What’s on the iPod: Peace Sign by We Were Promised Jetpacks
Without a house project going on all the time, I’ve come away from my weekends feeling positively bored by Sunday night. I think that’s good — I’m eager to get back to work, and I’ve managed to read a lot more than I have in a year. Today, I have one article to frame in and another to start, and hopefully finish. The second one came in on Friday, and the client needs it by the middle of August. If I expect to get any kind of vacation next month, that means it has to be done now.
As I worked on my poetry on Friday, I realized that I’d been successful at making time for the kind of writing I wanted to do. Not that I don’t love working for clients — I do, very much. But we writers all have dreams of writing projects that make us happy. For me, that’s poetry and fiction.
Still, how many writers don’t understand how to achieve freelance writing success? Turns out quite a few. The blogs and coffee shops are littered with writers who talk about the work. But they’re not actually doing the work. A few lament about how hard it is. Other writers fuss that they don’t think one type of writing is as prestigious as another.
Whatever they’re saying, it’s all killing their careers and maybe before they even get off the ground.
Here are some surefire ways to wrecks your writing career before it even gets going:
Go into it strictly for the art. Look, I love my job and I love writing. However, if I’d ever thought “I’ll just write” and not taken care of the business details, my career would have been as long as it took me to say something so stupid. Yes, what we do is an art. It’s also a commodity. Every kind of writing you try to sell is a product that must be marketed, and you become a small business owner. If that doesn’t appeal, don’t be a writer.
Wait for work to arrive. If you’ve been freelancing longer than a few years, you know how deadly it is to your income stream to wait for that promised work or that exciting new client to finalize things. Until the contract is signed, these projects and clients should be considered pipe dreams. For every client I’ve ever had who’s asked me if I had the next three weeks available, I have that many more checks in the bank for not being crazy enough to wait around.
Get lazy about the work. You could write those case studies in your sleep, but don’t. If you take a blasé attitude toward your projects, it will show in the results. Every job, even the small ones, deserves your full attention and energy.
Piss off enough people. I used to follow a very popular blogger. The advice and resources supplied were stellar. However, I witnessed some pretty vicious attacks against other writers by this same person — in one case, even after a faux pas resulted in an apology by the offender, the blogger still ranted on, which nearly cost the offender some serious business. There comes a point when your point doesn’t make any more sense and you’re just going for blood for no reason. Clients see that. Who wants to hire someone who’s going to go off like a bomb?
Stay in your little bubble. How long has it been since your last guest post? When was the last time you commented on a blog other than your own? There are very few writers who do not have to advertise their presence. For the rest of us, it’s a numbers game. The more people you get in front of, the better your name recognition will be. Burst that bubble and start mingling with your clients.
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