by Deborah Ng
It’s no secret I started out in publishing and began writing long before the Internet writing frenzy happened. Many of the writers who visit here didn’t even consider writing until they learned how much money could be made online.
Let me ask you this…
If there was no Internet, no online, no World Wide Web, would you still be writing? Would you be submitting queries to online publications and cold-calling local businesses or would you be an accountant or programmer or have a different office job?
I like to think I’d still be writing in some capacity, but I don’t know if I would be doing it for a living. I was considering getting into marketing while at my last job (in accounting) so who knows? I can honestly say I never enjoyed working in an office or following a mundane daily routine. Without the web however, I would never have been able to begin working at home when I did and it would have taken me a lot longer to be a successful freelance writer.
And you? What would you be doing if there was no Internet?
Yes, I would still be writing if there were no internet. However, I am not sure that I would have the confidence to jump into a career based on words. If the only feature of the internet that I could preserve was online access to the submission information for traditional publishing companies, I would be grateful. However, I cannot deny that the research possibilities and the sense of community have also given me a substantial amount of assistance.
Being chronically ill, I would be in a world of hurt without the internet. Computers and the internet are my lifeline for work and school.
Even on ‘bad days’ I can still work because of the internet. I can work around my health, and I can get far more done because of the internet than I can without it.
Thank goodness for technology!
Honestly, I would probably be homeless and without my child if there was no internet to help me find work, submit work, promote my work, brush up on my skills, network, and learn new skills all from the convenience of my home.
I did the office thing for several years, but it’s not the right environment for me. Not sure what else I would do, but I would be able to find work of some kind.
I doubt I would be a writer without the Internet — but not because of the opportunities that came with the Internet, but because of my deafness. Email, instant messenger, web sites, and all those “eye” tools made it possible for me to connect and network.
Without the Internet, I’d still be working in a corporate setting and struggling to make up the time I’d lose from having to take care of one of my kids who has medical challenges.
Easy question for me! If there were no internet, I would be in journalism. Sure, the job would be more difficult, but I was born to write. I would just need to have a different routine than I have now. If the internet were taken away from me tomorrow, I would be ticked, but I would still adapt to make writing work for me.
Yes, I’d still be writing! I use the Internet to communicate with my clients and send them finished work; none of my work itself actually comes from the Internet. If there were no Internet I could use the *gasp* phone, fax machine, postal service, and personal delivery. I sure am glad we have the Internet, though, because it makes my job so much easier!
I would still be a writer. After getting over the initial withdrawal symptoms, I’d immediately head out to Staples to stock up on stationary, stamps and labels for those all important SASE’s. I did the corporate thing for a long time, and it isn’t for me.
I doubt I would be a freelance writer without the internet because the internet was the catalyst for me to initially become a writer. I took an online writing course and never looked back.
While technology has made marketing and querying exponentially easier than in the days ‘B.I.’, what the internet has also done for me is allowed me to continue my writing education.
Sites like this one provide valuable information and updates about the ever-changing online world. From My Space to Twitter to Digg — we writers need to keep up with the latest and greatest forms of social media and ever-evolving resources.
Yes. I felt called to write several years ago, before I actually began writing. When I thought of writing before I started, I always imagined it being in print. Writing for online publications seemed like a good way to get some experience and writing a content piece is much less time consuming than writing a print feature so I could do it when my kids were not in school full time.
BUT…
Today is the day I’ve been waiting for because my youngest just started full time school today (Yes, Deb. September ’08 is finally here. We’ve been waiting for it forever, haven’t we?)
So today I start the querying process for print magazines and taking steps to write for print instead of solely for online publications. It’s exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.
