What You Probably Don’t Know About Freelance Writing

To many people, writing professionally is a dream that never seems to come true. Sure, they dream about quitting their day job and writing for a living. They perceive writing as an easy life, but it’s far from it.

Articles on freelance writing often present writing as a glamorous profession. While a few writers achieve celebrity status, most live with the day-to-day struggle of finding work and paying bills. Doesn’t sound very glamorous, does it?

Some people work just to make money and many don’t really enjoy what they do. And while writing can be a more fulfilling occupation than working in an office handling expense reports or working in a fast food restaurant, the writing life can be hard and stressful if you’re not prepared. You’ll have to constantly search for new markets, make deadlines, work through times of little or no work, and manage finances. This last item is what brings down most beginning freelance writers.

Were you good at math in school? At the time, you probably had no idea how math might play a role in your success or failure of your freelance business. As a freelance writer, you’ll have to keep track of your expenses, report taxes, and manage submissions. Unless you’re independently wealthy, you’ll need a budget that allows you to keep a roof over your head, food on the table, and the Internet powered up. That means you’ll need accurate record keeping to stay ahead of your bills. And you’ll have to be able to predict income throughout the year and figure out percentages of income at year’s end.

If you’re imagining being able to do what you want and living the life of Reilly, think again. You’ll need to be organized and disciplined. Record keeping will become a big part of your life. After all, you’ll be in business for yourself. Too many writers don’t see the similarity between what they do and what their dry cleaner or auto mechanic do. Both are owners of small businesses.

You’ll also need to back up information. You never know when you’re computer will unexpectedly die and you’ll lose all your data. You have to plan for fires, floods, and other catastrophes. So you’ll need to keep excellent records that you save in multiple locations.

To be a successful freelancer, you have to take risks. Someone once said that freelance writers should be brave enough to jump off a bridge even though they can’t see the water beneath them. You’ll have to believe that you’ll continue to find work, even though you may only have a handful of projects assigned at any given moment. If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions to become a freelance writer, they’ll never come.

Ask any freelance writer if what they do is worth it, and just about all will tell you—without hesitation---that they wouldn’t do anything else.

Dealing With Emotional Block

All writers suffer emotional stress from time to time. Some get through it fine but for others it can be devastating. The three top emotional stressers are the death of a loved one, the end of a long-time, loving relationship, and the onset of major physical problems. But there are many more. Dealing with any of these requires a full-time effort. Even the most creative person cannot work when such heavy burdens settle in.

For even the most emotionally stable of writers, dealing with difficult emotional situations can place a lot of stress on the creative process. Being creative is work. If you’re having toruble thinking that indicates impeded flow, just like the flow of water through the pipes in your house. If something blocks the flow, nothing comes out at the other end.

The creative process is more than what you write. There’s also a part that happens invisibly, under the surface. That’s when your senses perceive the world around you and your heart and mind are thrown into dissonance. That’s when your soul stops responding.

Normally, your creative response doesn’t just pour out of your head. There’ s no such thing as pure expression. You formulate, strategize, order, and then articulate. It’s only that last part—at best about 25 percent—that shows as output or progress.

The sudden death of someone close to you can put you under a great deal of stress. Know from the start that the period of grieving will last from one to two years. Life gets better as the days pass by, but you will have to deal with it. It you find you’re unable to cope, get some grief counseling or join a support group.

Divorce can be traumatic, especially if your spouse has been having an affair. The main emotional trauma to deal with here is personal rejection by someone you’ve trusted, followed by self-doubt. When any long-term relationship ends—even one with a publication or one of your editors—you also need to grieve. While the process is as prolonged as when someone dies, it’s grieving nevertheless.

The sudden onset of an illness or a medical condition can be life changing. Besides medical care, what’s needed here is a lifestyle change. It may be that all the stress you’ve put yourself through as a writer finally catches up to you, causing your body to fail. If your medical condition can be dealt with, you’ll be able to go through rehab. And while that may get your body back in shape, you’ll also have to go through mental rehab. Severe or prolonged illness often brings on depression. Get help if you need it.

Another stresser is a perceived or actual lack of financial support. The cliched image of a starving writer working in a one-room garret is fiction. You need to have some sort of income otherwise your body won’t be in the best shape to create anything. You may have to face up to getting a part-time job to bring in enough income to eat and pay your bills.

Repeated rejection leading to making you doubt your ability as a writer can also lead to major stress. For some people, this is the primary cause of stress throughout their writing career.

So what are some ways of dealing with all of the above?

• First, get enough sleep. Your body, including your mind, works better when you have enough rest. Sleeping an extra hour can make all the difference.
  
