Click image for one of Shannon's published works. Photo © Château de Monte-Cristo

Writing is hard work. Getting paid to write is damn near impossible. I know, because I’ve watched Shannon do the impossible every day for the last six years. She’s far more successful than she gives herself credit for, and I’m incredibly proud of her.

I’ve been reading a lot of travel blogs lately and I came across this essay So You Wanna Be a Travel Writer? posted by a professional freelancer. Her experience mirrors ours, or Shannon’s, at least. It’s a good exposé on the realities of trying to write for pay. Freelance writing is a field where you have to work terribly hard; suffer constant rejection; manage the chaos of feast or famine assignments; harass editors for pay; deal with the uncertainty of when, or whether, the next check will arrive; constantly ‘interview’ for the next gig; work on stories that may never get sold; and compete with folks who are willing to do all of this for free. It’s not all fun and games, even if it appears to be.

Nobody knows how hard Shannon has worked to make a go of it in this crazy profession, but I thought you should.