK) newspapers got me in many doors.

In my experience, then, if you have persistence - and, crucially, the ideas for features etc - and if you can forge enough of a relationship with editors in a brief phone call (even if that week's idea is rejected) so that he/she remembers you the next time you call and the next time, it'll get you somewhere eventually. And once you've had a piece or two in the Guardian or Mojo or wherever, it'll be a bit easier to progress from there.

It's not rocket science - it's more down to a bit of chutzpah/brass neck and good old human interaction than wasting your time with media studies courses and offers to work for free.

My careers teacher suggested journalism might suit me. Somehow the NHS seems way more reliable. Good luck, Joe

Best of luck with this Joe:
I recruit people all the time for my firm (sorry not in the media). But when asked here's what I tell people.
Written applications cv's etc.
1. spell check them and read them through before you send them.
2. Lay them out simply but carefully some poor sods go to read the thing so unless it's a design job simple font simple layout.
3. keep it short 1 to 2 sides I once had to read 130 applications for a holiday job, you better your chances keeping it brief but informative.
4.Don't send generic cv's, tailor them to job/firm your targeting it's more work but well you do want a job don't you.
5. opinions vary but I can't stand "personal statement" as they tell me nothing i like quantified experience eg I have written 10 weekly columns for my local paper of 350 words etc.
6. Hobbies I wish I could reject people for telling me they "read books" and "go to the cinema" if you do do something geniuely intresting with your free time tell them (it will give you something to talk about while the kettle boils) if not don't put anything.
7. If you put down any qualifications put the grades I'm always wary of gradeless ones, that being said if they are crap don't put them down.
8. Going travelling isn't a big deal, it may have been a nice holiday but unless you worked with lepers in Palestine don't gush about thailand moon parties.
9. If you're sending it to specific person spell their name correctly.
10. put your name etc on every bit of paper. A covering letter should be only one page with one paragraph at the most not a second cv.

In general particularly with newly qualified people I'm more interested in gumption/attitude, I don't expect people to know everything but a willingness to learn and be able to use the skills you've already got is essential.

Anyway I'm sure you'll be fine best of luck.

When I was in my twenties I too was also "seriously interested in pursuing a career in music journalism" but I hadn't the first idea how to go about it or even if it amounted to anything that could be called a career. Plus I was working as a courier for British Home Stores, doing as little as possible and applying most of my talents to buying records and going to the pub. It took years before I got anything published - and that was through the fortuitous intercession of a friendly hack. However by the time I got my opportunity I had somehow acquired the two things that most people never acquire - the habit of working really, really, really hard and never ever, ever, ever complaining. When the NME would send me to review some God-forsaken group at the Retford Porterhouse I would do so with a smile and be there at the office with the finished copy in my hand at 8.30 in the morning, long before any of the staff had got there. I wasn't as good as them but I worked harder than all of them put together. (P.G. Wodehouse's advice to young writers was "first apply the seat of the trousers to the surface of the chair." It's good advice.)

By then I had learned that there was only one question in life and only one answer. The question begins "Can you....?" and the answer is always "Yes". That was certainly the case in the late 70s when nobody was doing media courses and the notion of a job where you might get free records was the stuff that dreams were made of. Since then we have had a twenty-five year boom in media which has led to a lot of people feeling that they could somehow pick and choose the things that suited their unique skill set. I realised that something had changed when I started meeting media people who resented working weekends. This to me is like footballers complaining about how busy their Saturdays are. If you don't want to do this kind of job, there are plenty of others. How the hell did you end up in this one? When did people start thinking there was an ideal job out there for them? In my experience you stumble into one thing and if you do it exceptionally well you might well stumble into another and then another. (Laurence Olivier's advice to one would-be actor was "if you want to be an actor, you are an actor. If you're not an actor you didn't want it hard enough." No careers teacher will tell you that but they ought to.)

If, God forbid, one of my children expressed a desire to go into journalism I would tell them not to waste time polishing felicitous phrases or sending email job applications that don't even get opened. I would say that the future belongs to the independent operator with skills that they can sell. If there was a young journalist who could source, write and deliver good stories in both written and audio-visual form, then *somebody* would beat a path to his door. I have a friend who sits atop a national newspaper and he agrees that this is an incredibly difficult time for media organisations. However this ought to be a fantastic time for talented, ambitious young people. But the first thing they have to do is sell something that people wanted to buy rather than looking for a job that in many cases doesn't exist anymore.

