We’re so pumped about our conversation with Gabrielle Seunagal. Gabrielle is a Freelance writer & SEO copywriter and is also a content partner. Content partners help Voyage in so many ways from spreading the word about the work that we do, sponsoring our mission and collaborating with us on content like this. Check out our conversation with Gabrielle below.
Hi Gabrielle, thank you so much for sitting down with us again. For folks who might have missed our initial interview, can you start by briefly introducing yourself?
My name is Gabrielle Seunagal. I started my freelance writing career in January 2017, six months after I finished high school and moved away from home. Over the past several years, I’ve consistently poured my time, energy, and passion into growing and advancing my writing career. Starting a freelance writing career didn’t come without challenges or rough patches, but it’s something that I chose to stick with because I believed in my writing abilities and my passion for the craft. After surpassing the four-year mark in January 2021, I can look back and say all the groundwork and tough periods that I experienced during the very beginning stages of my work were worth it. I’m now determined to continue working hard and I look forward to what lies ahead of me in my career.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned throughout your freelance writing career?
Throughout my freelance writing career, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to never give up on my dreams. When I first launched my career in January 2017, I literally started from the ground up. I was 18-years-old, I didn’t have money stashed aside in savings, and I didn’t even have a laptop at the time. What I did have, however, was my determination to make freelance writing a real and viable career path for me. During the first few weeks of my writing career, I was working from my cell phone. I would type up articles on the Word Docs app and then submit them to my clients accordingly. I also remained very vocal online about my determination to become an established and successful freelance writer. Eventually, my being vocal about this led to one of my online followers mailing me a used laptop. The used laptop was a lifesaver because it allowed me to work on projects that I simply could not do with just a cell phone. After several weeks or months of working on the used laptop, I was able to save up enough money to purchase a new laptop of my own. Had I given up on my freelance writing career in early 2017 just because I didn’t have money saved or the standard equipment in the beginning, I never would have gotten to where I am today. That’s why not giving up on my dreams is the biggest lesson I’ve learned as a freelance writer.
How has working with different clients helped you grow as a writer?
Every client is unique with different projects, expectations, and guidelines. Hence, working with many clients over the years has helped the style, content, and quality of my writing evolve. Not all clients will have the same requirements or assignments. Some projects will be recurring, whereas others will be one-offs. Certain clients may want work delivered by a particular deadline, whereas others are more flexible. In order to grow as a writer and maintain my career, I’ve had to learn how to fill the needs of various clients who won’t all have the same expectations. In retrospect, I can say that my variety of clientele has allowed me to evolve into a more nuanced and flexible writer. Working with different clients has furthermore taught me how to balance and juggle different projects while also efficiently managing time.
What inspired you to start your freelance writing career?
The desire to make my voice heard was my biggest inspiration for starting my freelance writing career. Self-expression is something that I’ve always valued…and ironically, it’s something that I feel I missed out on during my childhood years. Therefore, I definitely believe that ensuring I have a voice…and a voice that others will listen to…served as a major inspiration for my freelance writing career. It also didn’t hurt that prior to 2017, I managed to get certain articles I wrote recreationally published online. In the period leading up to my freelance writing career’s inception, I told myself that if my articles were good enough to be published on different websites, I was good enough to get paid for my articles. I’ve found writing to be not only a great outlet for self-expression, but also a constructive means of conveying different messages, viewpoints, and stories.
What made you continue pushing forward in your career despite naysayers and critics?
My desire to prove myself right and prove my naysayers and critics wrong ultimately made me keep pushing forward in my writing career. In early 2017, I heard it all. Some people told me that there wasn’t money in a full-time freelance writing career. Others told me that I needed to “keep my day job” so that I could supplement my writing income. There were a lot of people who had different opinions and perspectives, but at the end of the day, I realized that the success or failure of my freelance writing career was up to me. I also knew that if I gave up on my writing, got a day job, or only pursued freelance writing half-heartedly, a part of me would always wonder what would have happened if I’d given it my all. Where I am today in my career is because I pushed forward in the earliest stages and put everything I had into; this happened despite me being 18-years-old, having no money saved up, and hearing a lot of people tell me that what I wanted to do wasn’t realistic.
What is your advice to other creatives pursuing nontraditional careers?
To all creatives pursuing nontraditional career paths, I would tell them to follow their hearts and do what feels right to them. This sounds like the biggest cliché ever, but it’s advice that I took when I started my writing career in 2017 and it paid off immensely. The folks who discourage creatives don’t have to live with the consequences of their bad advice. Failure is always a possibility, but so is success. I would strongly encourage all creatives who truly believe in what they’re doing to keep at it. Don’t give up, don’t let the naysayers determine your reality. Furthermore, always follow your instincts and don’t be afraid to get back up once you’ve been knocked down. In life, some of the biggest regrets that people have are not taking risks. It’s a tragedy to look back later in life and wonder “what if?” Finally, I would encourage creatives pursuing nontraditional careers to not be discouraged by the amount of time that may be necessary to achieve their goals. One way or another, the time will pass; it’s what you do with this time that ultimately counts.
What are your future career goals?
I have multiple future career goals. One of them is to write and publish a tell-all memoir detailing the story of my young adulthood and my journey as a freelance writer. I’ve also decided that my tell-all memoir will come later down the line once I’m more established in my writing career. Political speechwriting is another future career goal in my arsenal. Over the years, I’ve done a lot of writing about current and political events. Due to the consistency of this work and the understanding it’s given me about the nuances of politics, writing speeches for various U.S. politicians is a career goal I intend to achieve. Like my tell-all memoir, political speechwriting will happen later in my career after I’ve become a more established writer.
It was so great to reconnect. One last question – how can our readers connect with you, learn more or support you?
Readers are more than welcome to connect with me on my website: GabrielleWrites.com. Gabrielle Writes provides additional information about my work as a writer, my rates, how I got started, various interviews I’ve given, and more. On my website, I also regularly update my blog with different articles about lifestyle matters, current events, philosophy, and much more. Anyone who visits Gabrielle Writes can additionally take a look at links to my published work. what my clients have to say about me, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: GabrielleWrites.com
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/gabriellewritesX/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-seunagal-27a006134/
