Writers Worth: Keeping Fear at Bay

Mika Doyle is a breath of fresh air.

She’s one of those writers who brings a sincerity to everything she touches. Example: when I asked her to write a post, she was in mourning. She’d lost a beloved professor, and it had hit her particularly hard as she hadn’t been in touch with him in recent months. On top of it, she’d lost a grandparent earlier this year.

As she was telling me about all of the things she was dealing with, she was revealing quite a bit about herself. Here is a woman who is introspective to some degree, yet unafraid to reveal her emotions. Not beat you over the head with them, but talk about them. She turns over the rocks, so to speak, and examines the darker corners. Rather fearlessly, I might add.

And amid personal turmoil, she agreed to write a post.

You’ll be glad she did.

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How to Keep Fear from Turning You Away from Freelancing

by Mika Doyle

When Chinese philosopher Laozi said that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” he didn’t mention just how terrifying taking that first step can really be.

Putting pen to paper. Researching freelance targets. Writing that first query letter. Seeing your work out in the public for the first time. Negotiating your rates — in essence, your worth. Sending off that first invoice. One foot in front of the other. Single steps in a journey that could last a lifetime if you want it to.

Launching a writing career is not simply a life of creative bliss. It’s full of uncertainty. Insecurity. Fear.

So how do you navigate that fear so it doesn’t get you all turned around?

Knowledge and people. These are your two most powerful tools in your journey to launching a successful writing career. Research everything you can about the industry you’re trying to break into, as well as how your personal situation plays a role into how you approach your writing career. Lean on people to fill gaps in your knowledge and build a solid support system that will keep you going when you get discouraged. And, trust me, we all get discouraged often throughout our careers.

What did this look like for me? It was a very uncreative process, but it helped me put together very specific writing goals and my action plan for the upcoming year:

• I put together a budget to see what my monthly expenses are, and then researched freelance targets to see how I could bring in enough money to pay my monthly expenses as a minimum financial target to start off with. Some of that research included reaching out to my current editor contacts to find out what kind of regular relationships I could build with them.
• I evaluated my long-term financial needs, such as student loan debt and retirement savings.
• I evaluated the type of lifestyle I prefer to live and the cashflow I would need to live that lifestyle. What was I willing to sacrifice? What wasn’t I willing to sacrifice? I had to be really honest with myself.
• I reached out to as many freelance writers as I could and talked to them in person, over the phone and through email to pick their brains about how they met their financial goals through freelance writing. I was very candid with them about my fears and my financial needs because, as much as I want to live the life of a creative writer, I also have bills to pay, so I needed to ask hard, smart questions.
• I took a long, hard look at what my writing goals are. Why did I want to go freelance? Who was I as a writer? What type of freelance work would I be willing to take? For example, was I too picky about the type of writing I wanted to do and, therefore, limiting my financial growth potential?

Every writer is going to answer these questions differently and come out the other end with a different plan. What’s important is that it transforms writing from this nebulous mystery into something more approachable. The best part? It tempers the fear, letting you squish it beneath your heel as you take that first step in your thousand-mile journey as a writer.