How I learnt to sell my freelance writing

To work as a freelance journalist, learning to hustle is part of the job

This piece was originally presented orally at Hakaya’s “Lesson Learned” storytelling night in Beirut in November 2018.

When I was 15 years old, I worked at the newsagent’s in the English village I grew up in.

Every Saturday morning, it was my job to stack the newspapers, keep the chocolate bars piled high, and nod and smile at various stories of village gossip — roadworks here, sheep breeding there, that sort of thing.