Boston writing careers 101: What's a great local networking group for freelance writers?

Tracey Palmer, Chicks Who Write founder

Sorry, guys—the answer is Chicks Who Write, a networking group of professional women freelance writers based in the Greater Boston area.

The group was started about five years ago by Tracey Palmer, a freelance writer, editor, and project manager, after she left her job and began working from her home. She found that she missed the interactions with colleagues that her job had supplied. “A lot of other women felt the same way,” Tracey says, so five or six “founding chicks,” most with small children, began meeting over coffee once a month.

The Chicks provided one another more than just relief from the isolation that freelancers often feel. “We grumbled about editors, shared job leads, and gave each other pep talks,” Tracey says. Jane Whitehead, who has written for the Boston Globe, and is a regular contributor to Boston College Magazine and BC Law Magazine, always appreciates the opportunity to “share ideas, sources, contacts, frustrations, and successes” with the other Chicks, particularly those in her local chapter.

The group now has 85 members, representing print, radio, and broadcast journalism; as well as web writers and bloggers; SEO and social media experts; marketing communications and advancement writers; legal, science, and technical writing professionals; and authors of a variety of nonfiction, children’s literature, and romance novels.

Local chapters north and south of Boston meet once a month. (There is even a coed chapter in New Hampshire.) At any given meeting, questions and ideas are tossed out for anyone present to answer or pick up for their own use. The discussions range from how to price services and prepare contracts to advice on angles a story or book might take.

Special events open to all Chicks have included Linda Formicelli and Diana Burrell, co-authors of The Renegade Writer and Query Letters that Rock; life coach and author Hillary Rettig, discussing time management for creative professionals, Natalie Engler, a health and medical journalist, who presented a yoga class with writing exercises, and a panel of editors.

Jeri Zeder (who describes herself as a “recovering attorney”), and has written for the Boston Globe and other publications, turns to the Chicks for “solid advice based in real-world experience.” She points to the women in broadcasting event sponsored by the Chicks. Monica Brady Myerov, of National Public Radio, Elaine Grant, of New Hampshire Public Radio, and Monica Collins, syndicated columnist and host of the radio program “Ask Dog Lady,” described the differences between writing for radio and print, and "mastering the use of audio technology for reporting." Jane Whitehead was impressed with the panelists’ “insight into the challenges of compressing complex information into short sound bites.”

Her “virtual water cooler and some great lunch pals” is how Betsy Lawson, a 20-year communications veteran, part of the founding group, and organizer of the Chicks Northwest chapter, thinks of the Chicks. “As with any group,” she says, “you get out of it what you put into it. If I’ve got too much wok, I’m able to put a client in touch with another capable freelancer whom I can vouch for. Others, in turn, have returned the favor when they’re swamped.”

To find out about membership and the writing specialties represented in Chicks Who Write, email tracey@traceypalmer.com.

Recommended reading:
Books recommended by Chick Jeri Zeder include: The Renegade Writer, by Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell; The Art and Craft of Feature Writing, by William E. Blundell; and Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark.

Upcoming Mediabistro courses for freelancers (www.mediabistro.com):
“The Whole Freelancer,” a 4-week online course, beginning on July 23
“Breaking into the Glossies,” a 3-hour course in Boston on September 29

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