We went out last week to see several members of the Crucial Minutiae in a panel discussion led by Courtney E. Martin at the 92Y Tribeca on making it as a freelance writer—and one of the first things we learned was that the sense of solidarity that comes from being in a writer's group can be critical. "I'm in a writer's group, I'm writing," Joie Jager-Hyman said, describing the way her attitude had shifted. "OK, I'm a writer." (Jager-Hyman was also adjusting to journalism after years of graduate school which "in so many ways," she recalled, "made my writing worse.")

Memoirist (and occasional mediabistro.com instructor) Kimmi Auerbach told the audience of aspiring writers about the power of plunging into new territory, "risking not knowing what you're doing in order to get to a new place." She revealed how the first version of the proposal she sent out for her memoir, The Devil, The Lovers, & Me, had been rejected by editors because they thought she came across as "unlikable" and "whiny," which forced her to reevaluate the stories she was telling about her life—and more importantly, she added, the stories she was not telling. And Kate Torgovnick spoke the freedom that came from freelancing instead of working on one magazine's staff: "I can write for any audience now," she said, "not just women 18-35."

Our favorite quote, though, may have come from Theo Gangi. Our notes are somewhat scattered, and we cannot recall the complete context, but we believe it had something to do with starting out, and the days before the discipline to just sit and write fully kicked in: "My agenda was to make sure nothing pissed me off before I hit the computer."