How Panic Can Ruin Your Writing Career
Posted on 07 March 2008 by Sharon
Good planning is the bedrock of a successful freelance writing career. In contrast, running your career in panic mode will leave you overworked and stressed out - and probably earning less than you think.
The Panic Mode Scenario
When you run your writing career in panic mode, you start to worry every time you don’t see a steady flow of work. If you happen to be the main breadwinner, then this panic can escalate to paralysing levels. You’re so busy thinking about the absence of a bottom line that you end up doing something that will make your working life even harder.
Grab Any Job That Moves
Once you start to panic, then you feel compelled to take any job that comes along., even if the pay is low. After all, earning something is always better than earning nothing, isn’t it? I’ll come back to that question later. You only start to relax when you see a pleasingly full diary in front of you. Now all you have to do is do the work.
Overbooked And Underpaid
I’ll give you an example that happened to me a couple of years ago. Once, in this same situation, I took on a couple of jobs that I knew would bring in some funds. They were below my usual rate but they were bulk jobs, and I figured I needed the money.
My wake up call came when I put all the jobs into my diary, allocating a time slot for each of them. What I found was that I had booked up most of each working day with jobs that would only bring in half the money I needed. This was the direct result of panicking about an empty diary. Worse still, I had to spend so much time writing that I had less time for bidding and promoting. So, what could I have done instead?
An Alternative To Panic
Well, my strategy of taking a job below my usual rates was only half wrong. What I should have done is only take ONE of those jobs, not several. That would have given me:
- some basic income coming in so I wouldn’t need to panic
- time to bid on other, more lucrative jobs
- time to promote my writing services
In the long run, promoting myself and bidding on better paid writing jobs would have been a better move. So that’s my advice. The next time there’s a shortage of writing work, redouble your promotional efforts and put your bidding on steroids. You’ll soon ride out the slump and put your freelance writing career back on track.
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March 8th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hi Sharon,
What you’ve said is so very true. A freelance career is one that definitely requires preparation and thought because you are working today for not only the money you are earning but the type of jobs you’ll have down the road. Very sage advice!
March 8th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Thanks, Dana. We all need to do some career planning, don’t we? In fact, I can feel another post coming on.
March 8th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Ah, I identify with a lot of this. While we haven’t necessarily hit full-on panic mode for a while, it still looms large. I especially know what you mean about taking on too many little projects just so you can fill up your calendar.
March 8th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
This is a good article, Sharon, as I’m presently going through a minor drop in my business and have been tempted to pick up a couple of lower paying positions to see me through. Instead, I’ve decided to wait it out as I believe sunnier days are just ahead of me.
I discovered/stumbled this page too.
March 8th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
@lornadoone: Yes, and there’s always the temptation to have projects in the bank, but there are only so many hours in the day for writing.
@Matt: thanks, Matt. Whenever I’ve succumbed to the temptation, I suddenly get a lot of better paid jobs that I don’t have enough time for. If you can afford to wait a while, it usually pays to do that.
March 8th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Ah, panic mode. I was like that pretty much all the time when I first started out. Seems like long ago, but really it wasn’t.
I did the overbooking for not enough pay thing a few times before I learned. Guess I’m slow.
Now my panic mode is a bit different. I’m so used to being so busy with really well-paying gigs that when I lose one I panic for no reason. I did this around December. I lost one guy and thought “I’ve got to replace him.” I started looking at the job boards again, asking around for work. Then it hit me, I have enough money now that I don’t have to find anything else. It wasn’t long before someone new came along, making my panic mode completely useless even if I had needed the money. Hopefully I’ve learned this panic lesson for next time!!
March 9th, 2008 at 1:20 am
You hit it right on, Sharon. I once wound up in a long-term project that was waaaay below my pay grade, just because I was worried about getting food on the table for my kids!
Two weeks into the project, my best client called me up and needed a rush job. I did it, of course, but it took me two 60+ hour weeks to get a handle on things.
I think that the panic you talk about is completely par for the course when it comes to any small business, not just freelance writing. I have a good friend who does appraisals. Last month was a slow month for him, so he pounded the pavement pretty heavily. To make the long story short, he wound up having to turn down business just this past week because he can’t keep up with the new work he generated combined with what his old standby clients needed.
I think, to some degree, the holy grail of Internet freelancing has to be recursive income. Whether it is ongoing income from a content-based web site, or whether it is recursive affiliate income or recursive performance payments from article directories, having a steady flow of cash beyond our latest projects helps to keep us steady. If you can get to the point where half of your income is recursive, it makes life a little easier.
You can’t put all of your eggs in one basket, and recursive income declines over time, but it is nice having that safety net in place. When I find my planner is only half full now, I do a little marketing or sales and take a third of the day off.
March 9th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Great advice, Sharon!
I think we all have to learn where to draw the line, because not only are there just so many hours in the day but our energy level is finite!
Thanks for reminding us!
Jeanne
March 9th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
@Amy: You’re not the only one to have done that more than once. It’s still a temptation sometimes, but I fight it because I know it’s not the best option.
@Bob: You are so right. Whether you’re talking client base or income sources, it pays to diversify.
@Jeanne: Jeanne, that much overused phrase ‘work smarter, not harder’ applies to this situation, I think.
March 9th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
How right you are, Sharon!
In one sense, at least, I think the phrase “work smarter, not harder” isn’t used enough: We don’t practice it nearly as often as we should.
Jeanne
March 9th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
This takes me back. I was at this ‘panic’ stage of my career for almost four years. I’ve been at all stages of the writer’s journey in the last 7 years.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I have done exactly the same things Sharon, and then when other things go wrong it is all too easy to get yourself caught in a backlog.