Way back in the Eighties (yes, way back) when Eddie Murphy was the king of comedy there was a recorded stand-up show he did that was absolutely brilliant (should he have just stuck to stand up?). Eddie in a bright red leather combo, doing among other things his interpretations of James Brown and Elvis Presley. And he did them great. Particularly Elvis. At one point (and this is just my interpretation), talking about Elis acting in the movies, Eddie says something like: “But Elvis couldn’t act shit. So the directors would should to him - sing Elvis, sing!” and at that point, Murphy goes into a perfect Elvis singing mode “Lemonade, it's a cool drink!”
Sounds quite mundane in written words, but, personally it proves a point - if as a writer you have to get your readers excited about the fact that lemonade is a cool drink, you have to get into the Elvis/Eddie Murphy. You see, most of the time the stuff you most like to write about is the one you have to do “for yourself”, basically for free. At least at that point in time, unless you already have at least two novels that sold a ton behind you. But then, what if you are trying to be a copywriter who has to write a B2B sales paper for a company that, well, wants to sell printing paper to another company, or have to get your readers excited about buying a brand new type of garbage bags?
Yes, it does sound mundane (not to everybody anyway), but also another yes, it not only can but has to be aspiring. First of all, you have to write that paper and secondly, it is a great test for your imagination. If you can’t come up with something imaginative about those garbage bags, then you should have second thoughts about whether that big novel you’ve been conceptualizing all these years will amount to something.
Take for example that recorded Eddie Murphy show. It was originally recorded on one of those now obsolete objects called a video cassette. It was one of most cherished in my collection. When the video cassettes simply disappeared, I never got to getting one on DVD (never was big on those), or I simply didn’t bother. But imagine writing a story/short (or long) novel about discovering a box of old video cassettes and a barely functioning player. Going through the tapes you discover there is a taped murder, and go on from there.
Ok, video cassettes are not garbage bags, but are by themselves just another obsolete object. But you can give imaginative attribute to any inanimate objects or routine daily situations. You can’t just sit (or walk) around telling yourself (and everybody else) this is uninspiring! Otherwise, if you keep on doing that you might do it to the tune and words of that real Elvis hit: “You ain’t nothin but a hound dog…”

    “What does It Take” or “What it Takes”,? take you pick between the soul Junior Walker or something a bit more on the hard side, if you go for the Aerosmith (second) variation.

Although Aerosmith was among the best at what they did and had quite a few moments as far as I’m concerned, I’d still go for Junior Walker. Hands down.

Still, I’m drifting from the point, and that is, as far as freelance writing goes, that question in a more precise version should be - how much does it take, what are all those supplementary actions, things you must do to get somewhere in the freelance writing world. Besides writing, of course.

Look at the plethora of “instructional” sites, among which those that don’t ask you for at least some kind of financial contribution there are a few. As many as there are sites, you can at least quadruple the advice you’ll get.

Sure, there are things in those bits of advice that overlap - branding, e-mails, newsletters, social media… And sure, all of those are right on the money. With the accent on the money. And yes, you should try quite a number of those ‘supplemental’ activities. And again, yes, it does depend on how much money you can invest into those activities.

But, what is more important, is the time you can devote to such activities. There, balance is the first word that comes to mind. You not only need those activities, but some of them can not only give you good leads, they can, more importantly, be inspirational to your work, if you give them a right approach.

Still, they can also be very distracting, lure you into them like a trap and make you lose your focus from the primary thing you got into them in the first place - and that is writing, So Junior Walker or Aerosmith (or both), be sure to ask yourself the right questions, the answers will come by themselves.

​Jimi Hendrix came up with his first album titled “Are You Experienced?” practically 40 years ago. Even by today’s standards, that album can with ease hold the epithets such as revolutionary, legendary and quite a few others.

I’m not sure whether the question, “are you experienced?” has either revolutionary or legendary status with aspiring, or even not so aspiring writers, copywriters, journalists… but it is definitely they encounter at least three to five times a day. And by that, it is not whether they have experience as such, or as a particular scribbler, but experience in writing within a specific, sometimes too narrow to pass through the category.

In those situations, the authors usually opt to one of the following situations - they say no and give up immediately or they lie - make up some fake experience, get the job and promptly lose it shortly afterward. And you know, a bad word spreads around quickly.

So is there any other choice? Of course, for bystanders, it is easy to say, “be diplomatic”. Maybe by that, they mean that instruction usually given to aspiring, in this case, diplomats get - “never lie, but bend the truth as far as it goes”. In brief, spin it.

I’d say, definitely don’t lie, don’t bend the truth, but don’t give up either. Stress your past or current experience, how it is tied to the one you need but don’t have for the designated job.

This is also a good litmus test whether you are a good writer. If you’re persuasive, it’s two positives, you’ll get the job and it means you’ll be able to do it. You’re good.

Then the harder part kicks in. You have to prove it, and you do that by learning everything you can about the subject matter. If necessary, get a new vacuum cleaner to suck in everything. Mental vacuum cleaner, that is.

And get new knowledge (and experience)  in ever-widening concentric circles - a bit by bit. That way it will stick. Soon enough, you’ll be in Jimi’s position to ask the question - “are you experienced?”