On Bleacher Report, Writing for Free, and the Life of a Writer Trying to « Make It »

Leo Howell's Blog

Deadspin published a guest article today from a former Bleacher Report intern and writer, naming many of the company’s flaws as it pertained to his quest to become a professional sports journalist.

There is some vulgar language included (It’s Deadspin, after all), but if you’d like to read the article, you can do so here.

One of the main issues the author brings up is his incredible amount of effort he put into doing all of the things that Bleacher Report asked him to do, and getting paid next to nothing to do it. There are other stories and things mentioned, including referencing the writers B/R hired during the past few years, but the overall scheme of this article, and many complaints against B/R, is the unpaid model which has helped drive the website to the top of the sports media food chain.

The idea of writing for free…

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What a Maroon.

Annamal house.

I’ve never felt so courted as I did when colleges started sending me and my sister letters and brochures during our senior year of high school. At one point, mid-fall, I hauled a stack of mailers that was nearly three feet tall out to the recycling bin. Whereas I imagine previous generations of women agonized over the finding the perfect husband at 18, my classmates and I agonized over finding the perfect college. For those of us on the honors/AP/IB fast track of elite education in Atlanta, it was a kind of holy grail we chased after, plowing through chemistry homework while our classmates smoked joints at Lake Burton.

I went into college sincerely believing it was going to be the absolute best four years of my life: a distillation of the most engaging and empowering moments from high school, minus all the stuff I didn’t like. We would have…

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Ohio Meat Loaf

A Response to ‘Women Against Feminism.’

iwantedwings

Imagine this:

The year is 2014. You are a white Western woman. You wake up in the morning in a comfortably sized house or flat. You have a full or part-time job that enables you to pay your rent or mortgage. You have been to school and maybe even college or university as well. You can read and write and count. You own a car or have a driver’s licence. You have enough money in your own bank account to feed and clothe yourself. You have access to the Internet. You can vote. You have a boyfriend or girlfriend of your choosing, who you can also marry if you want to, and raise a family with. You walk down the street wearing whatever you feel like wearing. You can go to bars and clubs and sleep with whomever you want.

Your world is full of freedom and possibility.

Then you…

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How to be a writer in the year 2014

Riding in lifeboats with ghosts.

hannah brencher.

With permission, I have posted the email below.

Afternoon Hannah,

I’m moving to Athens, GA in three weeks. I know absolutely no one. I’m taking out a loan to start graduate school after I worked so hard to pay my way through undergrad to be debt free. And I’m going into a field I’m not 100% sold out on. And when I leave this Texas town that I’ve called home for the past four years I’m leaving behind my best friend. Only, he doesn’t realize it. He ended our relationship right after graduation in May because he doesn’t have his life figured out and cannot ask me to wait around. We were friends before we ever dated and have remained friends even after. But for whatever reason, the guy who shared my common desire to talk deep things and look beyond the surface level, he isn’t that person anymore…not with…

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Why you don’t need to be rich to be a cultural tourist, and why it’s probably better not to be (really!)

Picnic at the Cathedral

I remember the exact moment: after a morning of winding our way uphill through the medieval Albayzín neighborhood of Granada in Southern Spain, we reached the San Nicholas Viewpoint. We picnicked while taking in the enchanting view of the Alhambra and surrounding mountains and I mentioned to HOB that, according to our guide book, this view is Bill Clinton’s favorite sight in Europe. And somehow our idle chit-chat crystallized it for me–I have everything I want. I spent the entire day yesterday exploring the Alhambra. There’s nothing about this experience that would be better if I were rich, famous or a former American president. 

Ever since having this rather obvious, but nonetheless life-changing illumination, I’ve become convinced that not only are we not missing out by traveling on a modest budget, but we are far better off.  A great example is the last day from our trip this spring to…

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anatomy of songs

Wrong Hands

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You are a bear

Hello, I am a bear

You are a bear. You wake up in a dimly lit cave. Your eyes are adjusted to the low light, so you are able to see the textures of your surroundings. You are about to begin a new day as a bear. There will be many obstacles, mental and physical, for you to overcome. You might find something important. You might meet someone important. You might get hurt. You might eat something. It is up to you. As a bear.

Your fur is warm but dirty.

The cave floor is soothing. Cool.

Your surroundings motivate you to…

• …get up and begin your day as a bear.
• …sleep a little longer.
• …stretch your achy bear body.
• …pretend you are something other than a bear.
• …violently run into the cave wall face first.

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