Why You Should Stop Thinking About Becoming a Freelance Writer
Yesterday I was reading Loral Langemeier’s Yes! Energy: The Equation to Do Less, Make More, and she mentions that many people have a “be-do-have” attitude, meaning they feel they need to get their mental lives in order and do a lot of thinking before they can take action towards their goals.
I can see this in a lot of writers. They take course after course but never do the homework. They read blogs and ask questions and read books and make plans — but they never take action.
A better way to get started as a freelance writer is to adopt the mantra “do-be-have.” I’ve mentioned here that feelings don’t beget action…actions beget feelings — meaning that you don’t need to be inspired or in the right mindset to take action, but that if you take action, you’ll find that your mindset changes accordingly.
Steve Pavlina calls it “ready-fire-aim.” Many people — new writers especially — get ready, they take aim — and then they aim, aim, aim, without ever firing. Better to get ready, fire, and then re-aim as needed. You may make mistakes, but at least you’ll be moving along the path instead of stuck at the beginning.
Trust that if you just get started with writing up a pitch, building a writer site, or sending out sales letters or letters of introduction, you’ll be able to figure it out as you go along and deal with any issues that come up.
That’s what I did: When I decided I wanted to become a freelance writer, I consulted with one successful copywriter for one hour, read one book on how to write a query letter, wrote a query letter, and sent it out to several places I found in Writer’s Market. I hadn’t even read any of the magazines!
That first burst of action landed me a $500 assignment and launched my career, which has spanned 15 years and which lets me earn full-time income working part-time hours.
I challenge you: Stop thinking and take one step towards your writing goal. Don’t analyze, don’t ponder, don’t overthink, don’t worry — just bite the bullet and get something out there.
I’ll bet it gives you a motivational boost to put even more of your work out there.
Try it now. What happened? Let us know in the Comments!
If you liked that post, you might also like:
- 4 LOI Mistakes That Will Cause a Prospect or Editor to Trash Your E-mail
- The Easy Way to Get More of Your Work Out There — Even If You’re Not Feeling Confident
- The Ultimate Guide to Recycling Query Letters
- 7 Steps to Freelance Writing Success Through Positive Thinking
- 3 Reasons Other People Are Pissing on Your Parade — And What You Can Do About It
Jul 2, 2012 Advice, Motivation
Exactly! You just gotta go there and start selling your writing and editing skills. It’s been 4 years that I started to write and edit, and if I hesitated even once along the way, I wouldn’t be where I am today. There are going to e disappointments and anger. You just need to be strong and persistent!
Thanks for the inspirational comment!
So true.
However, a lot of people like the IDEA of writing better than the actual writing. Earning a living as a freelancer means you show up at the page and do the work every day, whether you feel like it or not, you hone your skills (grammar, spelling, structure, etc.), and you add that extra bit of creativity that sets you apart from the pack.
I tell my students all the time, “You don’t think for a week to write for an hour. You think for an hour and write for a week.”
Thank you, Devon! You’re so right…there are a lot of people who don’t want to write….they want to have written.
Boy, does this hit home! I finally fired off my first query letter a couple of weeks ago and landed a local assignment. I did have some published articles to back me up but it took me four clips to feel confident enough to pull the trigger. “Read, fire, then re-aim” is a great philosophy!
Wow, congrats! I hope you’ll keep sending, because it really is a numbers game!
HA! Are you KIDDING me!!? I need to actually DO something?? AUGH! LOL
I nearly spit my Mountain Dew when I read you wrote the same query letter and sent it to several mags from Writer’s Market and GOT them!! Holy COW! I’ve had that book sitting on my desk For- ev- er thinking I needed to read all the mags I wanted to pitch to! Chica, THANK YOU! Thanks for letting me know it’s OK to take action! You R O C K!
Haha… I’m guessing you never read our book The Renegade Writer! That’s one of the rules we break. Of course, look at the mag if at all possible, but if not don’t let that stop you.
HAHA! Busted! Um, I’ll be checking that out ASAP! LOL
Thanks again for the powerful info today!
I definitely mulled the career change for some time before I took the plunge. First, I bought my own laptop (had been sharing with hubby), then a few months later I purchased Writers Market, six months later I attended my first writers conference. What spurred me into action were the students at the conference, many of whom attended several in the past yet had not been published. A month after the conference I had my first published article under my belt. It paid little but was the incentive I needed to push on. I don’t like having regrets but I do think action is better than inaction any day. Thanks for a great post!
