Writers Worth: Fear of Taking it Seriously

May 21, 2018

I need to stay off writers’ forums.

A recent conversation that started seriously enough turned ridiculous far too quickly.

The guy asked a serious question: How do you know if freelance is your choice? Facing a full-time offer, he was having second thoughts about taking that offer.

While right there he’s pretty much answered his own question (and I wish him all the best as it’s the best and worst job you’ll ever have), the answers that poor guy got had my head spinning. Actually, I was more than a little pissed.

Here’s how writers — people who freelance or have done so here and there — described a freelance career to him:

A full-time job versus the freelance “lifestyle” (seriously called it that)
A “break” from the career
A nice interlude until the kids grow up
A good part-time career until something better comes along
A way to finally make time for that yoga class

This was a writers’ forum. A freelance writers’ forum.

You know me (and if you don’t, you’re about to get an education, I’m afraid) — I’m not letting that go down without setting things straight.

I’ll spare you my diatribe, but the gist of it is this:

This is a viable career. I make more at this job than I ever did at any other
This is my business. It’s not a “lifestyle”; I’m working my ass off and if I don’t, the business fails
This is for my family, too. I raised kids on this income; this isn’t a placeholder until a “real” job appears
This isn’t part time. I want to have a successful business; that’s full-time work even if I work just 30 hours a week
I’m not into yoga classes. Seriously, all that sweating and people heaving and stretching in oversized t-shirts; I’ll do my yoga at home, thank you

I guess I didn’t spare you the diatribe. My bad.

So this Marketing Monday, let’s go there.

Today’s Marketing Move:

Take Your Freelance Writing Career Seriously

In every single bit of “advice” the original poster was given, there was fear. Make no mistake, these people were at one point, afraid of failing. Or maybe they were afraid of starting and failing. Or working hard. Or being judged. Their language revealed their fears, even if they never said directly that this freelancing can be scary shit.

They’re right — it can be.

What they’re not right about is that it’s something to fear and avoid. It’s not. Nor is it something to look at with skepticism, judge, or malign, particularly if you’ve tried it and left it behind.

[bctt tweet=”Freelance writing is not for everyone. But for those who love it, it’s everything.” username=”LoriWidmer”]

Those who love this career have faced their fear of failure, their fear of sticking their necks out, their fear of putting themselves out there and risking rejection. Yet they stuck with it and took it seriously enough to build a business and sell their skills to willing customers.

You can, too.

Writers, when did you start taking your move to a freelance career seriously?
What was stopping you? How did you overcome it?

17 responses to “Writers Worth: Fear of Taking it Seriously”

Devon Ellington

May 21, 2018

I went to an event put on by the local writers’ association a few months back. There’d been a turnover since I’d left (both the organization and as a board member). We were standing around talking before the event, and one of the other “writers” said to me, “What do you do for a living?”

Me: Write.

Old White Wanna-be Writer: No, I mean, what do you DO for a living?

Me: Write.

Old White Wanna-be Writer: No, I mean how do you earn a living?

Me: Write.

OWWW: No one does that.

Me: Obviously not here. But this is my profession, not my hobby.

And I left.

Reply
1. Paula Hendrickson
  
  May 21, 2018
  
  THIS is why we love you so much, Devon!
  
  Reply
  1. Paula Hendrickson
    
    May 21, 2018
    
    (Yes, Lori. I “shouted” and used an exclamation point. Because I’m serious.)
    
    Reply
2. lwidmer
  
  May 21, 2018
  
  It’s a shame when people don’t understand that yes, writing is a profession and it requires work.
  
  Only once did someone diss what I did, and I think it was more because the man had just lost a debate with my husband over something quite trivial. My husband doesn’t debate by nature, but when the facts matter, look out. This guy, trying to get a conversation going with me to slight him, asked what I did for a living. I said “I’m a writer.”
  
  Without hesitation, he turned his back to me and started talking with someone else. Never acknowledged me the rest of the evening.
  
  He did me a favor. I don’t typically converse with assholes. By showing his true nature early, he spared me any uncomfortable, awkward excuses to get away.
  
  Reply
Devon Ellington

May 21, 2018

PS Other than here, I stopped hanging out on writers’ forums. Until these people learn to respect their work and other people’s work, and are willing to put in time and energy learning craft, it’s a waste of my time. I am writing. I have four books coming out this year. I just sent off a partial requested by an editor, and I have another going out on a different project to a different editor on Thursday. I’m waiting to hear back if the serial will be picked up by my first choice company. My comic noir mystery radio play is being performed/broadcast tonight in Florida. Because of a Twitter conversation, I’m collaborating with an actress on a new play where we tossed around ideas over the weekend. I’m developing marketing materials for my clients and myself and meeting with a bunch of potential new clients next week. I am desperate for a vacation (which I will take later this year, when I’ve cleared off some deadlines). I don’t have time for people who think it’s an easy lifestyle, an easy way to earn “pin money” or “not a real job.” Even when I worked on Broadway, I was accused of not having a “real job.” They can remain deluded while I land the clients I want and need to do the work I love. The idiots can Eff Off.

Reply
1. Devon Ellington
  
  May 21, 2018
  
  Well, I hang out on the blogs of a lot of your guest posters, too, because they’re all really cool . . .but you get my drift.
  
  Reply
  1. lwidmer
    
    May 21, 2018
    
    I do. 🙂
    
    Reply
Paula Hendrickson

May 21, 2018

This is one of the reasons I stopped visiting LinkedIn Forums. (Another is LinkedIn’s push to eliminate private groups by making it harder to vet applicants – with one of the groups I managed they stopped sending my co-manger and me alerts when people requested to join, and then stripped away our ability to communicate with them to get info needed to either approve or reject their application. But I digress.)

