Words on the Page

6 Habits of $100K Freelancers

Posted on by lwidmer

Before anyone gets all huffy, thinking this is yet another “How to make $100,000 freelance writing post” just simmer down. I don’t care if you make $100K or $100 at freelancing. What I care about is your improvement over time. That’s what this post is about. If you’ve been around this blog at all, you…

Writers Worth: This Job Not That Job

Posted on by lwidmer

The title of this post should be This Job and Definitely NOT That Job. Thanks to this post over at Filthy Dreams blog, I think the world has landed on what is possibly the worst job on the planet. I mean, everything I’ve ever shared her could not possibly touch the level of bad this one…

Freelance Files: Is This Client Worth It? #2

Posted on by lwidmer

A while back we started exploring various client scenarios to see if the offer in front of us was worth it. The reason: If you can get used to vetting them, you can certainly be able to respond accordingly — or at least have a system in place by which you can measure their offer….

Freelance Marketing Roundup: 9 Posts to Change Your Biz

Posted on by lwidmer

Side hustle. Gig worker. Ugh. What I hate about these terms – and what you should hate, too – is how they diminish what you do. These terms suggest you’re dabbling. You’re not serious. You’re hustling. You’re just part of the latest fad, that “gig” economy. Screw that. You, my freelance friend, are a business…

Winning the “Do you write this?” Freelance Interview

Posted on by lwidmer

Show of (virtual) hands — how many of you have had conversations with prospective clients that go something like this: Client: Tell me a little about yourself. You: I’ve been writing in the XYZ industry/writing ABC projects for the last eight years. My clients include 1, 2, and 3 plus a few clients whose work…

Relationship Marketing: Your Freelance Secret Weapon

Posted on by lwidmer

Quite a few years ago, one of my best friends I’ve never met said something eye-opening. “You’re not very good at marketing.” I stifled a laugh and held my tongue. The reason: She said this as she was retooling her business model to include something produced by me. And it was something I hadn’t asked…

6 Ways Freelancers Are Leaving Money on the Table

Posted on by lwidmer

I mentioned in my last post that in 2021, I left way too much money on the table. I undercharged. Given the huge amount of work I had, that was a serious oversight. No tears for me — I still had a phenomenal year. But if I’d been paying attention, I could have retired in…

The 2023 Freelancer: Building Your Value

Posted on by lwidmer

Last week we talked about where your freelance rates should be. Hopefully it has you thinking about how to raise your rates with freelance clients. Perhaps too you’ve been thinking about what you bring to the table. What are those things you do that keep clients coming back? Those things, my friend, are valuable. They…

Freelance Rates: Where Should Yours Be?

Posted on by lwidmer

It’s 2023, writer: Do you know where your rate is? If it’s still at the same level it was a few days ago in 2022, you’re cheating yourself. I mentioned this several times over the last year: I spent 2021 undercharging (and overworking) and lost a shit-ton of money as a result. In fact, had…

Using Freelancing to Combat Racism

Posted on by lwidmer

My friend related this story to me a while ago. It bears repeating. She was driving home from her sister’s and was within a mile of her house when she saw the lights flashing behind her. She pulled over, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong. The officer approached her car window and asked…

Sharon Hurley Hall

Lori, I’m so happy to see you taking a stand. As writers, we’re in a great position to get the word out. I look on it as using my gift for good.

1. lwidmer
  
  My efforts pale in comparison to yours, Sharon. But every little bit is a step in the right direction. 🙂
Cathy Miller

When you think about it, writers are professional communicators. How we interact with others is communication at its most basic. Racism is not a political issue. It’s about violating human rights and should not be tolerated or accepted.

P.S. Sharon, your gift shines.

1. lwidmer
  
  Posts like this one are why I wish there was a “love” button on WordPress. Thank you, Cathy. Couldn’t have said it any better. 🙂
2. Cathy Miller
  
  We all agree on the like/love button. 🙂
Paula Hendrickson

Excellent post, Lori. Your “plant a seed, water it and eventually it will sprout,” analogy is true. Only with so many weeds trying to choke each seedling out, we need to be sowing entire fields.

A former neighbor of mine was raised with a racist, bigoted “us/them” mentality. The only thing that ever got her to think beyond her own preconceived ideas was reframing things and asking her how she would feel, react, or behave in similar circumstances. She didn’t take well to hearing facts or lectures, so empathy was the only approach that worked. Nearly every conversation I had with her included a bit of reframing, but she eventually befriended neighbors from India (who she was suspicious of when they first moved in because she couldn’t tell “what” they were), became the go-to babysitter for an interracial couple who lived next door to her, and even got to know our Cuban, Mexican, Black, and Jewish neighbors as well as the white ones. Her life was all the richer for it, too.

