Freelance journalist, writer, screenwriter
Welcome!
You don’t need to be a writer to know that great writing always makes an impact. It keeps readers reading, communicates information with style, and does so efficiently (especially online). As a professional writer who enjoys working with words, I know how to frame ideas in a compelling, engaging manner—and I’ll help you do the same.
I’m Dara Colwell. I work as a writer, editor, consultant, translator, and teach professional writing and storytelling techniques at the University of Groningen.
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Services
As a writer, I am highly flexible and open to writing about almost everything. My talent is repositioning the camera, finding a different angle or take on a subject. I like to help clients tell stories with purpose, making what’s significant to them interesting and relevant to their audience.
In short: I shape dull, uninteresting text into something colorful, succinct and appropriate to your audience.
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I offer the following services:​
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Write Website Content
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Edit and Proofread Written Work
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Conduct Research and Interviews
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Write Journalism Articles
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Translate (Dutch to English)
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Teaching
My rates are competitive, plus I work hard to give a quick turnaround. If you’re interested in knowing more, email me or complete a consultation form!
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(new or based on what's there)
Journalism
I learned to be curious and observant early in life. I put these talents to good use by seeing what others often don’t. Understanding things in depth is what drives me professionally and in life--and my goal in writing, whatever form it takes, is to make people think.
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As a journalist, I am particularly interested in writing about the environment, human relationships (whatever form they take) and culture.
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The environment because it’s my first love and nature is my church.
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Relationships because they are moving and dramatic; everyone has a unique perspective and therefore, a story to tell.
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Culture because the world is incredibly diverse, so there's really no such thing as “normal.” I am fascinated by how humans continually influence their environment.
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Practicing a simple lifestyle makes people happier while using fewer resources.
Fiction
What started as a non-fiction book project dreamt up over cornflakes, eventually morphed into a screenplay—it was simply too visual to be anything else.
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My first feature-length screenplay is called The Freedom Machine. I submitted it to the London Screenwriters Festival and was chosen to participate in its 2018 Talent Campus 4.0.
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Here’s the logline:
THE FREEDOM MACHINE: A wealthy, middle-aged housewife buys her way into a women’s cycling group competing in a race—a first for women at that time. She clashes with her unsympathetic husband, who threatens to destroy her if she participates, and has to choose between losing everything or losing herself.
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Teaching
I see writing as visual thinking. Just as a camera captures an image by freezing a moment in time, writing captures our thoughts by fixing them on a page. Because writing helps us figure out what we think, the art of writing involves actively reworking and finessing elements until it the whole thing glides together as smoothly as pistachio-infused gelato.
To paraphrase writer Anais Nin, writing allows us to taste life twice.
I teach students studying Media Studies at the University of Groningen how to approach professional writing. They learn that writing well isn’t simply a matter of fixing mistakes. It’s about daring to be creative and persevere as good writing is far too complex to get it right in your first draft.
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I also teach private, customized lessons to business professionals who want to write more effectively in English. Workshops cover grammar, standard business expressions and vocabulary. (Clients include: the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Sony Music, Werkspot, Gouden Gids, Price Waterhouse Coopers, and European Consumer Centre.)
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About Me
I grew up in Los Angeles, spent my twenties studying and working in the UK, and later graduated from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. I cut my writing teeth as an investigative reporter at Metro San Jose, long before social media became synonymous with the city, and I eventually moved to Brooklyn to work as a freelance writer.
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In Brooklyn, I enjoyed walking along the same streets my grandfather had as a young man (I even borrowed his shoes), and discovering neighboring New York. New York City was my greatest teacher—both in learning how to tackle writing and enjoy life.
I later moved to Amsterdam and fell in love with all the stereotypical things Americans do here: cycling, affordable healthcare, the city’s numerous elegant canals and its Rembrandtesque skies. I am thrilled to live in the same city where investors plotted the colony that later became Manhattan, and where my ceiling rafters are older than the US Constitution.
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"To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man"
Aristotle