The Born Freelancer on Striving For Perfection
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. 
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between those ideas which inspire me most and the monumental task of transforming them into reality. Try as I might, my ideas are almost always better than the projects they engender. Therein lies the dilemma of most creative activity.
Every original undertaking I have ever worked on, or ever hope to work on, begins with an outline in my mind of its idealized qualities. It may suddenly pop into blurry focus (if inspiration hits) or may evolve and slowly start to make sense, like tuning in an old shortwave radio station amidst distracting static and background noise.
When it enters my mind I can almost immediately tell if it is something I actually want to work on. I always feel the excitement of a new worthwhile concept running through my veins like an addictive drug.
In this embryonic state my idea (if it seems any good) exists as The Ideal. It’s perfect! So much so that it is impossible to stop myself from compulsively writing down random notes to eventually help me bring it to life as accurately as possible. It could be an idea for print, or broadcast, or yes, even a blog!
But if I am to actively pursue it – and not just nurse it along as a pleasant daydream – there comes a moment of truth when I realize I must turn The Ideal into something readily attainable.
Radio freelancers battle for copyright
by Rachel Sanders
In the two and a half years since I’ve been the editor of Story Board, I’ve posted all kinds of news and opinion pieces about negotiations and disputes over freelance contracts.
The contracts in question have come from a wide variety of media outlets — ranging from Canada Wide Media, to the Toronto Star, to TC Media. But none of them ever directly affected me.
With the way freelance contracts have been changing, though, it was bound to happen sometime.
This fall, Accessible Media Inc., a non-profit broadcaster that I’d been freelancing for, came to me with a new contract. Suddenly I was involved with a group of other radio freelancers in a negotiation over copyright and intellectual property.
You can read details about our contract stand-off in this post on Rabble.
Concerts in support of CBC planned for Ottawa and Montreal
Two citizen groups are holding concerts in support of CBC over the coming weeks.
A group in Montreal called Tous Amis de Radio-Canada has planned an event featuring 33 artists including Ariane Moffatt and Louis-Jean Cormier. It’s scheduled for February 15th at 2 p.m. at Métropolis.
More details and links to the Ticketmaster page can be found on the CMG website and in the group’s press release.
An Ottawa group, a bilingual organization calling itself CBC, I care!/Radio-Canada, j’y tiens!, has also planned an event. A Happening: For the Love of CBC/Pour l’amour de Radio-Canada will take place on March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
The event is billed as a tribute to recognize the importance of CBC/Radio-Canada to Canadians in the Ottawa-Gatineau area as well as across the country. It will feature artists and speakers from across Canada. The performer lineup will be finalized and announced on February 20th.
Check out this page on their website for details or to reserve your tickets.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Jan 27-Feb 2
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Free Online Seminar — Pitch Perfect [CMG Freelance]
- Jesse Brown: Saviour, Danger, Jerk? [Ryerson Review of Journalism]
- Watch Luigi Benetton and Jane Langille discussing productivity tips and techniques [EAC Toronto]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Great Freelancers Ask For Help [Freelancers Union]
- Why Internet journalists don’t organize [Washington Post]
- Can I Quit My Full-Time Job and Freelance For My Employer? [The Freelancer]
- Are you underestimating the time you’ll spend on a project? [Freelancers Union]
- Staying Healthy as a Freelance Writer: 9 Important Self-Care Strategies [The Write Life]
- Dear clients, you get what you pay for [Freelancers Union]
- Making Money as a Freelance Writer [Publishing Artshub]
- What Is Science Journalism Worth? Part II [The Open Notebook]
- 19 Quick Ways to Grow Your Author Following on Social Media [The Write Life]
- 8 Reasons Why You Should Raise Your Rates Before January Ends [The Freelancer]
- “Sponsored” by my husband: Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from [Salon]
Last week on Story Board:
- The state of the unpaid internship: “Don’t devalue yourself.” That’s the number one piece of advice that Claire Seaborn offers young people looking for work these days…
- Open Cinema “connects the docs” with online technology: Want to check out what might turn into the Netflix of documentary filmmaking? Mandy Leith, the Victoria, B.C.-based founder and director of Open Cinema, has been leading the effort to assemble a combination of online technologies to help documentary filmmakers share their work…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
The state of the unpaid internship
by Rachel Sanders
“Don’t devalue yourself.”