...editors' phone numbers are easy to find (it may take a while before you get a human being rather than a machine to answer, mind). But make sure you've got a pitch worth selling. And if at first you don't succeed...

..and by that I mean if you work hard enough at it you'll end up in the right place at the right time.

I've worked in music PR, another area plagued with internships etc. My entry route into the industry was through people who knew me from when I was a musician. As Mr Hepworth says, the reason I got in through the door and the company became successful was because didn't say no to anything we were offered, and we did everything we would at the time it was requested and kept coming up with new ideas.

You'd be surprised how much of a novelty doing things well and on time can actually be...

assuages any thirst I have or had for writing. I had a desire a few years ago to get into travel writing but started a correspondence course, wrote a couple of articles and got knocked back. The Laurence Olivier quote used by David H is to my mind the most pertinent thing in all of this. If you really want it you will persevere until you get somewhere - frankly my dalliances with travel writing came to an abrupt end because I didnt have the commitment.
Economic conditions and market trends also have an unknown effect on possible success. My dream was always to have an independent record shop and had I have secured the funding in my younger years I would have gone for it but in hindsight it was probably very good indeed that it never happened.I dont see many record shop owners making a fortune at the moment. I have no regrets as I have a job I largely enjoy and it probably pays me as much if not more than I would have earned either as a writer or as a Record Store owner.

like I'm doing. Right now.

I don't have any experience on writing/jounalism but I do have experience setting up in business. There have been pearls up above that consultants charge fortunes for and career advisors earn a living without giving a fraction of such beneficial advice.

My two-penneth...

Actually, plumbers do work for nothing. At the start of any career, someone will want to 'try out' their new skills on family/friends. (Gawd 'elp the mothers of incompetent gas fitters). So you should do whatever you can.

It's all about hard work and perseverance and being a good egg. That 'it' is any job.

All roads lead somewhere. Reading the professional writers' experiences above tells us that there is no fixed route to success. So any idea or inklin you have, follow through. Any thought should become an action and then it should take life outside your office/bedroom/kitchen table.

This is my favourite quotation on the matter. "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
(Coolidge, a former US President...no me neither).

One last point. If you want to cold-contact someone, maybe write them a letter. Emails are ten-a-penny, receiving a hand written envelope is pretty rare these days. Ya never know...

Fascinating and useful stuff here, you're definitely getting the details of the realities of the work. We always tell interested students (who aren't studying journalism or media) to get writing, get their work into places where people will see it, get work experience, network, get to know publications/sites and their target market and talk to people in the industry, which is exactly what you're doing. Applications for the jobs that do arise need to be really well thought out and targeted, not mass produced.

As everyone is saying, its not easy, its hard work and you have to be really committed. We've just had a media event at our university with some high profile speakers, which really hammered home the effects of the recession on the media industry on general.

During a time in my early twenties (says a twenty-two year old man) I also harboured an ambition to pursue a career in music journalism, but found that I lacked two important attributes: perseverence and the necessary talent. I enjoy writing, and think it's a skill that's in rapid decline (I abhor inchorent text speak), but I understand that I'm never going to make it as a writer; especially journalism. Of course, that career may be for you, and if you have the ambition and drive, then I'd say go for it. On the other hand, I prefer to hone my creative talents in a different area of the genre, writing poetry. Ian MacDonald, I shall never be.

Getting paid is a bonus, but it's a horrible job when some mag you don't respect asks you to write about something you don't care about for an amount of money you won't get to enjoy. At first the novelty is nice, but eventually you come to hate it and the pleasure of writing fades. Eventually you're left scrapping out jobs for money and putting off that thing you really want to write because you've got bills to pay or you need to inch up the freelance ladder. that's how it is for most freelances of my acquaintance.
And then when you've got your own nice ideas for a mag you like, poxy magazine staff are too 'busy' to reply to your pitches or even to reply out of courtesy, which is in short supply in journalism (some music staffers are worse than the worst arsey record shop staff you've ever dealt with). That said, occasionally you'll get to interview a hero or get a nice response to a piece you wrote. this is rare.