I wouldn’t be a writer without the Internet. I have always been skilled at writing, but I never felt that it was my calling. I got into writing in 2005, when I was very ill and had to quit my job. I had surgery in 2005 and twice in 2006 – writing gave me the chance to come home from the hospital, prop my pathetic-looking self up in bed, and earn money. Those issues have been resolved, but I do have several chronic illnesses and they’re too unpredictable for me to try to work FT. I was in a cycle of get a job –> make friends with coworkers –> excel at job –> get sick, end up in hospital, and quit job. Now if I’m in pain at 8 a.m., I can lie in bed a little longer and work from 12-8 instead of 9-5. If I have a particularly bad day, I can put off work until the wee hours of the next morning.
Oh yes, I’d still be freelancing. I would just need a really great long-distance phone plan, more time in the library, and a bit more patience. It might seem harder to some, but there would be less competition for assignments.
I would still write . . . I started pretty early on, way before working online was an option. Now, whether or not I would be eating is the question!
I majored in Magazine Journalism, so I expected to be writing for print and not online, and now I’m exclusively writing online. If it weren’t for the Internet, I probably wouldn’t be writing because there are only two magazines where I live and they’ve had the same people working for them for the past 15 to 20 years!
Good question!
I wrote before and will still write after. I am just not sure that anyone other than myself would read what I write without the internet.
No doubt that I’d still be writing; I started before the Internet was the omnipresence it is today. However, I would likely have focused more on fiction and poetry than I do now. Having the Internet has given me the freedom to pursue other avenues of making a living, so I’m grateful for that. Still, maybe I’d have been better off without it, at least creatively speaking. Then again, I never had trouble procrastinating before the Internet.
I think it would have been a lot of tougher being a freelance writer and my career never would have gone in this direction without the Internet, but I was already a writer and working for publications before I ever had an email address.
Yes, I’d still be writing. I might not have jumped into doing it full time as quickly without the many opportunities I have gotten from blogging and writing copy for the Internet, but I wouldn’t stop writing.
I would still write. I started freelancing before I learned about different opportunities that existed on the web. In a way, I think writing for the web handicapped me.
I became too comfortable with this avenue, and I haven’t made time to tackle print markets. On the flip side, if it weren’t for the Internet, I would probably freelance on the side and work for a newspaper or television station.
I was writing many long years before I owned (or even thought about owning) a computer, before there was such a thing as the Internet. So yes, I would still be writing.
In the beginning, writing online was shocking to me because the difference in the amount of money paid per article is so different. Print pays so much more, but is slower in paying, and there’s generally more *foot* work involved. Online pays much less, but pays faster, you don’t even have to leave your chair, and there’s much more work to go around.
If the web was gone today, the only freelancing impact it would have on me is that I would actually have to get out of this chair to work… that in itself would probably be a serious shock to my system since I have been working at home for so many years, using the web and computer to do so.
The Internet has lowered barriers for writers, allowing some who never heard from editors to self-publish and providing a wider audience for others. Take away the Internet and the balance of power returns to the editor and the writer is again lost in the slush-pile of thousands of people breaking into print.
For publishers, the Internet permits micro-publishing through a global audience. No longer are publishers limited to choosing only sure-fire, nationally-known writers or experiment with niches that might not garner the readers or advertisers needed for a print version.
Myself, I would continue writing. However, my audience would likely be mainly local and I would avoid the months-long mail responses from major publishers. Instead, I would probably branch out into more corporate writing and rely more on industry contacts.
Writing and writers would survive without the Internet. However, both would change in scope.
Like you, I was writing before the Internet, but I also worked as a CNA (certified nurses assistant). The Internet allowed me to advance my writing career and made sending query letters and etc. much easier. Without the Internet, I would continue writing and go back to the way I use to do it because without writing, I’d be lost. However, if I didn’t have the Internet, I’d probably have to start working outside the home as well. Also like you, I was never much for working for other people. I enjoy working for myself, but I’d do whatever it took to take care of my family.
Good question, Deb. I would still write creatively (always did before the internet) but probably would still be doing the paralegal thing for my real income.