I was looking for a like/love button for the replies, too, Lori!

1. lwidmer
  
  That’s a great story of transformation, Paula. I’m glad she found that people are good and that preconceived prejudices are stupid.
  
  I’ve often thought that people convicted of hate crimes or discrimination should be ordered to work and/or live in the communities they are doing harm to. Ignorance isn’t blotted out with words, but with experience and understanding.
Devon Ellington

Excellent post, Lori.

I’m relieved that there’s more diversity here than in my last location. I regularly challenged, in the previous location, white people for racist remarks, especially to staff in stores, restaurants, and libraries. I gave a colleague from the artist networking group a ride home one day and was pulled over by the cops and asked why I had “that kind” of man in my car (it was a black man), and did I need help.

Let me point out that the regular harrassement I received at that last location, attempts to run me off the road repeatedly, and where I filed multiple police reports, were only done by white men with Trump flags/stickers on their vehicles.

There was also, every spring, the spate of editorials in the newspapers about the need to “hide” the homeless or “transport them” somewhere else, so they “wouldn’t upset the tourists.” Most of the homeless in that area where Brazilian or Indigionous or Cape Verdean. Also, in that area, only 2% of the population is black, so there was a LOT of racism. Every day. In stores, in restaurants, at the library where I worked for two years, in the nonprofits that were supposed to combat it, in the churches, at the resorts. . .it was disgusting. And, since the 2016 election, it got exponentially worse. Whenever I wrote counter letters to the editors, asking why weren’t solutions being created to solve the problem of homelessness (and then listing several actionable steps on both personal and political levels), rather than trying to hide them so as not to upset the tourists, the editors deemed those letters “inappropriate” for publication. I brought it up with my State Senatar, and we did some work on the issue, but the general consensus among the housed population there is that the homeless “must have done something to deserve it.”

A former boss was constantly making comments, using ALL the quotes you have above, but, you know, “wasn’t a racist” because she had a black employee. I said, “If you’re not a racist, then don’t make racist comments. It’s not hard.”

I’m watching for it where I live now (because it must exist, it exists everywhere). I hope it’s not as bad as at The Previous Location. I never feel like I’m doing enough. Thank goodness for Sharon’s work; it teaches me constantly, and helps me strive to do better, both personally and professionally.

I’m so sick and tired of the worst people getting away with it all the time.

1. Devon Ellington
  
  Another comment: I do think we have to be careful with this “racists are really good people who don’t know better” fairy tale. In some cases, such as the case of Paula’s neighbor, perhaps it is true. But I have yet to meet a racist who wasn’t also a vile human being in other areas of their lives. Often, it is a choice that makes them feel good about themselves as superior and powerful. I don’t agree with coddling them and giving them a pass for “not knowing better.”
  
  My mother had never met or even seen a black person until World War II, when she metblack American soldiers after escaping from Russian prison camp. She didn’t assume they were inferior. She wasn’t frightened of them because of skin color (although she was wary, because it was American soldiers — and a white commanding officer — who initally turned the group of people she traveled with over to the Russians and were the reaosn she was in prison camp to begin with). She was interested in them as fellow human beings with different experiences.
  
  Racism doesn’t have to be a default. More often, it’s a choice.
2. lwidmer
  
  Thank you, Devon. Very thoughtful comments.
  
  It is very much indeed a choice. I’ve seen patterns of behavior over the years in the ones who are clearly racist. They’re the quickest to judge ANYONE in any situation. They tend to insult as a joke. They’re the first to say, “Get over it” when their own behavior is unacceptable to someone else. They’re the ones who tell the off-color jokes that put down another demographic or three. And I’m not going out on a limb to observe that a lot of these same people did indeed vote for Trump (from personal experience only). He talks the way they’ve always wanted to talk. Basically, he took the muzzles off.
  
  And they are the ones who bitch about not being able to say anything that would offend while at the same time bitching because they were offended. Double standards run pretty rampant.
  
  I tend to live and let live. What I won’t do is tolerate racism or the diminishing of anyone at the hands of people who don’t show any regard for anyone other than their own circle. I’ve called out quite a few who post “jokes” that are racist and antisemitic. I’ve told people directly why I’m no longer interested in being in their orbit. And the level of ignorance displayed in some of their responses was astounding. One person actually said, “I can look beyond the racism and just enjoy the joke.” You cannot tell someone that thick that when racism IS the joke, it’s not funny on any level.