Interview with a Freelancer: Lawrence Nyveen, Editor, Writer, Researcher, and Teacher
This interview was originally published on 11 March 2009.
You can contact Lawrence “Laurie” Nyveen at nyveen at gmail dot com, and find him at:
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: What type of freelance work do you do?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: I teach two to four courses a year at Concordia. Most of my other freelance is editing, research, or fact-checking, although I do occasionally get the odd byline. I also do home and small-office consulting on Mac installations. For fun, or when work is slow (i.e. the last year for me), I work on screenplays.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: What types of screenplays? Have you sold any?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN:I’ve written a war movie, a fantasy/comedy in the vein of “Willow” or “Shrek”, a dark comedy about religion, belief, and Darwinism, and a historical biopic I’m working on with a producer now. I’m all over the map….
I co-wrote one short script that was filmed in the Bay Area, but the novice director hated what he did so much, he never edited the footage into a final product. A second short was optioned, but the director got funding to do a feature and dropped the short.
No money, yet, so you can’t say I’ve sold anything.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: How long have you been freelancing?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: I got a graduate diploma in journalism in May 1993, worked full-time at Reader’s Digest for six months, then entered the freelance world. I was editor of Netsurfer Digest from 1994 to 2006.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: Full time or part time?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: Part time. My girlfriend/wife has always had a “real” job, so I’ve been the stay-at-home dad who works when he can. My kids are now 14, 11, and 8.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: Do you have any tips for freelancers who are also taking care of the kids? I assume it’s probably different at different ages, like before and after they start school, and when they start needing to be driven places constantly.
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: I’ve had ridiculously good kids, so maybe my experiences don’t apply generally, but….
I found that working with kids up to the age of six months is easy. Wear the kid in a shoulder harness or something and their happy and quiet. At six months, though, they become mobile and it’s a handful. You can get work done in short snatches by putting them in a playpen or something, but that always made me feel guilty, like I was imprisoning them.
Once the kids are in child care or school, of course, they’re reasonably independent, even when home – at least mine are. It’s almost like not having kids at all.
Sure, you have to make lunches, suppers, and drive kids around, but everybody does. It’s easier for freelancers to do those chores, I find, because our schedule is often less rigid than a typical 9-5 job.
As long as you can schedule interviews around your schedule, it’s easy. For me.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: Can you describe a typical, or at least recent, project for us?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: The last course I taught is called “Computerized Data Accessing”, but should really be called “Computer Assisted Reporting”. I teach journalism students how to use the Net as a tool rather than as an appliance, how to use spreadsheets and databases to analyze data, and throw in a primer on statistics for the innumerate. You can see the course here: http://nyveen.surfzen.com/319/index.html
My current contract is pretty silly. I brought to life a dead G4 (with a new mobo battery) and I’m transferring files to the owner’s newer computer. I also have to figure out why her printers won’t print.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: So you also do some computer consulting/repair. Do you find this kind of work feeds back into your freelance work?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: Not really. I need to stay on top of trends/issues for both jobs so there’s some synergy there, but nothing directly crosses over.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: About how much of your time do you spend on the business side, and how much on creating?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: I try to spend 20% of a week hustling for work, although these days I have much more time to hustle.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: Why is that?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: Because there’s no work. :O
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: What is the most important piece of advice you could give to someone starting out or transitioning into your specialty?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: My teaching position came through connections.
Do you remember Matt Friedman in the IPG? Matt was a tech journalist for the Montreal Gazette, but he also taught the computer-based courses in journalism at Concordia – the department that gave me my graduate degree. I was in California when I first joined the IPG, but I got to know Matt on our mailing list and off.
We moved back to Montreal in 1997, and I met Matt in person, which was a funny moment because we both wore baseball caps, black jeans, and black Converse high-tops, even though we’d never seen each other before.
Matt asked me to guest lecture on writing for the Web in one of his classes. I did that, and when another part-time faculty member moved away, a spot to teach DTP opened up. I applied and got the job.
My suggestion, then, is network, network, network. Don’t be afraid to revisit old haunts for new work. Just like marketers say that it’s easier to keep an old customer than find new one, you’re always going to get most of your work from your established connections than you will from cold-call pitches.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: What’s your favorite part of your work?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: I like the flexible hours. I’m useless as a human being between 3:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Freelancing lets me shift those hours later in the evening if I have to.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: Curious, why are you useless as a human being during those hours? 
Is it taking care of the kids (definitely not useless as a human being, maybe completely unproductive as a freelancer)? Your brain is just fried then?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: My brain is completely fried. I can’t think. I usually do spend those hours annoying my kids, or doing homework with them, or cooking, or whatnot. I at least enjoy those hours with my family. If I need to, I can get back to work at night, usually by 9:00 or so.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: What would you rather farm off on someone else?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: I don’t have such a load that this is a concern, but my most hated task is correcting DTP assignments. It’s so tedious to check Quark Xpress docs for correct margins, font sizes, and other minute details over and over.
DEE-ANN LEBLANC: Anything else you’d like to share with Freelance Survivors?
LAWRENCE NYVEEN: Anybody got any work for me?
