In the last 24 hours, journalists across Twitter seem to have chosen their sides in a battle that has internally inflected many of us for as long as we’ve been writing: should we voluntarily write for free or is that exploitation? And as a journalist who has built her portfolio on voluntary writing, and an editor of various student-led publications working with developing journalists, it seems only fair to share the view that many of us younger writers have opted for.

For some, writing is a form of therapy. A chance to vent, offer your opinion, and hope to make a little difference to someone reading. If you’re good at writing, or simply have a passion for it, this develops into journalism, as you source stories and create content. And for many journalists, including myself, this is the part we love. But when it comes to pitching and publishing, the part we love gets side-lined in order to try and sustain our passions into work opportunities.

Pitching is hard. And it takes far too much of the time we’d rather spend doing other things. Whether you’re suffering from a creative block, or just don’t have the time to dedicate to emailing hundreds of editors who may not even read your pitch, and probably won’t reply, it’s no surprise that pitching places that will accept your story, because of the fact you’re writing for free and they don’t have to fit you into a budget, is a much easier and stress-free scenario.

And so many student (and other) publications work like that. They exist just to give you the chance to write, not to exploit you or make money from your words. Building a portfolio also seems necessary for any career step in the journalism industry, including pitching to a big editor. If you have no writing to back yourself up, how can you expect them to trust your hypothetical articles?

Whilst writing for free does not necessary mean a long term solution for many of us, it’s a now solution. A chance to get our words out during a pandemic, to write alongside studying or a full-time job in another industry. For me, and so many others on the Empoword team, writing for a publication like this has built a network, gained some status, and provided us with a platform to do what we enjoy, without the worry of invoices and pitches and rejections.

And that’s not to say we don’t deserve pay. We definitely do.

But, maybe we’re not writing for the pay. Maybe there’s more to journalism than just how much you’re making from your words. From the views I’ve seen on Twitter, it seems the younger generation of journalists, the ones who may not have contacts yet, who don’t have salaries to fall back on, who just want to get their words out and make something of themselves, completely agree. They’re the ones supporting each other through the big scary world of breaking into media during a pandemic. They’re the ones defending themselves against some of the more well-established journalists who think writing for free is a form of exploitation and should therefore be cancelled.

Writing for free isn’t a sin. It’s an opportunity. One we’re just trying to make the most of.

Contributing voluntarily to innovative, collaborative digital platforms like this one is not the same as an editor cheekily stealing your pitch, or a national offering you two weeks work experience without bothering to cover your expenses let alone suggesting you deserve a little more. It’s not about a big name stealing your investigative, ground-breaking work without offering you anything in return (mainly because many of us who are writing for free aren’t at the stage of any ground-breaking writing yet, but that doesn’t mean we won’t one day be). It’s about knowing your worth, while just trying your hardest.

If you needed even more excuses to try writing for free to make your career break before you find something sustainable and more permanent, Beth Kirkbride, founder of The Indiependent, and two of Empoword’s editors neatly express:

Meghna Amin

Featured image Markus Winkler via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.

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