Alan Profiled in University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Website

Alan Guebert said he doesn’t think of his work as a job because a job sounds like something you have to do. He works because he wants to.

“I often describe myself as a nationally syndicated columnist who writes weekly on farm and food policy and politics for more than 70 newspapers in the United States and Canada. That’s on a good day,” he said. “On less-than-good days, I’m like every other journalist—looking for a good story while sweating out a looming deadline.”

Guebert said the best part about his work is the ability to work from home, write about whatever he wishes and mow the lawn whenever he wants in addition to the luxury to be able to read, read and read.

In fact, he believes he has excelled as a stay-at-home columnist due to his love of reading as well as his self-discipline.

“I have worked for myself for more than 25 years. That wouldn’t be remotely possible if I weren’t disciplined to go to my office every day, never fail, and work, work, work,” he said.

Guebert has had many experiences he feels are instrumental to his writing. He has traveled to and seen everything from New York to Alaska and Indiana to India. In addition, has also had the opportunity to work with exceptional editors.

“Any two-fisted mope can cut copy and a side a beef. It takes a professional, though, to edit a story and carve a filet,” he said.

Another important experience was knowing from the start the difference between writing for magazines and newspapers, a lesson he learned from a University of Illinois professor.

“The biggest difference, my professor would say, is time. A newspaper is the most important thing in your hand every morning for about an hour. Then you put it in the bird cage,” Guebert explained. “A magazine, on the other hand, had to be so well done that its reader permitted it to hang around for a week or a month, knowing that every time it was picked up, it would be enjoyable, worthy of their time, informative or pleasing.”

For the first 15 years of his career, Guebert wrote exclusively for magazines and never forgot his professor’s admonition: write it so well that it can stay on the kitchen table or coffee table a month and not get stale.

“That training, that style, is, I’m convinced, what got me and keeps me in newspapers,” he said. “The editors are getting magazine-quality writing for something they know will be wrapped around fish within 24 hours.”

Source: University of Illinois ACES Alan Guebert Profile

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