Wudan Yan (@wudanyan on IG) reached out to me over the summer saying she was starting a fact-checking agency. I had long wanted to speak with fact checkers about fact-checking (and I plan to speak with more), but this seemed a good opportunity since Wudan wants to drum up some attention to new business, Factual.
Nieman Storyboard, with a story penned by Madeline Bodin, gave Wudan a nice bit of attention and, by extension, important attention on facts, this in an age when many people are deeply distrustful of media and people can’t even agree on what a fact is.
She had the piece coming out. She wanted to talk about it. I was like, sure, sounds good. Here we are.
In this episode we chat about her lack of a 3 a.m. (or 3 p.m.) voice, the valorization of over-reporting, efficient interviewing, and suspiciously golden turmeric.
She’s a freelancer and she is not a struggling freelancer in the ways that many of us identify as a struggling freelancer, which is to say: we po’.
Jenni, @jenni_gritters, along with her co-pilot on The Writers’ Co-op Podcast Wudan Yan, are thriving. Through strategy and rigor, Jenni is a six-figure earner, this during the pandemic, this when many writers are struggling to make a go of it.
She turned her skill into money, which allows her to double down on her skill and do more projects that are more personal-driven.
I like to think of some content/branded writing gigs like when Jake Gyllenhaall does a blockbuster movie so that he can then do the art-house stuff he probably wants to do. Book your Marvel movie, then go write your memoir. Haha.
“That was always my understanding that if you want to be a freelance journalist, you’re probably going to have to do a lot of things that you don’t want to do, so it creates time, space, and resources for you to dig into the things that you want to do.” — Wudan Yan
You know when an episode is especially juicy? Of course you do! and this is one of them.
Wudan Yan is a freelance superstar. You can find her on Twitter (an amazing follow) @wudanyan. She’s one of those wicked smaht people who breaks things down and makes things supah approachable and, damn, maybe you can make a go of it, too.
She’s a Seattle-based journalist and co-host of The Writer’s Co-op, a business podcast for writers. Wudan got internet famous for a blog post she wrote about chasing late fees for the $5,000 she was owed. Unfortunately this is the ugly side of freelancing, chasing late payments like Pac-Man on a ghost.
Instead of me linking up to so much of her incredible work, just go here and dig in. Get some coffee. Pour in some delicious vegan creamer into your coffee (I prefer Oatly’s barista creamer) and settle in for some world-class journalism, bruh.
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