If there’s one person who would like to be a writer slash dancer slash pastry chef slash businesswoman and so many more all at the same time that would be me. I just want to be good at so many things but it seems like time is hindering me. I’m a frustrated writer indeed ’cause I easily get frustrated whenever I see people excelling and being active in the publishing industry as writers. (Jealousy strikes) I can’t help it but to compare my ambitious self like I’m the slowest turtle to get to my goal.
I took the opportunity to attend the back-to-back seminar of Mr. Don Jaucian, editor-in-chief of Rogue Magazine, and Ms. Elaine Carag, editor-in-chief of Chalk Magazine, last August 19. I always find seminars with regards to writing interesting. I listed five key learnings that struck me the most,
- Take your confidence with you and you’re good to go.
The speakers were asked how they started and on how they got employed as a writer. They immediately answered “confidence lang”. Though they felt like it was somewhat impossible for them to get hired because they graduated in another course, they still pushed through and took the leap of faith. They said that we just have to trust ourselves and claim that we can do anything. Confidence can make you do things you thought you can’t do. In the publishing industry, there are many competitors also so if you don’t have self-confidence to even apply for a job well you’re not going anywhere. Just go and visit the company you want to work for and try your very best to impress them. Yes, having connections are better but having none should not stop you from attempting.
- Start working on your portfolio.
Having a portfolio of our original published works can help us market ourselves when applying. The speakers said that we should start working on our portfolio already so that we could present something when employers wanted to see how we work. It gives satisfaction to all our lifting-one’s-bench drama during interviews. It gives additional background of what you’ve done before, where you’ve worked before, and how you are going to perform in the future. The portfolio will be the simplest output that will testify on how good we work so better make it the best.
- Have a mentor.
Make sure to ask for other people’s criticism just so we have an idea on what’s the impact of our work to others. It will also help us identify our strengths, weaknesses and the things that we need to change. Have someone who will mentor us honestly and help us grow as a writer. If we have someone whom we think we’ll never satisfy with regards to our work, it will of great help for us to push ourselves to the limit.
- Be professional.
Don’t just send a link of our blog or published works online to the publishing company we are applying for. The guest writers said that it irritates the employers big time to receive messages from aspiring writers who lacked enough respect to not make their applying process professionally. EICs and people from the HRD don’t have all the time to browse through nonsense posts from our blogsites. Same thing during interviews, be professional enough to come on time and bring all necessary requirements. Remember that first impression lasts.
- Discover your style of writing.
As we explore, we’ll get to know ourselves even more and more importantly our style of writing. We all have different characters that we want others to think of us and through writing, we get to exercise it. We’ll be known according to our works and the way we write things that’s why we need to discover what we want to portray as writers.
To sum it all up, no one’s going to help us first but ourselves only. We have to move now, write now and learn now, ergo just start now. We have a long way to go but that’s just how
Photo grabbed from The DLSU-Dasmariñas Communication and Media Society’s Facebook page
Indescribable Euphoria 