4 Things You Should Stop Doing Right Now
We writing bloggers are always telling you what to do: Study your markets. Build relationships with editors. Market, market, market.
But it can be even more important to talk about what not to do — and how to subtract career-damaging attitudes and practices from your life.
Stop doing this: Over-analyzing.
I recently had a mentoring client who wondered why an editor had rewritten her piece. Was the article that bad? Was the tone not right? The editor asked her to interview one source, but should she have included two just in case?
From the book Women Who Think Too Much, I learned that women especially tend to try to think their way out of situations, which in reality just keeps them mired in the muck of their overactive minds.
Instead of getting stuck in analysis paralysis, take action: Pick up the phone and call the editor to find out why she rewrote your piece, asked you to do something in a certain way you don’t understand, or made a comment you’re just not getting. It’s the only way to find out the truth of the situation.
Stop doing this: Sending LOIs to national publications.
Yes, I extol the virtues of the Letter of Introduction (LOI). They’re great for breaking into trade and custom magazines.
But sadly, they’re not so great at getting your foot in the door at Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Psychology Today, Parenting, or the rest of the glossy consumer magazines — unless you’re über famous.
These publications have hundreds of writers contacting them each week with well thought-out pitches, so if all you have to offer is “Here I am, don’t I rock?” then you’re going to look shabby next to the writers who approach the editors with stellar queries.
Not sure how to write a query letter? The next session of my 8-week Write for Magazines e-course starts in September 3, 2012, and the Basic version is Pay What You Want with a minimum payment of just $30. And…join my mailing list to get a free packet of 10 queries that rocked.
Stop doing this: Complaining about the writing business.
These days, editors who aren’t interested in your idea often don’t respond, even to send a rejection. Content mills pay pennies per word, if that. Some magazines are using citizen (read: free) journalists and bloggers to write their articles. Magazines are going under.
Suck it up.
Smart writers are using these difficult times to their advantage, riding the wave of exciting changes to build their bank accounts.
For example, I make a lot of my living mentoring and teaching writers who are sick of the content mills how to break out of that box and make a living freelancing. I also have mostly stopped pitching newsstand magazines and make most of my writing income from trade and custom publications.
Other writers are finding ways to earn income through their blogs by selling e-books and other products, finding underserved niches for their copywriting, and offering clients new media consulting and services.
The writers I hear complaining the most about the state of writing are the ones who are stuck in the past, mourning the way things used to be.
Ditch the negative and embrace the exhilarating changes that are taking place all around you in this industry.
Stop doing this: Apologizing for being a writer.
When someone asks what you do, do you tell them you’re a writer and then offer a caveat like “But I’ve never been published,” or “I’m doing it on the side while I work an unfulfilling day job” — or even no description or embellishment at all?
I just read Danielle LaPorte’s great new book The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms , and she talks about the importance of coming up with a cocktail line that stresses exactly what you do in the world.
For example, until I read this book, when people asked what I did for a living I’d say “I’m a writer,” cringing, and hope that the other person asked me what kind of writing I do or who I write for so I’d have the chance to prove that I’m an actual professional writer and not what she probably thinks: I work at the 7-11 while working on the fifth novel I’ll never send to publishers.
Now I say: “I write books and magazine articles, teach aspiring writers how to break into the business, and homeschool my 3-year-old son.”
Loud and proud, baby. How about you?
What else should writers all stop doing right this instant? Post your ideas in the Comments below! [lf]
If you liked that post, you might also like:
- 3 Ways to Escape the Content Mills and Earn More as a Freelance Writer
- Why I Haven’t Written a Query SInce 2010–And 5 Ways You Can Stop Querying But Still Make a Living as a Freelance Writer
- You Ask, I Answer: Do I Develop the Article Idea First or Find the Market First?
- Are Queries Dead?
- Why You Should Stop Thinking About Becoming a Freelance Writer
Jul 23, 2012 Advice, Motivation, Observations
I am so guilty of being the shrinking violet writer! I will definitely be working on that cocktail line…love the idea of emphasizing ‘What you do in the world’ instead of simply ‘What you do”. Nice post…thanks!
Thanks, GoodGravyBoat, I’m glad you liked it!
Writers should stop taking every bit of writing advice seriously. Most advice for writers is written as filler by busy “scrap writers”–people who scrape a living by writing on every possible subject in every possible place on subjects they may or may not know anything about. If you are going to write–do it. Write what you want to write and worry about selling it later. If that means you have to make a living elsewhere while you are writing, so be it. Try to write the best stuff you can and don’t add to the vast sea of printed trivia that surrounds us.
