When you think of a writing sample, think example instead. A sample of and example could be defined differently but for all intents and purposes, they seem about the same. Drafting a review, article, essay, letter, document or any type of content makes me a writer. Publishing, posting and/or finalizing for payment makes me an author. Drafting and publishing this purely for the purpose of providing a sample to some person or entity in the future proves many things about my experience and education as an author or freelance writer. Those of course are proofs that the reader must conclude on their own if they’d like. Of course, those things may not matter much depending on the reason they’d be willing to read this sampled writing in the first place.
Editors and publishers are what come to mind as the would-be readers of these words. If you’re reading this and have another title, it doesn’t mean you should stop reading. This particular example could be considered an article, an introduction or just basic proof that I do, indeed, have some knowledge of the English language and it’s massive demands of grammar and punctuation. Unfortunately though, when writing a generic sample, choosing the voice to write with becomes a challenge. Do I write as an opinion giver to show off how detailed I might be when writing a review? Do I write as a narrator in the hopes that the example provides some talent toward story writing or journalism? Do I write as a teacher so that my capabilities are clear if the reader is looking for content that instructs and directs and/or answers questions? With all of the many options a writer would have normally, the choices become much more vast without a specific project or subject at hand. Generally speaking, writing in general is not easy. To be specific, it’s generally the audience that matters.
Writing without an audience is not authoring, it’s journaling and many 12 year old’s have journaled millions of words. Anne Frank proved that a writer may become an author at anytime. Just as a poet may become a songwriter at any time. It all depends on the audience and how long the audience chooses to stay. A book for instance may gain an audience by the cover, the catchy title, the price or even the printer or publisher. Poems are often written and then restructured to have the best lines at the beginning for this reason. Songs take the best lyrics as the chorus. Journalism is more about marketing when you think of the likely hood of a story making the front page without a title or caption that speaks to the audience of everybody. Writing is a hobby but most authors, poets and songwriters have always been writers.
Becoming an author isn’t all that difficult by that definition. Technically, it would only require a writer to have a publisher or editor read what they have written. Even if those words are rejected, it’s still an authored piece of work, but perhaps, written or presented to the wrong audience member. To become a successful writer, it requires the writer to not only engage an audience but somehow to convince them to continue reading. A talented and successful author has an audience that stays until the end. Depending on what the project is and where it’s presented, the beginning and end may be very far apart leaving all sorts of opportunity to bore a member of the audience and lose readers one at a time. Projects may be laid out to have chapters, headlines or other breaks if you will to let the reader go to the concession stand without leaving the lobby. Text books are masterfully written in this way with the hopes that any would be student is curious enough to see what is next rather than losing all hope with learning at all. The chorus of a song seems to jump right in at the point where lyrics begin to get a little testy or off path reminding the audience what it was that initially caught their attention to begin with before heaping on an irrelevant verse. Choosing words carefully and constructing sentences into paragraphs that get the reader all the way to the end may seem impossible without a main idea, subject or intent, but it can be done. Generally, of course.
Writers seeking an audience these days have every opportunity to have their words read simply by posting responses on reddit for any number of subjects. The proof of authorship comes in the form of the thanks and praise when good advice is given and being reported and shamed when the advice is bad. Either way though, you know it was read. And many times, it’s not difficult to know that it was read all the way through to the end. Reddit does have compensation in many forms including would be freelance writers called contributors however, those writings wouldn’t seem appropriate I’m sure as a writing sample even if one was paid to write them. Sampled writing to be an influencer possibly but this generic piece would have to be read by the seekers of freelance writers to be called a success. Admittedly though, pure laziness was adhered to when putting this together. Had I put in the effort to research, I may have sampled out some writing about why freelance writers and ghost writers aren’t called authors. I intend to be compensated for that one though so generally, the effort in the research would show in the outcome in the end because of course it’s no longer just an example of sampled writing.