• Cry. Yes, have a good cry. If the situation is that bad, you’ll get some emotional release by crying. If nothing else, it will make you feel better. But don’t let yourself get mired in the black hole of depression.
  
• Get support from family and friends. Tell those you trust what’s going on. While they may not be able to physically help you, they can lend moral support.
  
• Surf the Internet. See what tips you can find to help you deal with your problem. 

When faced with a decreased flow in productivity, many writers seek out the device or method to use to quickly raise production levels instead of asking themselves what might be interfering with their creative process. Let’s face it, most people today look for the easy way out. But there’s no easy way out of any of the above stressful situations. The best thing to do is just deal with it. 

Budgeting for Success

Freelance writing is one part creative skill and one part business sense. The only problem is that too many writers who get into this business don’t have much of the latter. Unfortunately, this came from what most learned in school—albeit subconsciously.

Writing has always been looked upon as an intellectual endeavor. Therefore, it shouldn’t be tied in any way to business. But when you’re in business to make money, having a bit of business sense is a prime concern. And if you’re going to make money in this business—at least enough to live on—then you have to know what’s coming in and what’s going out. If these aren’t relatively balanced, you’ll be out of business sooner than you think.

To keep tabs on your finances, you’ll need to create a budget based on what you’re spending now and what you predict you’ll spend in the not too distant future. The best way to do this is to create a budget sheet for each month for at least six months. Doing so will let you know if you’re going down the right marketing path and making enough money to cover your expenses. Once you know how much you can afford to spend based on your earnings, you’ll be able to take control of your finances. If you're always coming out in the red, you’ll find it easier to change your work patterns once you're faced with the actual figures.

One of the best ways to start budgeting is to faithfully record the details on your budget sheet. After you've recorded these for a month or two, you'll have a better idea of what sums to enter in your budget for the month. At the end of the year, add them up and divide by 12, putting the resulting figure in the proper slot, even though you may pay some bills quarterly, semiannually, or annually. With an accurate monthly record, you'll be able to more easily adopt counter measures if your receipts aren't tallying with your expenditures.

Lay out your budget sheet like this: Divide it into three columns.

The first lists your sources of income for that month, your uncontrollable expenses, and your net income (the first minus the second). Under that, list your regular expenses—mortgage or rent, gasoline, equipment, office supplies, utilities, travel, etc—and the their totals. At the bottom, create a line for profit or loss.

The second column lists the predicted and the actual amounts in each category in the first column.

The third column lists the predicted and actual totals for the year to date.

A budget sheet faithfully kept will show clearly where your problems lie. Are expenses in one category heavier than you imagined? Is disaster looming around the corner if you continue to work for a specific market? Where and how can you cut down on expenses? Will you have to negotiate for a higher fee from your best client? Should you aim for more sales volume? Do you need to consider getting a part-time job? Are you paying too much rent? Are you billing properly? Has your inventory of stories and ideas been turned over quickly enough?

Obviously, this budget sheet, too, needs to be balanced monthly. Be sure you carry over the figures on the following month's sheet where indicated. To accurately record figures on this sheet, you'll have to tally up those petty-cash slips you've collected. Keeping an account of each expense as it occurs will help you tremendously in following a budget plan.

Count in the current inflation rate when you're setting up your future budget pages, saving yourself from too many unpleasant surprises when new costs arise. For instance, is your phone/Internet plan slated to increase next year? What about your health insurance premium?

By keeping an accurate tally of your income and expenses, you’ll be able to tell when you may possibly be getting into hot water. If you don’t, you may find yourself reaching for that life preserver all too soon.

Augmenting Your Freelance Income

Basically there are three avenues to pursue to keep your freelance financial picture sunny: diligence in negotiating the best freelance deals, scouting for sources of augmenting that income from time to time, and adding secondary sources of income to the overall financial setup.

The prime ingredient in the discovery of funds to supplement income is your own ingenuity. People in other businesses have advantages you don't. They can, like the publisher of the magazine you write for, apply to numerous people to raise capital: customers, suppliers, insurance companies, banks, employees, other companies, venture-capital firms, investment bankers, and governments. If your business is a sole proprietorship, as is that of most freelancers, you don't have those options. The ability to get credit depends on your personal reputation. Third parties cannot invest in the business without incurring responsibilities for business debts as well. That usually means you have to rely on relatives or very close, good friends, which often isn’t a good idea.

If you’re thinking of getting a loan from your bank to tide you over, think again. In most cases, banks do loan small businesses money for operating capital or improvements, but freelance writing isn’t generally one of them. In fact, most banks don’t really consider you a small business. Plus, the loans they make to small businesses usually start at $50,000 or more.

