Writers Worth: Think You Don’t Do Enough?

One of the first people, if not the first, I met when I started freelancing was Anne Wayman. Back then, Anne was the freelance writing guru at About.com. Since that time, she’s morphed her business into a successful standalone blog and now a supportive forum I was proud to help establish — About Writing Squared. She’s also a dear friend.

Anne has a lifetime of experience understanding her worth. Today, my friend shows us that we’re doing more with our lives than we recognize, and how that translates into a successful freelance writing career.

by Anne Wayman
If you’re like many freelance writers I know you tend to think you don’t do enough. Why do I say this? Because I spent years silently telling myself I wasn’t doing enough. I wasn’t doing enough writing, enough marketing, enough networking, sending enough queries, generating enough ideas – the list I think literally was endless. One day I heard myself and I realized that I was tearing myself down.

I’ve had some experience with poor self-worth. In fact I’ve been known to say that if anyone else treated me the way I used to treat myself I’d shoot ‘em.

Of course this was reflected in my writing success or rather of my lack of writing success. When people would ask me what I charged I’d name what I consider a ridiculously low figure. I couldn’t believe anybody would be willing to pay me for my writing.

It wasn’t exactly because I thought my writing was awful. I actually began my writing career, unpaid of course, writing classified ads for my father in the real estate business. We tracked those ads closely. I was able to say definitely that my headline “vest pocket horse ranch” was making the phone ring even though our senior salesperson didn’t like it. I also knew when an ad didn’t work. Since we were paying by the word I learned to write short as I say which is turned out to be perfect for blogging. In other words I was getting feedback on a pretty regular basis that my writing was not bad.

It took me ages to take that in. I didn’t understand that not everyone could write well. It’s always been pretty easy for me so I assumed it was easy for others. Hah! As it turns out writing well is definitely not a universal talent.

So I’d already more or less accepted that I was a pretty good writer when I realized I was talking myself down with this litany about have not having done enough. It was the quickest way I knew how to feel guilty – except I called it being honest with myself.

Someone asked me to make a list of all I had done that particular day. Mentally I checked it off. It was something like:

Got the kids off to school

Remembered their lunch money

Made the bed

Wrote 1000 words on a new chapter

Shopped for the family

Cleaned the living room including vacuuming…

In other words I was doing quite a bit. I think we all do and I think very many of us never give ourselves enough credit.

If I find myself thinking poorly about myself, which does happen although not very often anymore, it’s often because I catch myself once again thinking I don’t do enough. Apparently I’m on the alert for that kind of self talk because when it occurs if it’s at all possible I stop right where I am. And I begin to make a mental list of everything I’ve gotten done that day. If that isn’t enough to make me feel good, I’ll add things I’ve done that week. It’s not long before I have a grin on my face and realized that I actually do get a lot done.

There are two takeaways from this. The first is you know how a technique you can use when you catch yourself saying you cannot you’re not doing enough – make a list of things you are doing or are getting done.

Perhaps more importantly however, is the fact that technique points to another truth about self-worth. We have the ability to decide whether we value ourselves or not. Sure it can feel risky duration rates. That’s part of what freelance writers need to do; after all no one else is going to give you a raise and you probably deserve one. The same thing is true turning down jobs that don’t serve you particular, particularly those where you’re not treated well, insisting on changes to contracts, etc.

You don’t even have to prove your worth most cases. You simply have to know your own value. Every time I’ve raised my rates I’ve ended up with at least one or two more clients that never question whether they should pay me that much or not. I’ve learned it’s up to me to value myself. That’s the only way others will.

Write well and often,