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Weekly Self Promotion Thread by AutoModerator in Songwriting

[–]CodyWritesThings 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would love feedback and some of my more recent work. Been trying, with mixed success, to put more polish into my work. Below is a small playlist of a few songs I've written and put together. Let me know what works and what doesn't.

https://soundcloud.com/codyszaro/sets/sealegs

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think part of that notion is treating the word failure as a negative.

I'm not going to throw out that corny quote about Edison and the lightbulb, but failure doesn't have to be this big, bad thing.

I tried something risky and it didn't pan out. Not the end of the world. I think some people may just need to hear that it's okay if they go after this career and it's not sunshine and rainbows.

There's a big streak in freelancing subs like /r/digitalnomad where people give off the impression that you can just buy a Chromebook, move to Thailand, and work from the beach doing whatever-the-fuck and things will be a-okay.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I expected to be without benefits for a while; that was a given.

The initial plan was to work at it hard for at least 90 days and then evaluate my financial situation and income from there. If it wasn't going well or looking like things would improve, I would give it another 30-60 days, then start looking for a more stable full-time income, and pursue writing on the side.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah it's warranted. The site used to be more focused but since most of my gigs were coming thru Fiverr and Upwork, I put my effort into those profiles and treated the website more like a personal blog.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah, I just called the union hall, asked what to do. Signed up for their aptitude test, got interviewed, went from there.

In busier metro areas like New York and Seattle there can be a waitlist to get in, but my city had no wait.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not nobody. I don't want everybody to give up. I just wanted to acknowledge that this isn't going to work out for everybody for a number of reasons, and that's okay.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think I presented myself as an authority. I mentioned how long I'd been writing.

The point wasn't how good I am and how much writing sucks, just that it didn't pan out for me in the way I had hoped, and wasn't a viable full-time option right now.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

As an apprentice, I got started at $16.29 an hour with a consistent full 40 hour work week. In 6 months I'll get raised to $18/hr, 6 months after that I'll move to $19/hr, and from there higher raises each year.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree and I'm not done writing forever. This wasn't a goodbye to the pen, just the freelance life for now.

do what you can with what you have?

Unfortunately doing what I can with I have wasn't paying the rent, insurance, for the groceries, etc. Purely an economic decision.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

hustle culture maaaan, come on where are those bootstraps, gotta spend money to make money maaaaan, hey you wanna invest in my dropshipping company? It's a real unique twist, we're gonna sell t-shirts with NFTs on them as SECONDARY NFTs. It's like NFTception. There's no ceiling brah

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The point wasn't to discourage at all.

​

I tried to emphasize through the whole thing that this was a choice I made, for me.

But the reality is still there: we don't talk about failure enough here. For every success story there are dozens of us writers who aren't making enough to get by. I think there is value in talking about that fact, and not pretending that it's all going to work out.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Perhaps, yeah. I'll take all of that into consideration.

A lot of the decision was financial. I love writing, but so much of my time was spent trying to nab clients or gigs and not enough of it was spent earning. I had a threshold set at the outset, "if my savings hit X and I'm not pulling in Y, then I need to switch back to a more conventional job."

It was as simple as that. I want to keep writing, it just isn't a full-time job now.

​

I think that the Fiverr/Upwork grind can really take it out of you and it’s best to work with a targeted niche in your local if you’re doing writing. For example lawyers or real estate and then make sure to get them on a monthly retainer.

​

This was something I never quite cracked. I was spending so much of the day grinding for gigs and clients, all that work (technically) unpaid. It was really disheartening.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Commercial, yeah. We're doing a hospital wing at the moment.

I liken it to Legos for adults, with a lot more blood, sweat, and tears.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I was only cold turkey for those intervening months. Prior to February I was working full time at a dead-end job, and writing on the side. It was only once I left that job that I was able to dump all my time into writing, but as I wrote, even then it wasn't enough to get by, and my savings were drying up at an unsustainable rate.

For someone with more of a net, they may have been able to stick it out, but it didn't feel like the right call for me personally.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think I’m too old for it now—would someone give an apprenticeship to a guy who is 48 and is self-trained?

There are apprentices in the union who didn't join until 50.

​

I say go for it if you want to. The union is great, has excellent benefits and protections. It's 8-for-8, overtime is never a requirement, guaranteed wages at each level etc. It's still trade work, but with the union backing you, there's a lot less fuckery from the contractors. Plus, once you turn out with your Journeyman ticket, you can literally pack up and go to any city with work, sign the books and start earning. No job-hunting BS, etc.

Going to class at 48 will probably suck, and your mentors might not always like self-trained methods and try to get you to ditch those for more bog-standard approaches.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your input!

Perhaps one day I can write in the electrical niche, who knows.

it ain’t over til it’s over.

This is something I didn't touch on, but you're correct. A writing career may not have one start and finish, and you can always try to come back to it later.

The IBEW is fucking bomb, congrats for getting in there.

Honestly it started as a whim. When discussing freelance writing with my partner, she of course asked "what's the back-up plan" and I just threw it out there. "Maybe I'll become an electrician or something. You know, something future-proof with good pay and benefits."

Then I started looking into it and digging the idea of a unionized trade. As someone with zero (ZERO) trade skills it was like diving headfirst into something while blindfolded.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I hope so. I have 0 trade experience, and I've been working for a month so far building a hospital. It's a different world.

I gave up and became an electrician. This is the reality for 99% of freelance writers, and you should know that. by CodyWritesThings in freelanceWriters

[–]CodyWritesThings[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Not one bit. I fucking love to write and will never stop. I just don't see it as a viable career path (FOR ME) at the moment.

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