An alternative to borrowing the money is applying for a grant. The pros and cons of public funding of writers are as numerous as the writers who do or do not get the grants. Living from grant to grant is much like living from paycheck to paycheck. The truth is that once you get on the grant merry-go-round, it’s hard to get off. Some writers actually write less and less the more they skipped from one grant to another since   it's easier to get a second and a third grant after you've got that first one. But getting that first grant can be a real challenge.

While there certainly are lots of grants out there, matching up their requirements to your situation is difficult. Let’s face it, if you want someone to give you money, you’ll need to fulfill their requirements. Also, one mistake on a grant application and you’re out. In fact, you may find writing a grant application harder than the writing you normally do. Grantors look for many things, least of which is good writing. For many writers, the chore of getting the grant in the first place may be more than it's worth. Searching for “writing grants” online will yield many sources.

Trying for prizes, on the other hand, may not be such a bad idea. If you have a novel on the back burner or if you write in a specialized field—travel, science, business, etc.), you may qualify for annual prizes given by a variety of organizations, some of which come with a cash award, no strings attached. Many prizes, even if they don't carry a cash award, will eventually help line your pockets, since the prestige of winning can be a feather in your cap and portfolio. If you do win a prize or receive an honor, milk it for all it’s worth. If you think you have a chance, take the time to fill out the forms and send in the required material.

Get creative when thinking up ways to bring in additional income. Perhaps you have an extra room in your house that you can rent out to a college student, or if times are especially tough, consider taking in a roommate or housemate to help meet your bills. You could also rent out equipment you have that you use only once in a while. Post notices everywhere, locally and online.

Lastly, consider selling items on eBay. While selling one or two items won’t bring in much, you could set up a sideline business selling items in a particular category such as collectibles. To do this successfully, you’ll have to set aside time to purchase inventory and pack and ship the things you sell. This will eat into your writing time, but money is money, no matter how you earn it.

If you look around you may find you have that other sources of income, no matter how small, that would help relieve the strain on your business budget.

Expanding Your Horizons

So you’ve managed to garner a bit of work in a few select markets. And the work you’ve received from them has been more or less steady. But you somehow feel that you could do more. Now may be the time to consider expanding your horizons.

Some freelance writers are generalists—writing about anything and everything that comes their way. Others write about a select groups of subjects, and still other specialize in one subject area. What one are you?

Have you exhausted the possibilities of your current markets? Might competitors of your present markets be interested in your work? You need to give this some careful thought. When pursuing new markets in the same subject area, you need to be cautious. Many editors of specialty magazines want you to write almost exclusively for them. If they get even the slightest indication that you’re writing for even one of their competitors, they’ll drop you like a hot potato. However, if that same editor has been holding off publishing your pieces and perhaps favoring other writers over you, then you should give his or her competitors a try.

What outlets have you ignored because you were too busy, disorganized, or too timid to try? If you have sufficient publishing credits behind you, it might be time to become more adventurous in your marketing? There may be markets that you tried long ago, and they rejected you? Remember, editors play musical chairs all the time. The editor that rejected your work has probably moved elsewhere by now. Even if he or she hasn't, try again.  Editors’ needs and preferences change. They're under constant pressure from their publishers to upgrade their operations.  Plus, your research and writing skills have most likely improved by now. And you may have a better idea of what they’re looking for. Your idea might be the very thing they've been searching for.

Have you been writing articles when you should have been putting together book proposals? Are you ready to write one? Beginning writers look at books as some sort of holy grail of writing. It’s probably because the authors get so much attention. And then there’s that author moniker. Isn’t it better to be an author than just a writer? Aren’t all authors writers anyway? Get off the impression bandwagon and decide if your skills are up to writing a book.  If so, think through some book ideas and pick the best, but not the most difficult, one.

Are you querying as many new markets with enough ideas to meet your financial goal by the end of the year? Don't worry about getting more acceptances than you think you can handle— remember the attrition rate on assignments. Remember, with rosier finances you can employ help or purchase better equipment.

Have you been promoting yourself as much as possible? Could you make yourself better known among editors and readers? All freelancers get caught up in the writing trap from time to time. As you receive more acceptances and assignments, your work load increases. And there’s only so much writing time in a day. What usually suffers is promotion since you aren’t literally bringing in cash with it in the present. Sometimes you just have to pay the bills and current cash wins out.

Should you write that novel that's been fermenting in your mind for so long? While this may be a great idea, it won’t bring in enough money to sustain you. A better compromise might be to write a series of short stories that you could self-publish as an ebook. Or perhaps work on a short non-fiction book that you can self-publish electronically or pitch to print publishers. Both will bring in some money while you work on your regular assignments.

By honestly answering the above questions, you’ll be able to plot a course for the months and years ahead while steering clear of unproductive paths as you broaden your horizons.