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I was astonished the first time I visited The Outpost: dim lights gleaming from every corner made the ambiance cool and comfy, the sound of the band’s music playing from the loud speakers were pleasing, and the surprising loud applause from a small crowd.

The bar wasn’t as big as I had expected. I was sitting with my friends at one of the tables, nursing our bottles of Red Horse beer. We were there for a little celebration. I brought them the news that I had landed a job. They would have wanted me to sing on stage, but I didn’t have the enthusiasm. I had been happily musing of being hired as a content writer. My dream had finally come true; though it’s not exactly the dream that I really wanted: to become a fictionist or a creative writer. But at least I can be called a legitimate writer from now on, I thought.

I had given up my passion for music since I came in Cebu. I had left my band in Davao to look for a decent job. Even though we used to be a sensation, it left me with no choice. My band hadn’t progressed into a money-making venture. That is why even a prod or a coax from my friends wouldn’t give me the excitement to sing on stage. I had already parlayed my songwriting skills into becoming a real writer.

Things got pretty well when I started to write for a living. We were given different sorts of topics like Travel and Accommodation, Real Estate and Properties, Internet and Web Services, among others. With these articles, I can generate suitable income on a 15-day basis. Prior to this, my earnings as a freelance movie-review writer were measly half of the minimum wage.

After a week the pressure had begun. With us ten writers, each had to write 3,500 words a day. That was seven 500-word articles.. The pressure wasn’t about the quantity but the quality. How can you possibly send 350 mediocre sentences in a day? But that was how they actually did it. The problem was I didn’t want to send articles that needed further editing and revising. It’s hard to suffer the quality in turn for the required quantity of articles. I didn’t have problems relating two different topics on one article. In our company we were assigned to relate a topic–like Travel and Accommodation–to a product a certain website sells. I was trapped between writing my own voice and the quantity the company required me to do. You have to follow what the clients want.

And worse, you even consider your editor as your enemy. You cannot write freely. You cannot write your own choice of words. You cannot let your words flow smoothly.

That’s when I realized that content writing is totally different thing. You are being put in front of a PC like a robot and programmed to run your fingers through the keyboard a minimum of 3,500 words for ten hours. You cannot think for yourself. You cannot even expect answers when you ask about the real function of a Search Engine Optimization company. Writers were never briefed how the company works. As I’ve said, we were programmed to write. I thought that was how clients desperately needed millions of text for their e-commerce websites to be filled. I later understood what SEO is all about after I left the company.

Bring a content writer you cannot apply your creative side. You can’t write your own opinion. Your words must all be based on research. There were many occasions that my editor would send back my articles and let me change each. I started to understand that when you engage yourself in the corporate world, your love for writing will start to fade away. You just write to survive.

I often thought that content writing should have a degree course, so that SEO companies wouldn’t have a hard time satisfying their clients. Instead of hiring Journalism and Mass Communication graduates, they should have hired Web Content degree holders. A Journalism graduate, of course, would love to travel from one place to another to cover a good story. Mass Communication graduates would love to communicate with people through his/her spoken or written words; from their own thoughts, from their own liberty of expression. They could have settled for a more honorable job than a content writer.

To achieve an apt content, you just have to research from the websites that appear on the search results list on Google. The contents of these websites are written by people who have the same job as you do. You cannot tell if those are reliable or not. I even found some grammar mistakes and awkward sentences. Even Wikipedia.com would indicate that the content of the site needed revision and further research because some of the pharagraphs are disputable. How can one possibly write an article which is based on sites that are disputable? To gather facts, a writer should spend more time on research from reputable sites. You cannot just write to get facts from Google.com or Ezinearticles.com just to make an article. You can’t engage on silly subterfuges just to entice your readers.

SEO is all about increasing website traffic on the Internet. The ones that are on top of the search results list are the ones that have the most traffic. Their job is to make sure that the words or phrases on the search box on Google should include in the article. Keywords such as Baby’s Clothes, Jeans, Jewelries, must be written three times in one article to make it to the top on Google search results list. This is a marketing strategy to help clients sell their products, to be able for them to hit the target market. In short content writing is all about business. Well, nothing is free nowadays, of course.

But when you start to trade your passion for money, you can never be happy. The real essence of writing is about what you love to do. You love your craft. You don’t want to engage in silly tricks just to regale your readers. Mario Puzo had said it well on his memoir, The Godfather Papers: “There is such poverty in everyday life. In writing you have a shield against an integrating force. You have special powers upon the materials things in life.” You might as well write a book for years and sell millions, or write an essay for a year for a Palanca Award, create yourself a name and win prize money.

I was still in a state of ambivalence between how to survive and how to pursue my love for writing. Now I realized I still need to survive. That is why I’m still currently writing content for websites; though I write as freelance. This time there’s no editor. No more enemy. I have gained experience from my previous company that I can use.

I write at Internet cafes whenever I have assignments, with a beer at my side. Although I cannot express my mixed metaphors fully, at least I can apply my creative side in a brief way for readers to have a quick look between the lines—like catching a falling star. I can flip back the pages of my abandoned short stories when I have free time. I can even write more of them, and choose one for a Palanca entry. Philippine Literature is not like the foreign novels you see at bookstores.

Buy no means I will discontinue my passion in creative writing. I can even go back at The Outpost and see the gleaming lights, listen to the hi-quality sound of the bands, and witness the admirable appreciation of the crowd. I can meet real artists, even sing on stage.