Freedom of Choice

freelance n.

1. The freedom to poke cool ideas with a sharp stick.

   It baffles me that some freelancers don’t like to find their own story ideas. Chasing down ideas and writing them up is great sport.

    For example, after Dorval International Airport metastasized into Montreal-Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport, I wondered, “Who oversees the naming of airports? Are there no laws?” The International Civil Aviation Organization told me, “It’s a free-for-all.”

   Intrigued, I pitched an airport names article to one of my editors. “Why sure!” he said.

The Havana Jose Marti International Airport is named after a great Hispanic writer

   I discovered that airport names are portals into history. Often, like archeological sites, names and the history they tag lie buried beneath successive people and events. For example, an airport named after aviation pioneer John Moisant in 1940 is now named after a legendary jazz musician, giving us the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The Liverpool airport was renamed in 2001 to honor John Lennon.

Some airports are named after musicians

   Great airport names include Chuck Yeager (first person to break the sound barrier), Jorge Chávez (first person to fly across the Alps), Sikorsky (legendary helicopter designer), Chhatarpati Shivaji (founded a Hindu Kingdom), Charles Darwin (penned the principles of natural selection) and Mother Teresa (nun to the destitute).

   Less desirable is the sycophantic naming of airports after politicians. Some offend: Ronald Reagan (Washington) fired 11,000 air traffic controllers. John Diefenbaker (Saskatoon) destroyed Canada’s Avro Arrow fighter jet program. I find the scurrying hypocrisy of the US Central Command changing the Saddam International Airport to Bagdad International Airport absolutely delicious. (The United States was once dictator Hussain’s most powerful friend and generous benefactor.)

 

A name change begins the rewriting of history

   Editors prescribe some dizzyingly fun topics. "Wanna write about truck tire treads?" "Er, lovely, boss!" but regular doses of my own ideas is medicine I can take anytime.

Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014

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Space junk?

   Like the fiery first notes from a Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar solo, a great story lead, that first paragraph, will grab readers’ attention, pull them through the door and compel them to read further. It sells the article.

   The writer’s first judge is his editor. I wrote this daring lead for a 1999 story on Toronto’s Pearson Airport. My editor loved it:

   “The enormous symmetries of Terminal New are irresistible, their slender forms reminiscent of a spaceport hailing travelers from other worlds. Once built, it will be the centerpiece of a massive modernisation intended to meet the 21^st Century needs of Canada’s largest hub.”

Pearson Airport (GTAA)

   A few years later I wrote another Pearson piece for a different editor, and reused my 1999 lead. This guy choked on it. “Were you on drugs when you wrote this?” Ever the Mercenary Pen, I rotated the lead 180 degrees, from inviting my readers into the future to dragging them 150 years into the past. I wrote:

   “The size, symmetries and architectural innovation of Lester B. Pearson International Airport’s new Terminal 1 – the vastness of the main departure hall is intended to recapture the grandeur of a Victorian train station – make it an impressive new addition to the Toronto landscape.”

Terminal redevelopment (GTAA)

    Surprisingly often, the editor is right. But I still rate the 1999 lead as one of my favourites, and the 2004 retro-re-write, which ed#2 gobbled up, as B.O.R.I.N.G.

 Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014

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The five-year story

    In 1999 I approached The Gazette, Montreal’s English daily newspaper, with a request to profile their printing plant maintenance operation. “Yes,” they said, “but let’s do it after we’ve moved into our new building. Call us in a year for an update.” I did. “Call us in another year.” I did. “Give us another year. The building isn’t finished.”

   This yearly ritual continued until, on a bitterly cold December 17, 2003, I finally got my cook's tour. I climbed over the printing presses. I saw the mailroom, where extra sections and ads are inserted in the newspapers. I learned about equipment maintenance. My story ran in the February 2004 issue of Machinery & Equipment MRO magazine and I received payment that May.

   Most of my projects are research-ready, but there is usually one or two in the queue that will take months to set up. That would be painful for a new writer with a hungry wallet, but full-time freelancing isn’t about quick cash. It’s a long-haul operation, the patient accumulation of projects, wisdom, client magazines, credibility and pay. Before you know it, you’ll have published a thousand articles and wonder where in the world the years went.

Copyright © Carroll McCormick 2014