...with the Huge-meister. Some of the most obnoxious, self-important people I've ever had to deal with have been involved in editorial jobs at magazines (strangely, I can't think of a newspaper person I've dealt with who was unpleasant - slippery on occasion, perhaps, but always courteous even though you're aware they're doing 12 different things at that moment including speaking to you on the phone). That said, I've also encountered a lot of very nice, enthusiastic, courteous people at magazines - some of whom have gone out of their way to help one in controversies with accounts depts and so forth. But, yes, as Huge puts it "some music staffers are worse than the worst arsey record shop staff you've ever dealt with".

All I can say is be unto others as you would have them be to you. And just bite your tongue and put up with the rest for as long as you feel you can or need to.

In my twenties I worked for a magazine in Madrid and built up a reputation of sorts.Aged 30 I moved to London , sent off my stuff once, got one rejection letter and immediately boo-hooed my way back into the arms of mother TEFL (then, as now,my day job). Whether I regret this or not I don't really know. I was, however, delighted when, many years later, a Blackberry email I sent Word not only received a warm,personal reply from Mark Ellen, but was also bally well published in the Kate Bush issue! But my successes and failures are not the point of this post.

I am the proud 38 year old father of a (nearly) two year old boy, so unfortunately any time I get to my laptop, his demands for the Hokey Cokey, Mna Mna or indeed Hugga Wugga have to be acceeded to. (I know some of the massive may reply saying I should listen to Uncorrected Personality Traits by Robyn Hitchcock but that's for another day)

The point of all this autobiography is now finally approaching..When my boy gets ill, so do I.This time, just like last time, it's a chest infection and it's only times like this I get a chance to follow a thread through on the website at my leisure, in my sickbed.
The last time I was ill, there was a chap , I believe his name was Dan, who'd lost his wife and was ill.The outpouring of heartwarming advice and recommendations from Word readers who took the time to post messages of support to him had me merrily weeping into my phlegmy hanky.
The advice that has been given to you Joe, though a lot of it is conflicting, comes from the same wellspring of decency, erudition and good taste that seems to characterise Word magazine and its readership.Particular thanks to Rob and David for some sage advice.
The only advice I can give to you is go for it but try to find a balance in life; always have an escape route..What was it WC Fields said? 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. If you still don't meet with success, then give up: no point being a damn fool about it.' Best of luck Joe and thanks to all who posted and made the most recent hour of my illness more bearable.

hey, if you can come up with as many good one-liners as your first sentence there, your blog will attract a LOT of interest! I am indeed feeling much better, so it's back to the whiteboard tomorrow!
Keep on keeping on.

it's fascinating stuff and the biggest tips seem to be to think positive, work hard and say yes to everything.

I don't want a career in the media / music. I work close enough to still have a toe hold and that's about as much as I want.

Personally, I'm a moody twat and I have become world weary, but I'll take from this to lose it.

I came from a no hope council estate and was one of the few secondary school kids who wanted to do something with their lives.

Most kids got an apprenticeship at best and went into the big wide world at the time of Riots and Thatcher's Northern 80's wasteland.

Built myself up from nothing to something, then lost a lot of it through the company I worked for going bust at the worst possible time.

From there, I built myself back up from scratch to where I am now.

Through that journey, I've dealt with tragedy twice, had two lovely kids who are making lovely adults and collected an unexpected divorce.

Whatever's been thrown at me, I've dealt with and kept my sense of humour, which was always my main armoury.

I could've gone further but lack the killer instinct to shaft others and that motto has served me well through life.

Sorry for the personal history lesson, but I'd go with the you can do anything school. Hard Work is essential, long hours are too. But the biggest thing you need is tenacity, don't give in!

Thought I'd add my twopenneth. Remember this isn't some crap 9.99 book talking tosh, it's life experience.

As a side issue, I've met quite a few well known musicians in my time, most have been nobs, including my own musical hero.

I've also met quite a few journos, who have been exactly the opposite.

Right back to the humour and the wordettes. Think I'll start up a blog at last on the strength of this but for no more than enjoyment.

