I'm an editor and I agree 100% with Fenster.

But there's more: I just gave a freelance paid assignment to someone who has very few clips. What did she do to get my attention? She emailed me in very brief, cheery note, every other month for 8 months talking about my publication, how she had noticed it is selling well, etc.

Then she sent me a great query letter - and I knew she would get the story. Because she is organized, attentive, and persistent. Her deadline's next week. If that one goes well, we'll go from there.

Don't start a blog. Unless it is going to be updated a lot, and be VERY VERY good. Blogs are a dime a dozen and frankly, when I get pointed to a writer's blog, most of the time it just demonstrates to me that they are not yet working at a professional level.

There are of course exceptions, but they are few and far between.

Seriously, I wish my 17-year-old self had seen this. It applies to every industry in some way, but all the ones I've ever wanted to be part of.

Although it's not helpful to view writing as an identity, it has been helpful to consider it as a relationship. Rather than judge whether you are worthy of it, take a look at how it serves you.

Does your particular combination of talent/interests/persistence lend itself well to being your most significant source of income? Great! Maybe writing as a relationship becomes your partner, and then single-minded devotion and service to it is your way to bliss.

Or is it fun, interesting, stimulating, occasionally rewarding but often undependable? Then maybe it deserves a place in your life as a beloved friend that you tend to regularly, but not as you do your significant other. You get to decide.

You get to decide how well it serves your reason for incarnating on the planet at this time and how much time, effort, persistence, money, patience and love you want to devote to it.

Reality check time.

Cool your jets. Hiring is a sometimes lengthy process. Three weeks is a blink in corporate time. Don't write off that job just because you haven't heard from the editor in three weeks. There may be 30 applicants for the job, 24 of whom get informational phone/screening interviews, 8 of whom get in-person interviews, 3 of whom get to interview with multiple people. This process can take weeks to months. In addition to this, this editor probably has other job responsibilities they must deal with simultaneously.

You're in a hurry; they're not. Guess what? They're in control of the timeline. So use the time to write. And to apply for other jobs.

that you put off is so overwhelming that I would change seats anywhere that you would be seated next to me mistaking you for a big, black crow!

It's like you are shooting for the entire enchalada and have conveniently dismissed the appetizers first. Is there something in between "perfect life" and "shitty life?"

Maybe you could consider a part-time, free lance situation in order to build a portfolio. Hell, write instructions manuals if you have to for the toy industry - they could use the literary assistance if you've ever seen instructions manuals.

Just ask STeven Glass how that ultimately worked for him.

I see a lot of technical writing jobs, available on a fulltime or contract basis.

Great advice here, start with free lance, corporate work and work your way up.

Work your J-school contacts and university placement service.

that budgets are cut, reporters are getting fired on a daily basis. Traditional newsrooms don't exist anymore. The game has totally changed.

How has it changed? I don't know. I just read about it. I read about it all the time. I'm in PR and I read and read, one buy-out after the another, and the STNG telling us over the phone, "There's no one in the newsroom anymore. There's no one to write the stories."

and the commercial real estate reporter asking me if we need freelancers. and my boss saying this or that reporter is taking a meeting with our client because they want the work. and suddenly the myth is gone.

television is vomiting violence and about two newspapers won all the pulitzers. I don't know what you want out of this, but you have to put your own needs last if you want to write.

Lady, even those of us who have had the guts to be out there interviewing (yikes, scary!) since our teens are struggling now. Blog, IM, whatever, but don't expect to be paid to write at a time that real writers are being laid off left and "write."

Have you considered marketing communications, public relations, or technical writing? They're all good fits for someone with a journalism background and good writing chops. There's quite a bit of freelance work available in these areas, too (not to mention permanent jobs) and they pay reasonably well. Plus, they can provide a pretty wide scope for creativity depending on the job.

If you really, really want to be a journalist, this is probably not the best path to go down. But if you want to work as a writer and are flexible about the context, these kinds of professional writing jobs are worth investigating.

LW wants to "be" a writer and seems to miss the point that a writer is just a person who writes. So, LW just needs to start writing. It may not be a career but it's still writing, and isn't that what LW's driven to do?. Only a lucky few are able to dovetail what they love doing and how they earn money, but the almost-as-lucky realize that and just do both, trying to balance them. For instance, I work a regular day job but freelance for the local paper, and ended up writing 111 articles for them last year. I got my foot in the door by covering track and field as a stringer, then when the beat I really wanted--weeekly food features---opened up a year later, they knew my work, knew I could be counted on to turn in assignments, and were happy not to have to search for someone. So now I get freelance work from magazines and in another year or so will make more from freelancing than the day job. So, go for it, LW! Put your energy into writing something besides a complaint letter to Cary!