Dear Writer,

What Cary could also have told you is to go to journalism grad school. There are some great ones out there -- Northwestern, Missouri, and the one I am most familiar with, the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. Your skills will be honed, you will be tested in the trenches every which way, and you will have great clips and a focus when you are done. You will meet the best writers and journalists of our time, and make great contacts (and friends for life). And, yes, it costs tuition. Get a student loan. Work at Peet's Coffee. It is still cheaper than a mortgage. In the end, you will be a writer.

http://www.twainquotes.com/Galaxy/187011e.html

Read the whole thing, but it includes:

"...If my correspondent will write free of charge for the newspapers of his neighborhood, it will be one of the strangest things that ever happened if he does not get all the employment he can attend to on those terms. And as soon as ever his writings are worth money, plenty of people will hasten to offer it."

I can't help but wonder if part of the problem is what you expect from your first writing job - I bet you hate it when your family, and friends, and all the commenters here say "you have to start somewhere" - but it's absolutely, 100% true.

The good news is (especially now with the internet)there are TONS of freelance opprotunities out there that'll give you experience AND a little spending cash.

I'm 36; a high school AND college drop out, and I've spent the last 11 years focused pretty much exclusively on being a steady paycheck and source of benefits for my kids and wife (who was finishing grad school). Still, after a few years of blogging, in '07 I started making a couple hundred bucks a month freelancing for a weekly here in Denver.

In my early 30's, it would have really bugged me to be interviewing some 20-something with a myspace page who hosts "Marathon Darts" (or whatever) at the local hipster bar -especially with all the people out there younger (gasp!) than me, writing novels and screenplays and disertations and columns for Salon.

But you know what? If writing is REALLY what you should be doing, you'll take pride in the work and feel a sense of accomplishment when you complete whatever it is that you're working on.

After that, getting a check for it is just icing on the cake...

just my .02 cents.

Damn, I don't know. If you find out, let me know too.

Best,

e.m.

I must agree with several other posts that the "I can't" mantra is your biggest enemy here. Instead of finding opportunities and having fun with the several ways you can approach them, you are zoning in on the roadblocks and setting yourself up to fail. Also, it might help to stop focusing on the "other people" getting jobs and start focusing on actually doing the work you like to do. Sometimes it helps to know that competition is there, but ignore it as much as humanly possible in order to work on the writer you want to be. Good luck!

Stop whining and become a hack advice columnist. Hopefully Salon will have an opening soon.

I get paid to write. I have health insurance and everything. And how did she do it, you might ask?

I was willing to dance with thems that brung me. After working as a reporter, both staff and freelance, and not being able to make it financially, I took a job writing corporate e-learning materials.

Is this job my childhood dream? Not really. Mostly its my day job. I'm working on my second novel while my agent shops my first one and yes, that sounds terrifically glamorous doesn't it? Except the part where I am researching insurance products and finding new and engaging ways to phrase "What questions do you have about the Sales Process?"

There are all kinds of paid writing jobs out there. They just aren't the sexy ones. As day jobs go, it really beats working in retail.

But the thing of it is, writers write. We write anything. We write everything. We cultivate an interest in everything, yea verrily including the insurance business, and what's more we work like dogs and we aren't prima donnas. We show up and do the job, whatever it is, and then, if so inclined, we have a beer.

I say we because I invite you to start thinking of yourself as a working artist. Working. Artist. Artist who Works. Everyday, whether or not it makes you the cool people. Because that's how you will get to where you want to go. Whether you want to write screenplays or fiction or be a New York Times columnist, you need to develop this concept of yourself as a craftsman.

Lots of people on this letters forum have given you advice about practical things you can do, but I think you simply need to embrace your new identity. You are a fellow grunt in the field of letters. Will Work for Food. Will Work for Free Kiolbasa. Will do the job, do it on time, spell check it properly, leave a silver bullet and move on. Will Work.

If you do that, I can't promise fame and fortune. I can't promise a glamorous job. But I can promise that someone will hire you, publish you, promote your work.

fascinating, provocative, and unique.

who wants to read the hundred-thousandth clown with no discernably unique point of view?

Worked for most of the greats. Balzac went for extreme coffee addiction instead.

Anyway, you need a vice, or several.

Perhaps Cary could assemble ALL the would-be writers' whines into one place. As for me, this LW's letter represents another big yawn. If all these wanna-be writers are so deficient in imagination that they can't figure out where local writing opportunities are to be found, perhaps they aren't good candidates in the first place. Oh wait. They can always LIE, like Ms. Havrilesky. Ooooh, modern times. "Pay me well- I'm inexperienced". Sure hope my surgeon is the real thing. Why not just go out there, take the starter job, and DO the thing in addition to your admin job??? So what if you're tired for a time? At least you've started in the field. Sure, being the obit writer ain't real sexy, but you're in the door. But you want something for nothing. Sorry, the world doesn't work that way. But Cary, PLEEEEEEEASE, lay off the complaining would-be writers for a while, OK?? Or, for that matter, complaining would-be anythings. Thank you.