I’d be writing, because I was writing for newspapers before Al Gore invented the Internet
. Had already moved to magazines pre-Internet, and was even freelancing before it.
Now if we were still on manual typewriters, I’d be toast.
I started writing at age 7 with a yellow legal pad and a pencil… so I’m thinking yes, in regards to your question – just try and stop me.
I would still be a writer. A different kind of writer, obviously, but still a writer. Since I’ve been writing since I’ve learned to string sentences together, I think it’s safe to say the lack of internet wouldn’t stop me – I would probably be a journalist.
I started writing as soon as I could, well, write (my first grade teacher asked us for three sentences, I handed in two pages). I’d have to be a writer because I can’t do much else other than act and it’s hard work to be doubly unemployed. I don’t know if I’d be a freelancer, though, or at least it would have taken me a lot longer to build up the base to be able to freelance. Most likely I’d be in journalism or working on the editorial side in publishing. But I’d rather not contemplate a world without the internet, because then I’d have to think about things like paying for newspapers, buying stamps a lot more often, talking on the phone…oh, the horror is too much!
Wow! If there were no Internet, I would likely still be writing, but not to pay the bills. I’d probably get moving on a couple of books that are umm…still in process.
As a self-dubbed Web geek, I NEED the Internet. I’m sure I could settle into a corporate environment but I would quickly negotiate a contract to work at a remote location (i.e, my living room/home office).
Besides, if the Internet goes away, where else am I gonna watch full episodes of Sanford & Son, clips from the Democratic National Convention, and a guitar playing baby at the same time?
Answer: YouTube
I Love the Internet!
Without the internet, I probably wouldn’t even have thought it possible to make money by writing had a friend of mine not commisioned me an event to cover for the magazine she was working for.
Moving to another country soon afterwards was what got me thinking about freelancing. So no, without the internet I probably wouldn’t be writing, except in my journal.
I was a journalist and freelance writer long before the Internet. While the Internet does make the job easier, there are things I miss. For one, you had more time to think about story ideas, research them, then make the pitch. I miss that “indulgence” of taking my time. Second, I miss the closer interaction with editors. You used to be able to call and pitch over the phone, instead of dealing with e-mail. I think in many circumstances, I developed a closer, more long-lasting relationship with editors. Third, the pay was a heck of a lot better. It was considered unusual to get anything below 50 cents or $1 a word, even for the most basic articles.
Don’t get me wrong — I love the Internet. But I do think it’s not always been ALL good for freelancing…
Most of my writing is not for the web, so yes.
But it would be much harder work. Without email, much more playing phone tag. Without the web, much more work tracking down experts to interview. I’m not sure if some of what I’ve written would even be possible, since I’m often looking for experts on odd little subjects where it’s not like you can find someone who wrote a book about it.
I didn’t do this before the internet existed, so I don’t know what I might be missing – mostly it sounds like a horrifying idea!
I probably would not have started writing without the Internet. Writing is something I always enjoyed and was good at (or so I was told). But, when I was preparing for college, I was considering either business or English as a major. But, a lot of teachers, parents etc told me that business majors were a dime a dozen and that English was a limited field and besides, you couldn’t make that much as a writer!
So, I studied industrial technology and began working in the manufacturing sector, because I thought there would always be manufacturing jogs Right! Any way, a couple of years ago, I discovered Michael Meanwell’s The Wealthy Writer, and the Net has helped me get my feet wet. I couldn’t have started with cold calling–there’s no way.
But I’ve started part time and have actually started making money.
I know I would still write as I have been writing since I could hold a pen. I think I have better chances now thanks to the internet but I have been writing short stories, and articles since elementary school. My teachers used to say thank god for editors because I was a good writer who could not spell. Now I say thank God for reference.com and firefox’s auto spell check.
If not for the internet I would do the same as I do now, it would just take longer by snail mail…
Great post, Deb. I think it’s vital for people who rely on writing as income to have more than one avenue to use. I don’t just rely on the Internet–but I’m darn happy we’ve got it!!
