Advice to a young writer

Advice to a Young Writer: Learn to Fish
A senior at the university I attended found my listing in the alumni database and wrote to me asking for advice on a career in writing. My answer follows. —RW

The best advice I can offer: be yourself, not what an employer or client wants you to be. Follow your instincts, and react to what you find in the marketplace, not to what you or well-intentioned friends and relatives believe you should find. Also see Polonius's advice to Laertes (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene III).

Don't be afraid to say what you're good at and what you want to do, because you'll have fewer disappointments if you express yourself clearly. People, moreover, will appreciate your honesty and respond in kind. In the Darwinian world of writing, be realistic and competitive. If you cast your line in the right waters, you'll catch something soon enough, and if it's not what you want, let it go and try again.

Inaction can be as effective as action—just as leaving out words can be the creative equivalent of adding them—so don't jump at every opportunity. I'd start with online searching for local opportunities. Branch out from there, remembering that small companies aren't necessarily like family and big companies aren't necessarily evil. Arrange practice interviews to see how companies operate and to hone your job hunting or freelance marketing skills. With experience you'll gain confidence, a crucial component of success, and you'll get a feel for the going salaries and freelance rates.

Newspapers are tough because they don't usually make enough money to pay a living wage. Magazines are often stuck on stale editorial formulas. Ad and PR agencies may be too impressed with their own cleverness. If you're not the corporate type, working in a communications department cube can be a miserable existence. Freelancing means beating the bushes, but your note, a form of guerrilla marketing, suggests that the lifestyle could agree with you.

The biggest challenge may be to find simpatico coworkers. Avoid editors who can't discriminate when it's appropriate to break the rules, employers and clients who expect you to run like a machine. Of course, working with others entails tolerance and compromise—just don't let all the tolerating and compromising fall to you. Don't be a pleaser (aka doormat); establish behavioral boundaries and convey the impression that you're willing to walk, because there's great power in that. Anger is only human, but don't let it rule you. Cultivate a sense of humor and perspective—career isn't everything.

Hope this helps,
Robert Winkler

From The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare:

LORD POLONIUS
Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!

LAERTES
Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

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A message from Robert Winkler

Jeff Brush/Connecticut Post (used with permission)

If you enjoyed this Web site, I know you'll enjoy my critically acclaimed book, Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness (National Geographic), which expands on many of the short pieces I've posted here. Why do I write about birds? Because they represent the wild in all its glory. They're numerous, diverse, intelligent, talkative, and beautiful; their power of flight never ceases to amaze; and they're the most conspicuous class of wild animal—even in the suburb, they're just about everywhere. Whether you're a beginning or advanced birder, a fan of nature writing, a curious suburbanite, or a reader in search of that rare bird known as a good book, Going Wild could very well change how you view your world. So get your copy now, or buy one for your favorite birder or nature lover. Best deal on the Web: brand new, perfect copies $5 each (69% off) at National Geographic Books.

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