Freelance Writing Job Mindset
Developing a freelance writing job mindset quickly will have you earning money more quickly.
Every freelance writer has one thing in common: at some point, he or she had to complete her first freelance writing assignment. Landing that first job is at once a very heady experience and incredibly daunting, and I have found that the more money a job is worth, the more those butterflies in my stomach are likely to flutter.
I don’t know if this is true for every freelance writer, but I do know that the ones I have talked to had a very similar experience. My first few freelance writing jobs on the Internet were fairly (you should read that VERY) low paying, so I was not too worried about writing some kind of masterpiece. Shortly after I discovered bidding sites for finding jobs for freelance writers, however, I found that the jobs increased in value, as did my anxiety.
The first freelance writing job that I landed that really gave me pause, and highlighted the importance of a freelance writing mindset to me, was a contract to write a book about weddings. I got the job mainly because I had experience writing in the area previously (I used some of my low paid articles as samples), and it was a vast sum compared to what I usually made on a contract ($650 US).
After my initial feeling of ecstasy faded, the fear set in. Would I really be able to write a booklet that was worth $650? Were my research skills up to it? Where did I begin?
Over-analyzing the job soon proved paralyzing (actually this is a nice little kitsch phrase, and it’s common in many different businesses, check out this article), and I started to put the job off. Here’s what got me back on track.
Deadline consciousness
As this was my first big writing job, I knew that at some point I had to get writing it. There’s nothing for breaking a block like an approaching deadline, although with subsequent jobs I have found that this inspiration starts to work less well.
The realization that this could lead to more business
Perhaps the most important motivating factor in the mindset of the freelance writer is the knowledge that doing a good job for a client will almost always lead to more work. You may receive more than one freelance writing job from the same client, or you may gain a valuable referral that can get you another well paid freelance writing assignment, usually more than one.
Taking it head on
After a few weeks of procrastination and dread, I finally just sat down at my computer and started to type out what I knew about weddings. Eventually the form the book would take, including chapter organization, came to me and everything came together beautifully.
That last step is what has got me through many, many mental block situations when it comes to writing. You will be surprised at how many different things your brain can conjure up when it comes to avoiding the work you need to do to complete a freelance writing job; the trick is to sit down and just get started. Use everything you can think of as motivation, and once you find yourself starting to type you will generally be home free.
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