Joe,
Why not go for the Ipswich Town managers job ?
You'll be more articulate than the man that Radio Five Live are suggesting is a strong contender to get it.

Roy Freakin Keane !!

Fascinating thread this. I'm a freelance writer, and it can be very tough. I worked in office jobs for the best part of ten years after leaving uni, wrote some reviews etc in my spare time, got offered a full time job at a national magazine, packed the office job in... and eight months later the mag folded.

Since then I've been freelance, writing anything I can turn my hand to, from music reviews to business factsheets. Never say no is a good mantra. There's never enough work, but I earn enough to pay the bills, if not enough to go on foreign holidays. At low points I do find myself scanning the jobs supplements, but memories of how unhappy I was in the office jobs keep me going.

Joe, if it is what you enjoy doing then go for it - but don't give up the day job (or part-time job at least) until you're sure you can make a living.

I don't have a blog, although I've looked into setting one up. My question is:

What do I put on a blog?

Is good quality writing about any subject enough to attract the right kind of visitors? Or are there other tips and tricks that might help? Anyone got any advice, or any links to some good freelance writers' websites?

very basic because I'm learning.

Tried it out with a rapidshare upload of 6 XTC live songs from The English Settlement Tour.

Not sure how the blog will develop, but at least I've started, which is incredibly motivated of me, because it's took me 5 years to get to the Go Square.

http://anythingshouldhappen.blogspot.com/

Joe,

It was quite something to read your entry: they are the same thoughts that have been banging around in my own head for a few years now.

After immigrating to the UK with the intention of making a success of my band, I decided that given the flimsy nature of the music industry, I would pursue my second love: writing. It was tough to accomodate something else that demanded as much commitment and practice as music did, but I needed a Plan B.

Then I found myself facing a similar conundrum: Although I was becoming a decent writer, I wasn't making any money. In desperation, I became a labourer.

When I wasn't pushing crap around on construction sites, I was doodling, freelancing or playing in my band. I was passionate, I was gung-ho, I was ready to kick dirt even in the faces of my friends if it meant that I could further myself in either of those two pursuits.

But lately man, I've been feeling so demotivated. I love writing, I love reading, and no day in my life thus far has been without a perpetual soundtrack of some kind... but I suspect now that it's just not what real life is all about. Music and writing are now more like dessert once I've eaten my greens.

I'm not a labourer anymore. I've progressed up the pecking order, and now I'm not far from being a decent carpenter. I have to confess that I'm immensely satisfied when I build something properly down to the last millimetre, and I'm satisfied even further when I cash my weekly cheque and go home to a warm house, and then to bed with a full stomach. It's certainly better than wrestling a difficult piece into coherence, knowing all the while that I won't be paid for it at all.

Please don't think that I'm looking for anyone's sympathy. Anyone with any commitment at all to any cause has known how shitty it feels to be in debt, to be eating baked beans again, to be staying at home in the dark because electricity for now is just too expensive. We've all been there and I'm certain that there are many more out there far worse off than I have been in the past.

I guess this is just about saying 'Hey man, keep going. do it because you love it. But don't forget to adapt when you need to.' I guess it also just feels good for me to know that there are other people out there who are trying to figure this crap out too.

Anyhow, I have a blog that needs attention. And I haven't sat behind a drum kit in weeks!

Well Joe, whatever you do give it your all and enjoy what you do when you can. You will build up a raft of stories for the future instead of being the person who says "I knew someone who did this or did that..."

I could never write for toffee but there are more ways to skin a cat to get hoards of free records sent to you. Well there were - do records exist anymore? As a college gig promoter it was numero uno on the checklist; blag free records, photos & posters from the record company for promotion and "research". Especially as they will want to blag free tickets from you.

It also puts you in touch with music journalists. Blow me down I even became a judge in the heats of the Melody Maker Rock Folk Doo Dad. If a journalist was not free to attend the hot shindig by Peter Straker or Five Hand Reel I was able to volunteer my services in that department too, thus adding music writer to promoter, ligger, & dj on my CV. Believe me it helped, even as an accountant, to secure the dream job that I was able to keep going for almost 12 years. Nothing lasts forever.