That’s the number one piece of advice that Claire Seaborn offers young people looking for work these days.
It’s kind of the opposite of the advice offered by the governor of the Bank of Canada last fall. Stephen Poloz’s suggestion that young job hunters should take unpaid work to gain experience caused an explosion of anger online and in the media.
But Seaborn, the president of the Canadian Intern Association, acknowledges that internships are a route that a lot of young people take to gain work experience.
“I think that young people should do whatever the heck they can to succeed in their careers, to make connections,” Seaborn told Story Board in a phone interview last week.
“But unfortunately, [Poloz’s] messaging was the wrong way around. He should be encouraging employers to pay people, not encouraging the vulnerable people to accept unpaid work,”
Seaborn says Poloz’s remarks were born of a lack of understanding about the issues. She also says she was thrilled about the attention that his remarks received.
“I don’t even know why it exploded so much, but I’m so happy it did because it gave us tons of good press,” she said.
And media attention is vital to her organization. The Canadian Intern Association has been working since 2012 to advocate for interns and speak out against their exploitation. And since they formed, the issue of unpaid internships has bubbled up in the media with increasing frequency.
Read the rest of this post »
Open Cinema “connects the docs” with online technology
by Luigi Benetton
Want to check out what might turn into the Netflix of documentary filmmaking?
“It’s closer to Netflix plus live engagement options,” Mandy Leith explains. Leith, the Victoria, B.C.-based founder and director of Open Cinema, has been leading the effort to assemble a combination of online technologies to help documentary filmmakers share their work – and work in progress – using multicity screenings. She calls this hybrid screening and participation platform Connect the Docs. Think of it as an online hub that combines a webinar tool, video streaming and other participation tools designed to connect documentary filmmakers with social justice groups, event hosts, audiences and businesses that want to advertise to these groups.
Leith, whose involvement in documentary cinema goes back decades, decided to bootstrap Connect the Docs after she used her Westphalia to conduct her Get On The Doc Bus tour of Canada. “Nobody else has a tool like this,” she says, “and everybody told me to build it.”
The evolution of Connect the Docs continues on Wednesday, January 28 at 7 p.m. PST for Election Day in Canada when journalist and filmmaker Peter Smoczynski previews his upcoming documentary at a live event in Victoria.
Even if you could make it to the physical venue, the screening is sold out. Participate anyway on Wednesday night at opencinema.ca/live. Check the event page for pop-up screenings in Sidney, B.C., Cortes Island, the University of Victoria and Grand Prairie, Alberta. You can also follow the event on Open Cinema’s Facebook page and on Twitter using the hashtag #elxnfraud. Leith plans to post a summary to her Storify account after the event.
Leith gratefully acknowledges support from several organizations, including the Canadian Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Media Production Association, Creative BC and VanCity.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Jan 19-26
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Postmedia and the heavy price it pays to survive [Toronto Star]
- CBC’s Blanket ban on paid engagements by on-air employees a failure to manage [CMG]
- CBC bans on-air journalists from making paid appearances [Globe & Mail]
- Tom Mulcair promises to reverse funding cuts to CBC [CBC]
- Your Guide to Winter/Spring 2015 Magazine Writing Contests [Magazine Awards]
- The news, Jian and me: a conversation with Jesse Brown [J-Source]
- Pink Triangle Press shuttering print editions of Xtra [Marketing Mag]
- Jane Gerster crowdfunds year-long reporting project on missing, murdered Aboriginal women [J-Source]
- Loss of bargaining power puts journalists’ lives at risk [J-Source]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- 4 reasons clients can’t find your freelance business online [Freelancers Union]
- 5 tips for taking your freelancer headshot [The Freelancer]
- 10 reasons why freelancing is like dating [Freelancers Union]
- 8 ways to make working from home more efficient [Fast Company]
- From Full-Time to Freelance: Ready to Go It Alone? [Career Foundry]
- What Is Science Journalism Worth? [The Open Notebook]
Last week on Story Board:
- Growing Your Freelance Writing Business, Four Must-Haves for 2015: Treating your writing business like a business means getting the supports and resources in place to help you to flourish…
- Online courses and workshops for activists: Do you have an interest in activism? Are you a member of CMG Freelance? Our members are eligible to apply for a couple of upcoming training courses and workshops…
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
Growing Your Freelance Writing Business: 4 Must-Haves for 2015
by Miranda Miller
Treating your writing business like a business means getting the supports and resources in place to help you to flourish. We write because we love to write; keeping the books and being our own PR people can be tedious and often falls to the wayside.
