I have been writing freelance articles for a long time. I fancy that they have a significance to my life, but in fact they are all usually pretty distant from me. The only personal significance to my freelance articles is that they help me succeed in my dreams of being a writer. Nonetheless, none of them ring particularly true personally. They are well written and well researched, and some of them have even won awards. None of them, however, reflects the personal struggles that I have had to go through in my life.
That is why I finally decided to write a diet article. All my publishing contacts were really perplexed. Weight loss articles, after all, are not seen as a serious topic. Every week in Redbook there is a new diet weight loss article. Every woman's magazine on the market has them. Why would I write an article about diet when I could be researching school closings, police corruption, or some other lofty issue. Diet stories are emotionally manipulative, shallow, and without any universal appeal – or so I was told.
Nonetheless, I resolved to write the diet article no matter what people thought. I have always been unafraid of defying conventions with the articles that I write. I would not explain why at the time, but I had already come to realize why the diet article was importance to me. You see, I have always tried to cultivate a larger-than-life image. As a writer, I have to be distant from my subject matter. I have to be strong and confident so that I can get the quotes that I need to make my articles work. Through writing diet articles, I could show that I have had to deal with the same personal struggles that everyone else does. My other articles are not insincere, and I have not lied about who I am in the past, but I certainly haven't revealed it. I felt that it was time to reveal a part of myself in my article writing.
As it stands, I have not had the diet article published. Some of my editors have made very little effort to disguise their disgust, but other ones seem more interested. I even have one promising lead for a future edition. My diet article might not earn me Fame or success, but it was worth writing for me. I have always written for myself, and I will continue to do so.
|