I never made a move to become a freelancer. Its all I’ve ever done. I sent my first queries in high school. I didn’t want to wind up like my dad, a graphic artist who’d worked his tail off for companies that cut expenses in tough times by letting their creative teams go. He was forced to do freelance but found he was happier and even earned more than he did as a full-timer. He regretted not doing it sooner.

I always laugh at people who think freelancers have it easy and say if they lose their jobs they’ll just freelance. One friend’s sister, a librarian who is a terrible writer, actually said, “If Paula can do it, I can.” Not in a billion years could she survive a month as a freelancer.

Reply
1. lwidmer
  
  May 21, 2018
  
  I think I’m only on the forums to get fodder for the blog. Sad to say, but it’s necessary sometimes because the crap that’s circulating out there is mind-numbing.
  
  Reply
Solitaire

May 21, 2018

Thank you for helping me clarify my own thoughts about freelancing. I’m currently freelancing for one steady client, a small religion magazine. I’m preparing with that client to cover a huge event in early July, a convention that occurs every three years to make decisions on the denomination’s polity and administration. On a month-in and month-out basis, the magazine doesn’t pay very well — you would scold me if I told you — but I find the work fulfilling, and my wife has a good job with benefits. (July, OTOH, will be one of the two or three most lucrative months I’ve had in a decade.)

After the convention, I need to either start looking seriously for a full-time job, or start seriously marketing myself to build a respectable income as a freelance.

Why not do both? Because I can’t figure out which would be worse. Should I return to the soul-crushing effort of trying to land a job in my late 50s after a decade out of the corporate world? Or should I take your blog as a template for building a freelance business, and deal with guilty feelings that I’m not doing enough, I’m not a self-starter, I don’t have the fire in my belly and the discipline to stay productive when nobody is expecting anything from me on a particular deadline.

I think I’m much better suited for a job with a company or nonprofit, especially if it’s a place I can be proud of, not just tolerate. But I’d settle for “tolerate.” I’d be thrilled to get a job that pays half what I made at my peak, and I’d accept virtually any offer that pays a third.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here.

Reply
1. lwidmer
  
  May 28, 2018
  
  Solitaire, my ol’ friend, I think you answered your own question — you called the search “soul-crushing” because it is.
  
  I guess I’d ask you these questions: what does your gut say? Consider each option, then do a gut check. Which one makes you feel queasy in a bad way? In a good way?
  
  If following your dream means feeling guilty, ask yourself if that’s okay until you get your legs under you. I can tell you that after nearly a decade and a half of freelancing, I don’t feel one ounce guilty. I’m earning nearly three times what I did at an editing job.
  
  If you’d be willing to accept any offer that pays a third of what you used to make, why not throw yourself fully into freelancing? If I can, you certainly can.
  
  In the end, it’s about what you feel you’re best suited to, and how happy you’d be in that role.
  
  Reply
2. lwidmer
  
  May 28, 2018
  
  Oh, and start NOW looking for more work. Always. Be. Marketing. Start making connections today, and at that convention…
  
  Reply
Jake Poinier

May 21, 2018

A worthy diatribe! I’m reminded of the old military tactic, perhaps most famously described by Sun Tzu, that you burn your boats as soon as you make landfall—leaving no option for retreat. I mean, it’s fine if you want to dabble in freelancing, but once you make it a career choice, it’s a whole different battle. (Assuming you want to succeed, anyway.)

For the record, I can’t stand yoga, either 🙂

Reply
1. lwidmer
  
  May 21, 2018
  
  LOL Well, I’m okay with yoga, but not in public (and that includes wearing yoga gear where people can see you).
  
  Reply
Mary Schneider

May 22, 2018

Oh man… I wish I’d been there to see you lay a Lori-style smackdown! LOL

It does cheese me off that people still treat freelancing like a joke. My own mother finally stopped asking when I was going to get ” a real job” after I turned down a full time option at my part time get-out-of-the-house-for-a-few-hours retail job. I sat down and explained the math to her- I simply can not make anywhere near what I do writing stocking shelves. She hasn’t said a word since.
(To be fair to Mom, she raised us on a Deli Manager’s pay. Blue collar work is my family’s bread and butter and I”m not ashamed of my background, at all.)

I want something better for my kids. I want them to know they can do better than $12/hour for flipping burgers, and that if they’re willing to work hard and put in the time, they don’t even have to take on a $25K or better student loan debt to make it happen.

Freelancing IS my job. I’ve worked my ass off to earn my pay level and I’ll be damned if I’ll let some fool disrespect the sweat, fear, desperation and frustration that went into building this business by telling me that at least it leaves me time for “yoga classes.”

Reply
1. Krista
  
  May 22, 2018
  
  I think it took my mother about four years to stop asking if I’d seen anything interesting on the job boards. I think for her it was more so about the perceived lack of stability. I get it, but it can be upsetting for sure!
  
  Reply
Krista

May 22, 2018

I freelanced on the side for about a year while I had a contract with my provincial government. When the job ended, I had unemployment benefits that would last about 9 months. That was my “do or die” point. If I couldn’t replace my income before my benefits ran out, I’d give up on my dream of freelancing. I’m happy to say I never got to collect a single penny of those benefits. But I DID work my butt off, which makes these attitudes pretty maddening. Sure, if you just wanted to earn some spare cash it would be a pretty laid-back gig. If you want to make a decent living, you will need to work for it and, yes, have an aptitude for writing and a strong command of the English language.

One of my pet peeves is people who are surprised when I can’t drop everything whenever I want and turn down plans to work. I think it’s the image of the “lifestyle”–work when you want, say no whenever you’d like. Oh, if only it were really like that. 😉 I know I’m lucky to have flexibility, but I take advantage when I need to be home with my sick son or something like that…not to go shopping for the day!

Reply