For several years, I struggled to expand my writing business. It was difficult to justify outsourcing any aspect of my business, or investing time in areas that didn’t bring an immediate payoff. I felt busy all the time – too busy. I wasn’t making enough money to justify this being a full-time job, yet I was putting in full-time hours and then some.
I was thinking about the business of writing all wrong.
In 2008, I had to get serious about my business. It was the year I became a single mother – writing wasn’t our second family income anymore and I had to make it work. Of course, there were growing pains and with each passing day, I became more acutely aware of just how much I still had to learn about business. A part-time job in a library supplemented my writing income, enabling my return to university full-time. A career writer studying for a Bachelor of Commerce may not make a lot of sense on its face, but those first-year business courses changed everything.
It’s probably not a lack of skill, motivation or opportunity preventing the growth of your writing business. Let’s explore four important areas of your business and how you can grow your business in 2015.
Read the rest of this post »
Online courses and workshops for activists
Do you have an interest in activism? Are you a member of CMG Freelance? Our members are eligible to apply for a couple of upcoming training courses and workshops.
The first is a six-week online course offered by the Canadian Labour Congress. It’s designed to help young workers develop leadership and organizing skills and give them a better understanding of activism. The program runs from February 24th to April 15th and is open to members under the age of 30. Courses will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Space is limited, so if you’re interested email education@cmg.ca by February 4th to apply.
The second opportunity is a series of election preparation workshops being run by the Canadian Labour Congress in various cities across the country between January 23rd and March 21st. The free workshops will teach skills such as advocacy and effective campaigning in the lead-up to this year’s federal election. Check out this link to find out when the workshops are coming to your city or to register.
Off The Wire: News for the Canadian media freelancer Jan 12-18
Once a week, we gather stories about the media business, journalism, writing, publishing, and freelancing—with a Canadian focus—and share them in Off the Wire. Who needs a water cooler?
From Canada:
- Jesse Brown is quick to expose failures of Canadian media. But what about his own? [Globe & Mail]
- Leslie Roberts resigns as Global host following investigation [CBC]
- Deadline approaches for inaugural Emerge Media Awards [J-Source]
- Graphic Design Students Assert “My Time Has Value” [RDG]
- Pink Triangle Press closes down all print editions of Xtra; to go all-digital in February [Canadian Magazines]
- CBC denies Amanda Lang tried to ‘sabotage’ story about RBC, foreign workers [Canada.com]
- Amanda Lang tried to sabotage a CBC story that scandalized RBC, who paid her [Canadaland]
From The U.S. and beyond:
- Fighting Distraction: A Freelancer’s Toolkit for Focused Work [The Freelancer]
- 10 Ways Freelance Writers Can Cash in by Working With Small Businesses & Startups [The Freelancer]
- In 2015, Stop Being Your Worst Time Suck [Inc.]
- Crowdsourcing journalism rates [scottcarney.com]
- What Editors Look for in Freelance Writers: 8 Ways to Impress [The Write Life]
- 5 ways to be productive, especially when you’re not [The Self-Employed]
- Tracking Freelance Earnings: A New Monthly Column [The Write Life]
- 3 ways to pitch ideas to an editor [Online Journalism blog]
Last week on Story Board:
- The Born Freelancer on More Essential Traits for 2015: To begin 2015, I thought I would conclude my previous post with a few more essential characteristics for successful freelancing…
- A Freelancer’s Report from CBC’s The Doc Project: For the last four years, I’ve been a CBC freelancer. Being a self-taught journalist worked up to a point, because storytelling is innate. But there’s more to the work than that.
Spot a story you think we should include in next week’s Off the Wire? Email the link to editor@thestoryboard.ca or tweet us at @storyboard_ca.