Thanks for your insights!
Over-analyzing got me stuck last month as I decided to make the switch to freelance writing instead of focusing on content mills. It is still the number one thing my marketing mentor tells me to stop doing.
I think another piece of advice we need to remember is what is known as the 5-to-1 rule on Twitter; for every one mention about your own work, make sure you provide or promote five other stories or authors/writers that you feel would benefit your readers, whoever they may be. I am sure that if an editor picked up one of your articles, and asked you to write more, that if they started following you on Twitter or elsewhere, they would not want to see your self-promotion day in and day out. They’d want to see that you have more to contribute to the world where you are not just thinking of your own interests.
I hope all goes well with the switch to freelance writing! And neat Twitter rule. Thanks!
Hi – this is my first visit to your site. I just surfed in when, oops, I should be writing!
That’s a great point about the cocktail line – I definitely need to work on that! And I liked your advice about moving with the times too. Good point.
Thanks, Kirsten, I’m glad the post resonated with you!
Geez, Linda – seriously, you nail it every time! Excellent post – no surprise there…If I haven’t said it enough, you’re amazing at what you do.
Wow, thanks, Ann! I’m turning all red over here…
Hi Linda!!! Too funny cause my typical response is I am a Freelance Web Writer…and then say…”which means I am unemployed”. Or I say, “which doesn’t provide me with a sustaining income so I need to find something else”.
Thanks for putting this out there cause I now realize I will only succeed as far as what I say to others as well as inside my head.
My new response will be that I am a Freelance Web Writer. I ghostwrite eBooks and write articles for my client’s websites and I homeschool my 3 year old son too;)
Cheers…Valarie
Nice to see you here Valarie! Let’s get those two homeschooled kids together for a playdate! And I’m glad that piece of advice was helpful. Don’t ever apologize for your writing!
Hi, Linda!
Great post. We hear so much about what we SHOULD do and not enough about what we SHOULD NOT do. It’s good to hear both sides so that we get some balance in our writing.
Steve Maurer
Maurer Copywriting
Merci, Steve!
The only reason I ever cringe as I tell someone I’m a writer is b/c I will likely be hit with “Oh! I have a great idea for a story! Let’s work together!” etc. I explained to a tour guide who started that conversation that I already worked fulltime as a writer and didn’t have room for more projects, to which he responded, “You can just set those aside to work on this one. It’s really important!” I wanted to say, “No, receiving a regular paycheck is really important. Why on earth would I want to set aside paying work to spend my time on something that would involve lots of research and writing without the promise of monthly income so that I can keep my house?” Sometimes I just want to lie and say, “I’m a bookkeeper.”
Ha ha, I sometimes get the same response! “You’re a writer? You totally have to write my story.” No, I totally don’t.
@EuniceKRiemer: A M E N !
Hi Linda,
Great wisdom. For me, writing is an outgrowth of my primary passion, which is being a pastor. I’m trying to figure out how it fits into the “system” of my life as I have a full-time ministry, a wonderful family, and a desire to share what I’ve learned with a broader audience.
It’s freeing to think that stopping something can actually move you forward. Thanks for the wisdom, as always.
– Joe
Thanks for your kind words, Joe! They do a lot of it in life coaching — asking you to subtract things from your life (annoyances, tolerations, obligations that don’t fulfill you) so the space can be filled with things that DO fulfill you.
Then I should be smelling like a rose, since I’m really only guilty of the first one: Over analyzing. My over analyzing manifests itself primarily with editing my writing. I simply cannot publish, send, or even stick on a refrigerator door–any writing without going back to edit it.
I was taught to proofread and, damnit, I’m proof reading and editing and parsing anything with my name attached.
Sometimes this editing is literally pointless because a note to a ten year old notifying them that daddy has left five bucks on the kitchen table is not going to win me any awards for literature.
Despite this, I’ve still been known to spend more than a few minutes debating whether I should compose said note with one succinct sentence or maybe stretch it out into two or three. Should I elaborate on my thesis statement, add a few colorful phrases here and there for comic relief, and finish with a thoughtful smidgen of alliteration.
Come to think of it, maybe I do have more problems than I first admitted.
Linda, maybe you should add a number Five.
Don’t Do This: Let Your OCD Run Amok or Waste Time On Senseless Pursuits.
Thanks for your comment! My husband is like you — takes him half an hour to write what should be a 2-minute e-mail…and he makes his living writing like us! Thanks for the suggestion of a number five — so many writers do this.