Taming the Freelance Project from Hell

Question: How many of you have taken on a freelance project that turned out to be one speed bump after another?

Yea, me too.

Let’s face it — even the best writer is going to come across that one project that threatens to break them. I had one such project recently that, while small and seemingly easy, had me sighing and fighting to get every word on the page. What should have taken me a few short hours took most of the day.

That matters, especially when you’re charging per word and there’s a limited number of words allotted to the project.

But, fear not, intrepid freelancer! There is hope.

[bctt tweet=”You can tame the #freelancewriting project from hell. Here’s how.” username=”LoriWidmer”]

First, I think we should recognize one key point:

You must tame the beast.

Not doing so means one thing — you’re going to face that next difficult project with a lot less confidence. And remember, we’ve already talked about why confidence is important.

What you shouldn’t do: put it aside for too long. These things, they have tendrils, tentacles even. They just crawl inside your psyche and spread like a bad weed. They push that doubt front-and-center in your brain, and they make you dread returning to it.

So let’s tackle this project. Here’s what I do:

Outline

I create bullets of the points that need to be covered. If I’ve interviewed someone, I already have a bit of an outline — my questions. And here’s where pre-planning really pays off. If you organize your questions in a sensible way, boom. There’s your outline.

But what if you’re working off an interview that went every which direction? One thing I do is this:

Use a highlighter

I print out that interview and I get my trusty highlighter. If it’s a big interview, I get two of two different colors. Yellow highlights are things I think should go in the piece. Green highlights are to highlight the maybes. Maybe I’ll use it, maybe I won’t.

When I do that, I’m left with content that isn’t highlighted. I look it over. In nearly all cases, that stuff turns out to be extraneous.

Revisit

Email that client. Ask the same questions or some variation, or toss in a few new questions that you think will fill in the blanks. I like to email them because not everyone is good in a phone interview. If that first interview was on the phone and it didn’t serve the purpose, a second call might not be any more useful.

Research

If it’s a client project and you’re writing about their business, why aren’t you looking at that website? In my own roadblocks, I’ve found salvation on the website. This is how they’re talking about the very thing they’re asking you to write about. One project I did was about a new product. Where the interview netted me scant details, the website filled in the rest.

Make a ‘what the hell’ draft

When I get really stuck, I just write it the way I heard it. I forget recorded interviews, and I type from memory. I fill in the gaps with interview notes later. But I just skip over the part that has me flummoxed and push through.

Why it’s called a ‘what the hell’ draft: it’s my way of saying “Oh, what the hell — I can always delete it.” There’s freedom (and often, a breakthrough) in that.

Put highlighted notes in the draft

Sometimes, you just get stuck beyond anything you can clear up on your own. Let your clients help you fill in the blanks. Give them ample warning in email that the draft has questions in it that need to be addressed. I find it helpful to provide the draft instead of just emailing the questions because they get to see the context of your questions.

There are other things I do when I just can’t get through:

• Bitch
• Moan
• Put in about 250 steps around the house
• Grab some tea
• Get back to writing

But once that project is tamed, or at least harnessed, you breathe easier. You know you can do it because hey, you just did.

Writers, how do you get through those impossible assignments?
What’s the one project that nearly broke you?