Jennifer Steil, reporter, London, author of "Woman Who Fell From the Sky" about her experiences in Yemen; covered Yemen in 2011:

Making a living as a freelancer has become progressively more difficult over the past year. And it often seems that I get paid the least for the stories that mean the most to me, which means I spend more and more of my time on work I do not find fully engaging. I have to. I have a child to feed.

I lived in Yemen for four years, editing a newspaper, writing a book, and freelancing, so I have been following the protests there with keen interest. Many of my closest friends are still in Sana'a, camped out in Change Square. Very little of the news reported from Yemen has been very good or very reliable, so I began pitching Yemen stories. There were many fantastic stories to be told, and I certainly had the sources and the knowledge of the country. A British tabloid was the first to commission a Yemen story. Despite my enormous reluctance to write for a paper for which I have very little professional respect, I needed the money. So I set aside all of my other work for two weeks to report and write a lengthy piece. It was set to run and had even been copy-edited (appallingly, I might add) when the story was killed at the last minute "for space."

Not wanting my work to go to waste, I pitched it to an international paper. The editor told me he was desperate for reliable reporting on Yemen, and scheduled my piece to run. Then, at the last minute, he rang me to say that they had a similar piece they would run instead. It was my exact idea, written by another reporter. I would have thought this coincidence had I not then pitched a second story to this paper, and had my second idea appropriated as well. In fact, phrases from my pitch even appeared in the published story, which was riddled with errors. I was infuriated, but felt powerless to do anything about it. I didn't want to ruin my chances for ever working for this paper but I also decided it was too risky to ever pitch its editors again.

Finally, a friend from journalism school put me in touch with the editor of the World Policy Journal, which commissioned a much longer version of my Yemen story. I was thrilled. I had the opportunity to write in much greater detail about the situation in Yemen and a byline in a prestigious journal. The media and international community have largely overlooked the massive humanitarian crisis in Yemen. So rather than focus on the political situation, I focused on the hundreds of thousands of dying children, while putting it all in a political context. I felt passionate about getting this story to the world. So I spent six weeks reporting and writing a 6,000-word piece, which was published in September. I made $500.

Apparently one cannot buy groceries or pay for utilities, rent, childcare, clothing, or the Internet bill with passionate journalism.

To try to make ends meet, I have been writing regularly for a couple of consumer websites. For these sites, I write pieces on how to get the best bargains at warehouse stores and how to get your garden ready for winter. I am grateful for the work but my heart is not in it.

Now even that has grown irregular. One website is doing a complete redesign and starting over without freelancers. Others only have work every other week. It's obvious that soon I am going to have to find something a bit more reliable if I want to keep my family alive. Yet a look at the jobs listings on Gorkana is dispiriting at best. Full-time journalism jobs in the UK seem to pay between 15,000 and 30,000 pounds. This is far, far less than I made when I worked my last full-time job at a magazine in New York. Those kinds of wages don't even cover childcare.

Even when I do get work, I often have to write to media organizations several times in order to get paid. On average, it takes me about two to three months to get payment for a story. And it also takes hours of my time, reminding people that they owe me money. This is maddening.

So I am crossing my fingers and hoping that 2012 will be packed with new freelance and other writing opportunities. It's too late, after all, to become a doctor or a lawyer. This is what I do. And so this is what I will continue to do, despite everything.