I've been doing this writing thing for a while now; eight months to be exact. In my time here at Odyssey, I've worked with an amazing team. Our team here has grown and shrank right before my eyes. As we've lost some of the most passionate writers and editors, we've picked up some hard core, Odyssey-loving members too. I get what you're thinking, if you're even reading this, "anyone can write for Odyssey, you're not special." And yes, I understand that most people probably hear Odyssey and either think of Odysseus and their world literature class or the Odyssey online and their "open letters." So why even write for them?
The Odyssey gives you, the creator, the opportunity to write about anything and everything under the sun. Very rarely are topic ideas turned down for that very reason. So yes, there's about a million open letters and they vary in topics with a few probably about the same thing, but if you take the time to read them, you'll see that the writing is different. The approach is different. The authors are different.
"The Odyssey is an unreliable source for news information."
Ok, lets take a minute with that one. More of the articles are opinion based so the articles of that author will be a little biased. I'm not here to sell you anything or present todays news. I'm just here to write, but what I write about is important to me. What the other creators write are important to them. Odyssey has teams in every community and those teams write about what they deem important. So it may not be a CNN or FOX News, but it's not supposed to be. Odyssey is what you make it, if the creator wants to write more hard, factual based pieces then more power to them, but if they want to write about their day, you can do that too.
You won't agree with every article you read from Odyssey. Heck, even the writers for Odyssey don't, that's why there are so many, "In response to..." articles. Another beautiful factor about Odyssey, when we say that you can write about anything, you can. Everything we stand for here at Odyssey fosters unique perspectives from everyone around the country.
Odyssey isn't just some easy past time hobby either. It's a commitment. Most people join Odyssey for the title, but once they posses that and realize there are deadlines you have to meet and work you have to do, they back out. Odyssey creators have to write articles weekly, and in some cases, bi-weekly, to remain in good standing. Then a team of editors, who are also writers, will edit the articles and then they get published, then you start over for next week. It's a process, it's a routine, it's a job. There are chances to make money from Odyssey and, there are people doing it. This is more than just a silly little blog site where college students go to write if they aren't getting attention. This is one of the biggest social media platforms for online writing content. This is where you go to have your voice heard.
So if you're interested in hopping on the Odyssey train, I urge you to go online and apply, we'd love to have you.
