My writing day: Anne Wollenberg

FREELANCE journalist Anne Wollenberg specialises in entertainment, technology and workplace issues and also works on more general or 'real life' features.

She writes for newspapers and a mixture of consumer, trade and customer magazines. As a result, she says that “working” has involved "interviewing everyone from members of the Lost cast to a woman whose husband is impotent."

Anne is a fellow member at JournoBiz and I know I speak for more members there when I say that her success in her freelance career, just 12 months in, is an inspiration.

She has a no-nonsense 'get on with it' approach and this combined with fantastic writing and research skills, has landed her some outstanding assignments.

Anne's interview with a Holocaust survivor for The Guardian's Experience slot is one of the most moving pieces of journalism I have read.

She writes:

I sometimes work from my partner’s house in Oxford – when you’re in a long-distance relationship, it’s handy if you can take your job with you – or hole up in coffee shops looking pretentious, but today I’m at home in North Greenwich. I am not a morning person and rarely do any actual writing before 11am if my life doesn’t depend on it. I catch up on emails, glug coffee, check Journobiz and Twitter and read the comments on my latest Guardian piece.

I also chase up an editor about some subbing I’m doing for a trade magazine. I did the odd in-house stint before I moved and now they’re happy for me to do it from home, I’ve just got to make sure everything is set up. Then I get stuck into some research for a tabloid feature, for which I’m trying out an unusual kind of therapy, and drop the editor a quick line to check what she wants to do about pictures.

At midday I go to the doctor’s and flip through a couple of magazines I’d like to write for while in the waiting room. I’m trying to branch out and find new markets as well as nurturing existing contacts. I lost a lot of regular work when two editors who commissioned me loads, both ex-colleagues, got made redundant. I wasn’t confident I could generate enough work to plug the gap, but this gave me the push I needed to start pitching more, move to London and pick up some shifts I never expected to get. I went freelance because I was unhappy in my staff job – I didn’t really have a plan – and I have found that if you ask enough people, some of them will say yes.

I do a quick shop in Sainsbury’s – much easier during the day when it’s not busy – and nip to the bank and post office. Back home, I craft a pitch to one of those waiting room magazines while eating a late lunch, only to get an out-of-office reply. I carry on with my feature research, faff on Journobiz some more, then settle down to watch the rest of my Supernatural season 3 box set. I’m reviewing the next season for DVD & Blu-ray Review, a magazine I write reviews for every month, and I need to catch up, so it’s work. Sort of.

If I need to I’ll work in the evenings – I’m a lot more productive then – although whenever possible I try to close my laptop and leave work behind at about 6pm, unless you count reading glossy magazines “for research”, though I have a bad habit of compulsively checking my email. Generally I realise it’s time to stop working when, as has just happened, one of my housemates comes home and I realise I haven’t moved for two hours.

Read some more 'My writing day' contributions from fellow journalists here.

Comments

[Sarah]

It's really interesting to see how other freelancers approach things so I love pieces like this.

And, I am so impressed with/inspired by the work you have built up as a freelancer Anne!

Sarah

[Linda]

Thanks Sarah, it's been a while since I posted anything like this so thanks for your kind words and thanks to Anne for being featured. You would be very welcome to share your experience too if you would like.

[Anne]

Blimey, thanks guys.

[kavitha rao]

Not that Anne isn't inspirational, but could we have a writing day from one of the moms on Journobiz, especially those amazing ones who don't have proper childcare or have lots of kids? Ursula, Jackie and Camilla C spring to mind. I constantly struggle with balancing work and family, and would be really keen to see how other moms do it.

[Linda]

Hi Kavitha of course I will ask them! x