What are my two top pieces of advice to potential freelance writers?

1.) Specialize

2.) Successful freelancer writers don’t just write for money, they run freelance writing businesses. And running a business is a lot like work. If you’re ready to make a fortune in your first year and you’re allergic to 60 hour weeks, then this profession might not be for you.

If that didn’t scare you off, here’s some of my best advice to new freelancers on how to actually get started:

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 1

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 2

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 3

Here are some books and ebooks you should purchase and devour (I don’t read a ton of ebooks so this list may grow at a later date):

The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman

Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career by Jenn Mattern

And here are some blogs you should read religiously.

If you don’t use an RSS feed reader, start doing that today. Believe me, you’re going to need it in your career.

All Freelance Writing

Freelance Writing Jobs

Angela Booth’s Writing Blog

Freelance Switch

Freelance Folder

This blog, The Life and Times of a Freelance Writer

I also recommend following my Facebook group, “Jennifer Escalona – Writing Job Leads (Now with Wisdom!)” Maybe you’ll find a job and learn a little something in the process.

Finally, do you know why I really wrote this blog post? So that the next time somebody asks “Hey, have any freelance writing tips for me?” I have a place to send them. As a freelance writer, you’re going to be busy hustling to make a living. Every little shortcut you can make for yourself is another billable hour you can charge somewhere down the line.

Now get to work, newbie. Freelance writing careers don’t start themselves. And before I forget…

Welcome to our world!

You see, I’m asking this question for a hypothetical friend, Yennifer Jescalona. Yennifer is a fiction writer who chooses to keep her freelance writing portfolio on point by only including business writing. On the other hand, she was recently offered a freelance writing job because the client felt that her fiction “stood out.” That, of course, presents Yennifer with a problem:

Do fiction stories have a place in the freelance writer’s portfolio?

Why They Do – Like the client said, they make you stand out. Not only can you write a killer landing page, you have the capacity for creative thought, can tell that story on paper, and have been recognized by your peers for it.

Why They Don’t – In my… Yennifer’s line of work, she’s not going to get asked to write fiction, therefore fiction stories included in a portfolio are distracting and off point. Further, fiction is highly subjective. If you were in Yennifer’s place, a potential client could be thrilled about your work and then put off by the subject matter or tone of your fiction, thus costing you the job.

So Yennifer and I want to know – should the fiction stay in the portfolio and serve as a conversation piece, or stay where it belongs, on the bookshelf? Even if you aren’t a night time fiction writer, I look forward to hearing your opinion.

I.e. Truth Serum

Now, I covered most of my tips on getting started freelance writing on this very blog in my Quick and Dirty Guide to Landing Freelance Writing Jobs Parts One, Two and Three, but by no means am I the final word on the right and wrong way to start freelancing. Goodness knows I’ve made my fair share of mistakes (like the time I went months thinking one of my male clients was female.)

So I thought I would mine the crowd and find out what you, my fellow freelance writers, consider the most important piece of advice to the newbies in our field. Is it to specialize? (I’m looking at you, Yolander.) Is it to charge enough? (I see you over there, Jenn Mattern.) Or is there another jewel of wisdom, germ of truth, or crystal of clarity you think a group of new and pristine writer-lets needs to hear?

My intention is to compile your advice onto a handout to give out at the seminar, complete with a link to your blog so that these chickadees can go straight to the source of all this great advice. So hit me with it. If had a newly minted freelance writing sitting across from you, what you would tell him or her?

(Unrelated, but this is the Life and Times of a Freelance Writer’s 100th post! Huzzah!)

Now, at first I looked at this quirk as a productivity killer. If I wait for an interval to write the last paragraph, I end up opening each file three or more times (because proofreading and editing is a whole other can of worms) and getting into the writing mindset for even the shortest pieces at least twice. Plus, knowing that I have this quirk, I have to schedule extra time for some pieces.

Lately though, I’ve decided to embrace the quirk. First, I’ve noticed that pieces I dash off – yes, I am guilty once in awhile when a client needs something in a rush or when grad school is in session – just aren’t as good as the pieces I’ve let sit and stew for awhile. Second, the process just works for me. Instead of telling myself that I need to be like everyone else and write an article in one sitting, I’ve embraced my style. Whether it’s the last paragraph or the last sentence, I just need a little distance and thought before I can write a paragraph to tie everything together.

And in conclusion, who’s to say that “everyone else” writes articles in one sitting? I’m sure you guys have as many quirks, flaws and foibles as I do when it comes to your writing. Care to share?

(And no, I did not let this blog post sit and gel before writing the last paragraph. Let’s see if it suffers for that!)

