What’s on the iPod: Take Off Your Sunglasses by Ezra Furman & the Harpoons
Here I am, nearly three weeks since surgery, and I’m slowly beginning to feel back to normal. Every day seems a little easier in terms of walking, standing upright (you can’t imagine how tight the incision feels), and getting more mobile. I can’t lift anything heavier than a milk carton for five more weeks, but as my energy increases, I can sit at the computer and do a little writing.
Today, writing is my purpose.
Actually, Writers Worth is my purpose. Some days it feels like my sole purpose, given the amount of bitching and browbeating I give writers on the topic of value and worth. But hey, someone has to serve as the wake-up call. My turn, I guess.
Reading back through the great guest posts, I noticed a common theme — we’re all trying to get you, the trepidatious writer, to understand and own your value and to move forward toward it. Do you think I don’t know that your largest fear is failure? Oh, honey. I do know. I’ve been there.
When I first started writing professionally (long before admitting to myself and anyone else that that is exactly what I was doing), I was scared. What if I failed? What if I did something wrong and someone chastised me or worse, laughed at me? What if I couldn’t get an assignment? That thought was usually followed immediately by its close cousin, dear gawd, what if I do get an assignment? The fears ran deep.
Then it happened. An assignment landed in my lap, almost by accident, for why on earth would anyone hire me? I thought. But I’d proposed an idea to a local magazine and they said yes. For them, it was a short, front-of-the-book article. For me, it was the Holy Grail — an assignment that paid a decent sum.
Looking back, I see now just how short that article was. I wonder now why it had been so scary facing a mere 800 words. One thing I don’t wonder about is how I ever got up the nerve to complete it. I remember it very clearly, for it’s something I still do when facing a new area or subject — I gave it my “What the hell” approach. As in “What the hell — let me give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, oh well.”
You have no idea until you let go and have your own what-the-hell moment just how freeing it is. Here are just a few ways letting go like that can free you:
You can now realize that the hard part is already over. Let’s face it — unless your client speaks Klingon and you don’t, what you’ve proposed is pretty much going to be the finished product. Your road map is already written out — by you. Just follow it.
You can now channel that anxiety into your creative process. Oh, the energy wasted when all you do is worry! Stop it. Just shrug your shoulders, surrender the butterflies, and do what you love doing — write.
The worst you can do is make a mistake. And that happens to all of us. I wrote an article two years ago for a nursing magazine. It was great — except that it wasn’t what the editor had wanted. She repeated her request, and in two days she had a new article, which satisfied her. Everyone screws up no matter who they are (editors included). Fix it and move on.
It gives you a new form of courage. Try it. Just say “What the hell” to whatever has been hounding you and stressing you lately. What’s going to happen? Probably nothing other than you won’t be worrying. What the hell — why not let it go? Why not trust yourself to do what you know damn well you can do?
It’s just a starting point. That’s right –even your what-the-hell moment is a minor thing. You have to start somewhere — why not from a relaxed perspective? If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, you can start again with another WTH moment. Repeat until you finish your project.
What in your career deserves a what-the-hell release? How did/will this help you expand your business or increase your earnings?
For me, it was when I decided to send LOIs to competing entertainment trades. What did I have to lose? One assigned me something right off. The other called a day too late since they don't use freelancers from the competition.
Coincidentally, this week I asked one of my editors at that trade what changes their new format (weekly as opposed to daily) would have on the annual summer-long special sections I've contributed to for over 13 years. He said it's been scaled back but they're trying to divvy up assignments fairly (I already have three for the first phase). Then he said their freelance budget was slashed. Again.
Because of that – and the fact that the new owners have a sluggish payment system – I decided to send LOIs to a couple of consumer-facing entertainment trades. The timing is good, since I'll have about a dozen pieces in the June issue of Favorite Editor's magazine (yet another reason I refer to her as Favorite Editor). That's technically a trade but reads like a consumer title. Wish me luck.
Somewhat related, I was talking to a producer who said most of her life decisions were traced back to when she was out of college, living in a crappy apartment and despising her life in general. She decided to take risks, since all she had to do is look around and see she literally had nothing to lose.
And Lori, I hope you're feeling better every day!
This post is very timely for me, and just what I needed to read. I've been 'playing' at copywriting for years, but now that I've started to take the craft seriously, and make more effort to get my name in front of people, the pressure that I put myself under seems immense! And it really shouldn't – I've been writing for years. The blank page is the scariest thing of all when you know that someone is waiting for you to fill it. But 'what the hell', right?!
Paula, I can say that LOIs changed my life, too. I have you to thank for that. Sucks that your magazine is cutting back. I suspect we'll see more of that — I've heard from other writers that similar things are happening with assignments and budgets.
I agree with that producer. It's when you're tired and push for a change that great things begin.
Tereasa, you're right about where the pressure is coming from. My guess is you know exactly what you're doing and can deliver. It's that fear of not delivering that cripples you — and you'll find it's unfounded once you get going. For me, the clients spell out what they want or I help them do it. That's the outline. Once there's an outline, it's easy to follow.
And what the hell — RIGHT! 🙂
Good article as I debate having my byline removed from an article that bears little resemblance to the one I turned in . The editor really took a lot of liberty even after I complied with her hefty list of demands for the piece.
I was livid but now after one interviewee wrote to me saying it was 'lovely''. I am still in flux as to what to do…she used words I would NEVER have used and I question some of the published facts. Anyway, I'm trying to laugh but it is still not making it pass my thought process.Lol