An Interview with Content Producer Plntpolice

Hello and welcome to the fourth of several articles highlighting interviews with some the AC Content Producers whom I find most intriguing. You'll hear from writers whom many of you already know well and those who may still be unknown to you as they tell about their achievements and talk about their lives and writing.

All in all, I think you'll find an engaging mix of seven very interesting AC CPs who have very good things to share about life and writing. Read on!!

Introduction to an Interview with Plntpolice

Plntpolice has built her life on what she loves and then watched it crash around her. Still, writing has always been the heart of her "secret identity."

Hear Plntpolice talk about her life and sorrows and about her newly budding writing career. Be prepared and stand by to cheer her on. [Links take you to some of Plntpolice's articles.]

Plntpolice Tends Her Garden

Plntpolice: I majored in journalism in college, but never finished my degree. Right after I left school, I briefly worked for a chain of small weekly newspapers, but that's about it for actual writing job experience. I think that I've always thought of myself as a writer despite being a real slacker about making this vision come true.

When I was in my 20's, I remember sending a short article to a magazine just once. The sad truth is I picked the magazine because it was of poor quality and I thought their standards might be low enough that I had a chance. My article was rejected, but came back with a kind, encouraging note. So, I wasted no time in trying again; just twenty some years later, I wrote another article. Talk about a go-getter!

Somehow my secret identity as a writer persisted deep inside, but raising my kids, working, eventually being a single mother, and just living life with its ups and downs always came before my writing. About ten years ago, I took a chance and submitted a human interest story to my city's daily paper. It was accepted and I was thrilled. I'll never forget looking at my byline in a major city newspaper and getting paid $75. Despite the success, I wrote very sporadically and ended up selling an article about once a year. Five of my first six articles were accepted, but I still didn't do more.

I've worked in horticulture for most of my career. For eight years I ran a growing house at a large public conservatory. I developed arthritis, so I left that and opened my own small business doing landscape design and contracting. I loved the work, but owning a business isn't easy and I barely scraped out a living. About five years ago, I simply couldn't manage the physical side of the job, and since I wasn't making a decent living anyway, I gave up my business and took a dreadful job as a telephone fundraiser. Financially it allowed me to get by, but it is a brutal way to make a living.

Last August, I had hip replacement surgery. The doctor crushed my sciatic nerve in the retractors, and my life crashed. I've lived essentially as an invalid since then, getting by on disability, unable to work or drive. Living alone in a two story house, I must contend with steps and so I spend most of my time upstairs, and the computer is my major outlet. I'll probably never return to the job I had, and I need to find a way to supplement my meager Social Security Income.

Someone sent me a link to Helium, and the article quality looked embarrassingly amateurish, but I was willing to do anything. Before I could submit my first article there, I saw AC mentioned on their forum. The first articles I saw here were better than Helium's, but frankly, no prize winners, so I felt I could do as well, and took a chance on submitting. I quickly grew to enjoy AC and found better and better writers as I learned my way around. There are many people here whose work I respect.

I'm not prolific; since February I've only had 16 articles published. I know some of my friends secretly pity me when I tell them how little I make here, but I truly enjoy the freedom of writing about whatever strikes my fancy, and being free of deadlines and pressure. AC is giving me the chance to develop my skills and find out what works and what doesn't.

Last week I got a new type of leg brace, and I have healed to the point that I should soon be able to drive again. I still have to deal with degenerative arthritis, but I've recovered about 60% of what was lost to nerve damage.

Yes, I do need to move on with my life by finding a more lucrative way to earn money. I'd love to ghostwrite memoirs and even tell my own life story. Frank McCourt is an inspiration to me; he was up in years when he finally got it together to write Angela's Ashes.

Working from home and setting my own schedule is ideal. I foresee a future where I can regain more daily independence, become a better writer, keep going with AC and also find other venues. Recently a friend was introducing three other close friends and me to someone. She mentioned each of our occupations, and ended with, "...and Rose is a writer." I was briefly startled, but very pleased. I'd never heard anyone say that about me before. I guess I really am a writer now.

Follow-up

Codie: Many writers on AC are themselves attempting to augment inadequate income and establish freelance writing careers and they, like you, are using AC to develop their skills and find out what works and what doesn't. Would you tell us about how to get newspapers articles sold and also what plans you have for up-coming AC content that "strikes [your] fancy?

"Plntpolice: I was thrilled to get my articles published in the city's daily paper...[But] because of the sad economic conditions papers are facing today, and especially our city paper, they no longer have much of a budget for freelance work, and the editor I dealt with sent me a nice email last year with his regrets.

The newspaper job I got when I left college simply consisted of the most boring type of small community reporting: wedding notices, sewer commission meetings, school board meetings, etc. definitely the type of entry level work that qualifies as paying your dues. And then the subsequent jobs I held weren't related to journalism, so the dues were for naught.

My most successful article here [on AC] was my first, about Climbing Hydrangeas, and it has stayed near the top in Google for a couple months and still racks up the pageviews. None of my other stuff comes close. I've enjoyed writing on garden topics. I regret ever writing anything here as exclusive and I plan to put the few I did submit as non-exclusive on another site.

I also like the jewelry and gemstone topics, but they do less well than any others. After researching...the new arthritis drug, I think I'll do a few more medical articles, maybe more arthritis topics. The old saw about writing what you know still has validity, and sorry to say, arthritis is what I know! Every time I eat at a restaurant, I'll probably write a review if there's anything worth saying. That's always an easy idea....