writing and research

I live in the UK and although freelancing and freelance writers are quite commonplace in the US it is less so over here. Online American friends write of the response of friends, family and new people when they say they’re a freelance writer. Over here the reaction is not simply what do you do all day, but what is freelancing and what is web content? You can still get blank looks over here when you mention blogging, although that is diminishing with the publicity that both My Space and Face Book have had in the last few years.

Writing for the American Market

There are fewer freelance opportunities over here, so I do most of my writing for the American market, it’s also a lot harder over here for unknown freelancers to break into the magazine market. Over the years I have written in all kinds of formats, from scribble and dogerral, to a PhD thesis, a good number of research reports, one published short story and two half finished novels, but writing for the web is rather different.

Three Sheets to the Wind: Content Writers Must Be Nutters

Although things are beginning to change slowly on this side of the pond, there are still many areas where if you talk about writing web content, you get blank looks. People think you are making things up, trying to be clever, or going clean off your rocker – sorry stark raving bonkers, cuckoo, whichever description fits your lingo.

Hands Across the Atlantic

In spite of the fact that freelancing from the UK can be problematic, freelance writers in the US, Canada and Australia are more than generous to other writers, no matter what their provenance. Three and a half years ago when I started blogging, I made a whole group of online friends that I am still in regular contact with. My experience of these writers is that they are generous to a fault with their knowledge and expertise, I have yet to come across an American writer who is not willing to pass on their knowledge to help out other writers.

Freelancing on this side of the pond may be a bit behind but there is no question about the fact that UK freelancers can be part of an online community that stretches its hands across the Atlantic. If you’re a UK writer looking for a whole new experience, then why not try freelancing and communicating with American writers and with Canadian and Australian freelancers, it will open up a whole new world.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Just a Five Minute Writing Whinge
• When the Freelance Writing Gets Tough
• Write it Right, Right?
• Freelance Writing: Keyword Research and Other Writerly Things
• A Dog’s View of Freelancing

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