I would definitely be writing, I just probably wouldn’t be making money at it, or not nearly as much as I am right now. Before going freelance full-time, I co-created numerous local arts reviews, literary magazines and newsletters, and I’m still asked to do the odd reading here and there when my creative work appears in them. I had to leave that fun-yet-penniless world behind when I was laid off at my part-time day job and I decided to have a go at freelancing online. My degree is in English Literature, and I think if I had to stick to print I’d be submitting to literary reviews and writing more creative work. I’ve wanted to write since I was a child, when I would write, illustrate and bind my own stories.
My immediate gut reaction was, of course! I’ve always been a writer. But if there weren’t an Internet, I suspect I would have looked for another retirement transition career.
I freelanced before working full-time for 27 years, and I was successful but it was hard. Freelancing is a more viable option for an old lady like me with the Internet. Now I can work anywhere (as I proved to myself for five weeks on the road in New England this summer).
Even if I had another career, though, I would still be a writer. Some things just can’t change.
I don’t know if I’d be writing for a living, but I’d still be writing. I was writing long before we got our first computer. In fact, I was typing out my stories on an old 1950′s manual typewriter before we got our first computer.
I might only be doing it for my own purposes, but yes, I’d still be writing
I would write fiction and journal, but I doubt I’d try to write professionally. I’d probably work in a library instead. In addition to writing jobs, I’ve had research-related jobs on the Internet and can not imagine my life without it.
I forgot to add I have medical issues like hearing loss and anxiety disorder where it easier to work on the Internet than in an office.
I remember the days before Internet became omnipresent, when I used to buy copies of Writers Digest each month, and go through it looking for new markets. I was just out of university, lived in a small town called Mafikeng (in South Africa). I sent out a lot of SASE envelopes then, and the local DHL guy knew me by name. Even then, I was determined to make it as a writer, despite my very remote location from the world of publishing.
If there was no Internet, I suspect I would either be working for a magazine as a writer, or a non-profit organisation in some capacity that includes materials development. That’s what I did before I discovered the world of online publishing.
I totally think I would still be writing in some form, but I don’t how much of it would see anyone else’s eyes but my own! I have been writing since I was a little kid, old enough to hold a crayon practically, but I never really seriously considered writing as a career until I found all the opportunities that are out there on the internet. I wasn’t around for the pre-internet days of freelancing, but I can imagine it would be really slow and frustrating, and also leave you more prone to the criticism of that special class of people that don’t consider freelance writing a “real,” or at least full-time job.
Great topic! I often ponder how much more difficult it must have been for freelancers before the internet–much respect to them. When I first thought of pursuing freelance writing, I didn’t know very much about it and just did a Google search. The first site that I went to had a link for job sites, this being one of them.
Since then the internet and this site in particular have been a HUGE resource. I can’t imagine looking for jobs and researching without internet access. I would like to think I would have pursued writing but probably in a more full-time organizational setting. Perhaps, after making the right editorial contacts, freelancing would have been a subsequent option–but I can’t imagine just diving right in.
On the flip side, I wonder if it might have been easier for certain writers. There would be far less freelancers out there and much less competition for individual jobs. Although there would be a lot less work without web content, employers would have smaller pool of candidates and might be more eager to hire.
I’d still be writing, definitely. But I think I’ll be writing as a full-time job, employed as a writer for whatever company I apply to. I may not be a freelance writer like I am now though but I will still be a writer.
I’ve been writing in different capacities since high school, so I like to think that I’d be writing even without the internet. Yet virtually everything I’ve done outside of the internet has been unpaid volunteer writing. I much prefer to get paid, but I don’t think I would have ever realized it was possible without the internet opportunities I’ve found.
Without a college degree, I’ve always assumed journalism jobs were closed to me. Working away from home is not something I want anyway. I enjoy this flexibility of working at home, on my own time.