When I think back to the time I toiled over writing half of a Las Vegas guidebook, I remember the numb legs. Twice it happened: I’d been working for so long at my laptop, my legs forgot how to support me when I stood up, and I went straight for the floor.
After writing those 50,000 words, which were based on experiences in countless bars, clubs, strip clubs, swingers clubs, shops, museums and other spots that I had visited in person, while also balancing a fulltime job as a magazine editor, I wasn’t sure I’d venture into the grueling world of guidebook authorship again.
But then I became a freelancer and moved to Chicago. When the opportunity to write a Chicago guidebook came along, the bug bit. I wanted the gig.
For me, the payoff in becoming a Chicago guidebook author wasn’t in the fee (guidebooks won’t make any writer rich). At the time I was asked, I’d been living in Chicago almost five years. I’d gotten into most of the major publications, but it hadn’t been easy, and I certainly hadn’t reached the point where editors were coming to me asking for pitches. This project, I knew, would fuel story ideas. Plus, I loved Chicago, and the chance to immerse myself in the city, paid, sounded almost decadent.
The payoff was in becoming a Chicago expert. So during the pen-freezing, finger-numbing winter of 2014, I toured 60 hotels, ate double dinners at night, developed a taste for whiskey in Chicago bars and lost a lot of sleep. At the end, I’d soaked in Chicago for more than 10 weeks. As I’d hoped, I had a notebook of story ideas to pitch to local, regional and national publications. And the cache of having a guidebook to my name frequently garnered me an assignment, opening doors to more work.
But it’s the unexpected and, frankly, quirky work that’s come my way that makes me want to continue updating my guidebook for as long as I’m asked. In the last year:
– A video game company asked me to write a booklet on Chicago to use as their recruitment manual.
– A tourism association asked me to spend two days traveling to eight pizzerias as a pizza judge in their “Pizza Wars” competition.
– An international wine business approached me to help them come up with story ideas.
– Another tourism association asked me to speak on a panel about travel writing/blogging.
In my freelance career, I’ve long recognized the pattern that comes with new work. First, there’s the giddy excitement of landing a new project. Then, there’s the grounded and often less than enjoyable reality of actually doing the work. But it’s this next stage that I think I love the most—the rewarding aftershocks that follow a job well done. They’re a pleasant surprise, and as a restless freelancer, they give me the adventure I crave.