]]> http://blog.jennescalona.com/2009/07/20/writers-what-are-your-writing-quirks/feed/ 10 http://blog.jennescalona.com/2009/06/01/what-constitutes-a-conflict-of-interest-for-a-freelance-writer/ http://blog.jennescalona.com/2009/06/01/what-constitutes-a-conflict-of-interest-for-a-freelance-writer/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:00:36 +0000 Jenn Escalona http://blog.jennescalona.com/?p=428 Conflicts of interest pop up everywhere. Judges have to recues themselves from cases when they know a defendant personally because that is a conflict of interest. Politicians have to turn down cabinet positions due to potential conflicts of interest. Even that ad agency on Mad Men had to put Pete through all kinds of daddy-issue induced hell because they wanted a new airline client and representing two clients in the same industry would have been a conflict of interest. So do we freelance writers experience conflicts of interest?

Just to be on the safe side, I looked up the definition of “conflict of interest.”  Apparently the phrase dates from 1843 and means:

A conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust

Aside from breaking the rule of using a word in a phrase to define the phrase (and you call yourself a dictionary, Merriam-Webster.com!?), this seems to imply that only people in positions of great power can even experience conflicts of interest.  I’m not saying that we writers aren’t pretty powerful folks. In fact, I think that, if the agency on Mad Men has them, then we may very well end up with conflicts of interest, too.

But I’m really not sure how to pinpoint them. Do you know? Take a look at the scenario and hypothetical* questions below and tell me in the comments what you think.  You’ll notice that I answer the first question with authority, but become progressively more confused as the questions progress.

Scenario: Writer X has two local doctor clients. Both doctors and in the same neighborhood, practice the same kind of medicine and offer the same benefits to their patients.

Q1:  Doctor A wants Writer X to create marketing materials for her practice while Doctor B wants Writer X to create an information packet he intends to distribute to other doctors. Is that a conflict of interest?

A: No, this would not be a conflict of interest. Though both doctors may be competing for the same patients, Writer X is not helping both doctors compete for patients. The actual projects she is working on do not conflict.

Q2: Now Doctor B has realized that Doctor A is taking his patients, and he wants Writer X to also make him some fancy marketing materials like she made for Doctor A. Is that a conflict of interest?

A: Possibly. This sounds like the Mad Men conflict to me. While writers should be professional and give the same level of service to all clients, perhaps she secretly likes one doctor better and (perhaps unintentionally) makes his marketing materials sparkle. Plus, Writer X’s work is basically competing with itself in the same market. On the other hand, while she made the marketing materials, the argument can be made that the marketing materials only highlight what is already there (i.e. the doctor’s experience, features of the practice, etc.) and so it’s still really the doctor and not the marketing materials that makes the final sale. Back on the first hand, a conflict of interest is present when “even the appearance of impropriety” occurs, not just when something improper happens. So, let’s say the writer made spectacular marketing materials for both doctors. Because she could have somehow sabotaged one doctor’s copy is she involved in a conflict of interest?

Q3: Now let’s get down to the real conflict. We’ll call this question “Doctor Thunder Dome.” Doctor A and Doctor B are both up for the exact same award. The award pays a lot of cash and is judged solely on an essay. (Shush, I know this is implausible but I’ve taken the analogy this far so bear with me.) Both Doctors A and B ask Writer X to write their essays. Is this a conflict of interest?

A: Yes! At least, if it is not, it should be. Writer X will basically be competing against herself here. I cannot see any way that Writer X could feel comfortable taking on this assignment. And look at it from the doctors’ shoes: how would they feel if they knew that their essay and their biggest competitor’s essay were written by the same person? On a slightly different note, does it change when a cash reward is at stake? One would think that the income earned through patients gained through marketing materials are the equivalent of this cash reward, or are they?

A more real world example of this type of conflict might happen to a grant writer. Grant Writer Y might be contracted by two small nonprofits to write grant proposals for the same money from the same foundation.  Though, once again, it should be the actual traits of the nonprofit and not the writing style of the writer that wins the grant money, we all know that the writing is vital. In my opinion this situation, too, would be a conflict of interest.

And what factor does time play in conflicts of interest? Say that Doctor B asked Writer X to design those marketing materials a year later? Does the conflict of interest have a statute of limitations or does the fact that the marketing materials still compete against one another take precedence? (I assume that it would.)

I’m opening this up to the freelance writing community. How would you answer the above hypothetical questions? Is merely working for two clients in the same industry a conflict of interest? Can we freelance writers even have conflicts of interest?  I look forward to your thoughts!

*Seriously, they are. I haven’t yet run into a questionable situation where I had to decide if something I did would be a conflict of interest. I’m not even sure what prompted this post other than simple curiosity.