Freelance writer

From her Brooklyn, New York City apartment, 29-year-old Australian writer Georgia Clark is finally living her dream ““ but the journey to get there hasn’t always been smooth.

Currently working on her second and third novels, Ms Clark admits that life as a New York writer can be lonely and even drive her “cuckoo” at times.

“Writing is very isolating, and I’m a social person,” she says. “It’s a lot of alone time.”

Succeeding in the creative world, she says, is part sheer determination and part war of attrition.

“You do have to be willing to work hard and look at options like internships and working for free,” says Ms Clark.

“I’m a big believer in that you can manifest your own future,” she adds. “And I do get turned down from jobs and pitches, that’s the stuff you don’t see.”

Before making the move to New York in April this year, Ms Clark was based in Sydney where she freelanced for several magazines to pay the bills.

She describes her career as a continual search for opportunity even when that has led her to taking a step back in order to take a leap forward. She has even financed two of her own short films, indulging a passion for movie-making she’s had since childhood.

“I wanted to be a director first. I was watching a lot of Woody Allen movies funnily enough ““ [he] was a bit of a strange idol for a young girl,” she laughs.

The cost of financing her own projects was what eventually turned her off film, she adds.

“They cost me $15,000 each, which is kind of ridiculous. Writing was cheaper and easier to make money from.”

When Ms Clark saw an opportunity two years ago to intern at two of her favourite magazines, she jumped at the chance to apply. She was selected from scores of applicants for a month-long placement writing for Dazed and Confused and Yen magazines.

The opportunity was part of the V Raw creative internship program for young talent interested in fashion, music, media and the arts.

Although Ms Clark was already an established writer at the time, she says the internship came at a critical moment in her career.

“I was working at [music magazine] The Brag and then decided to strike out on my own as a freelancer, which was definitely a risk. The internship I got through V Raw was a wonderful experience,” she says.

“They were both magazines I really respected and it’s a good way of establishing contacts as well. Magazine journalists are always moving on and moving up, and when they do they’ll often take their freelancers with them,” she says. “One girl I worked for was the editor of Total Girl, later she moved on to Girlfriend and then Cleo.”

Throwing in her full time role in search of bigger challenges was a tough choice to make, says Ms Clark, but it paid off in the end.

“It took me a while to establish contacts, and it was hard. But I thought about what I really wanted to do, and I held out for it.”

Her second and third novels, like her first, will be aimed at a young female market. Her first novel, She’s With the Band, was published by Allen & Unwin Australia in May last year and forms part of the Girlfriend magazine fiction series.

“There are a lot of things I like about the teen audience. They’re so smart; and very sophisticated compared to previous generations,” says Ms Clark.

For aspiring writers, actively seeking out internships and building contacts is incredibly important, she says.

“You’re only ever as good as your last story, and I don’t think you should ever rest on your laurels. Being published once is not an all-access pass to future work ““ you can never really stop working.”

“I don’t think you’re ever too old to do it, as well.”