A Freelancer’s Taste Of Anger

You may have read ex-WHYY staffer Rachel Buchman’s pieceabout being a freelance writer in Sunday’s Inquirer. I didn’t, because I have a rule that if the third paragraph of a newspaper article is something like this –

As I thumb through the dog-eared and underlined pages, I think of a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem

– I don’t read it. (Sorry, Rachel! Sorry, Lawrence!) I’ve heard the piece painted life as a freelancer as all pajamas and money and high-speed car chases and excitement. Which is silly. That’s the life of a professional blogger. Well, that and crying yourself to sleep.

I learned this from Philadelphia Will Do Freelance Correspondent Mike Benner’s retelling of the essay to me. And then he offered to write something for me. You can tell he’s a good freelancer because he knew how to get me to publish — “publish” — something.

• Puppy reference in second sentence
• Use of the phrase “Are you fucking kidding me?”
• Mentioned “slinging crack”, a popular activity near my apartment
• One space after a period
• Made fun of a poem
• Offered to write something so I don’t have to

Okay, I’m apparently pretty easy to please.

After the jump, Mike’s essay. Any mistakes in the essay were probably put in by me.

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