Interesting! It’s like you experienced reverse inspiration from that conference.
Most people succeed because they had the guts to try. We’re training folks in school to keep getting “Ready.” Oh, you just need to do “this” and then “that.” Or get yet another degree.
Forget it!
I said I was a freelance writer from the beginning. At first I got rejections, but eventually those turned into nice letters encouraging me to keep sending them stuff, and then those turned into acceptance letters. I’m about to try something else, so it’s good timing to hear your story of just doing it.
Thanks! Giulietta
Love your attitude. Good luck with your next business!
Great advice. Thanks for a good dose of Monday inspiration tempered with reality check.
Thank YOU for reading! I’m happy you liked it!
Hi, Linda!
Love this post; it’s “write” on the mark. I’m currently taking AWAI Accelerated Course for Copywriting and your dead on about the homework.
Part of the homework in this course is to read the sales copy given 10 times, then write it out 3 more times . . . by hand! Boy, do I have writer’s cramps. At first, I didn’t understand why it had to be by hand and not on the computer. But after slogging through them, I see the advantage. It forces you to slow down and really analyze the copy.
Thanks again for this post,
Steve Maurer
Maurer Copywriting
Wow, what an interesting assignment! And I’ll bet a lot of writers skip that one, thinking they can skate by without it.
Yeah, the instructions stated that many would skip it. But by the time I wrote out the third one of each, I could almost do it by heart.
An added benefit, and this was probably the entire point, was that I went back to my own site and rewrote the home page. It was amazing how differently it read after that.
I really want to make a career change too and would a job that would let me travel. I saw this article: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/travel/2012/top-10-travel-jobs/. Teaching ESL and joining the peace corp sound a bit of a stretch for me, but if I could become a freelance consultant or writer, I would be so happy. I really appreciate more specific advice though.
How cool that you want to freelance! Take a look around the blog…we have over 1,000 posts that can help you, as well as a free packet of query letters that worked for other writers.
I’ve been thinking and reading about writing for most of my life. I am stuck because I constantly read that I must have a website, business email that’s not gmail or yahoo, and etc etc etc. Then I get stuck because I can’t think of a name for the website as I have a very common name and all versions of it has been taken. Then there is the whole issue as whether to LLC or not. I’m so frustrated.
Hi, Deborah!
First, many writers do use a gmail address. It’s becoming more acceptable. I would, however, stay away from hotmail and other “personal-type” emails.
Secondly, don’t try to overthink the website name thing. If you can use your name, great. If not, try variations that include the type of writing you do. For example, I am a copywriter, so “maurer-copywriting.com” fits. Dont’ forget that you can use hyphens and some other characters in the name.
By the way, if you use a self-hosted site, you can probably get an email account (or several of them) that match. My email: steve@maurer-copywrting.com .
As for the LLC question: I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t advise you on that one completely. However, unless you’re writing something that you could get sued for, I wouldn’t worry about that. That being said, consult an attorney for a definitive answer.
With all of that, don’t wait until you get all of your ducks in a row before you get started. You’ve got the desire; act on it now. I don’t know what type of writing you do, but just get started doing it.
Steve
Thanks for your great advice, Steve! I was going to say the same thing — start NOW and you can deal with whatever you need to deal with as it comes up. No point in envisioning everything that might happen as you start to freelance and then worrying about it — cross those bridges when you come to them.
Hi! I’ve followed your blog off and on for years but this is the first comment that I’ve left. Thanks for the very timely reminder that it’s all about action . . . it’s so easy to get stuck in a rut when first starting out.
I’m actually in a bit of a rut right now that I’ve been trying to work through. I have no problem sitting down to work (that’s what I love most!); however at this starting point in my career I find that I don’t know what to work on. I know the common advice is to just start sending query letters, but I haven’t had any good article ideas for quite some time now. I’m not sure if this is a common problem that is resolved by simply filling the creativity well, or if I’m missing some crucial part of the business altogether.
Thanks for all the info one your website! It’s very well done.
Thanks for reading us for so long, Bri! A wise person (Diana) once told me to just pick ANYTHING and get started on it. Anything from your to-do lisy related to writing will get you closer to your goals, and there’s no right or wrong thing to do.
As for article ideas, check out Diana’s Become an Idea Machine workshop, which starts on September 10…she’s had students land in the nYT (three of them), Parenting, and more.
Hope to see you around the comments!