Luck and the Freelance Writer

Luck.

I’m seeing a lot of posts and forum discussions around how luck plays into the lives of freelance writers. Luck is why we found those clients, luck is the reason we landed that great client, luck is how we came across that one post that altered our business approach for the better.

Luck gets all the credit. But when the luck is bad, we don’t hesitate to blame ourselves, do we?

We’re lucky if we succeed and at fault if things go sour.

That, my writing friends, is a myth.

We play right into it, too. Even I did.

When I was first starting a freelance writing career, I “lucked” into a job at the local newspaper. But did I really?

Looking back, I can say no. I’d seen an ad in the local paper for correspondents for that paper. So I applied. I showed up for the orientation in the newsroom (and yes, I was starry-eyed and swooning inside at being in an actual newsroom). I did the work. I got paid.

All of that was legwork. It wasn’t luck, but there I was, thinking how damn lucky I was that they hired me, negating my own part in it.

Same thing when I got my first magazine gig — the one I’d written the query for, the one I’d researched (pre-internet, so it was harder to do), the one I’d secured by my own efforts.

I’m not sure when my attitude shifted from it being luck to it being the result of a lot of work. Maybe it was when I took a more active marketing approach and stopped waiting for work to come to me via job boards and wishful thinking. But the shift did happen.

Luck may indeed play some part in your freelance life, but it’s not the reason you succeed. Being at the right place at the right time — like walking into a party and meeting a corporate CEO who just happens to need writing help — is luck. How the relationship progresses beyond that point — that’s all you.

If luck is your guiding force right now, my advice would be to get off the job boards. (How did I know, right?) Job boards, even for those writers with amazing portfolios, involve a form of luck. If they even see your resume amid the thousands of applicants, that’s luck.

If you’re thinking I’m going to get lucky someday and land a good client, congratulations. You’ve just revealed your passive approach to your freelance writing business. You’re waiting for something to come to you. That unicorn of a fabulous client is just going to show up, much like that rock star will just happen to pass through your town in the middle of nowhere and you’ll be there to witness it.

It’s not happening.

So ask yourself these questions:

• Is it luck that I have writing talent?
• Is it luck that I reached out to clients?
• Is it luck that I secured their business?
• Is it luck that they hired me again?

Hint: the answer to every question should be no. 

You made it happen.

Lead with that knowledge. Your confidence is lying inside that little truth. Own it.

And when bad things happen — when clients get upset, when they stiff you, when you make a mistake, when you don’t get the gig, stop beating yourself up. The bad stuff happens to every writer. Every one of us has had — and still has –bad things happen when we’re doing our jobs. You cannot please everyone, but you can’t accept every ounce of bad luck or bad dealings as your fault. As something to carry like a rock around your neck.

Bad stuff happens. Bad luck would be a client who presented themselves as decent people only to turn out to be difficult or demanding. Their behavior? Not your fault. Writers make errors, big and small. Small errors, such as a missing comma or too many adverbs, your fault. But is it worth the emotional battering you’re giving yourself over it? Is it worth taking the “numerous errors” tongue-lashing from an unruly client (or one attempting to avoid payment)?

No. It’s not.

When major stuff happens, own it. Apologize — once. Then fix it and move on.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Is the mistake so bad that the client cannot recover?
• Is it so big it can’t be fixed?
• Is it something that will keep them up nights?
• Is it something they’ll remind me of three times a day?

The answer to all these questions, I’m betting, is no.

Because, dammit, you’re human. We’re allowed mistakes. We’re allowed to let go of them, too. (And just in case you run into someone like this, if your clients are the type to remind you constantly, they’re not worth keeping.)

That’s what other businesses do. They apologize. They move on. They don’t close up shop and hide because of one bad Yelp review. They (hopefully) learn from it and improve going forward. Hey, even the businesses that don’t learn from their mistakes are still working, aren’t they? The ones who maybe deserve to be out of business are still in business. They’re not wallowing in guilt, even if they should be.

Writers, what incident in your career beginnings did you consider luck that was actually hard work on your part? 
Has luck ever been a factor in your success? If so, how?