Creative Writing

Are you a responsible writer?  I’m in the process of learning a valuable lesson.  I sort of screwed up and it may have cost me a client.  Here’s the scoop.  With the influx of people contacting me for writing assignments, I accidentally misplaced one of the emails and totally forgot about someone.  Seriously, I forgot about them all together.

This person contacted me today to see how the article was coming along, and I had a panic attack.  As soon as I saw their name in the from field, I knew I was in trouble.  I sent them an apology letter and told them what had happened.  But more important, I took responsibility for my actions.  I didn’t make any excuses, like the dog ate my computer or anything like that.  I was honest and told them that I’d forgotten about the email.

This person sent a message back and sounded like they understood and had forgiven me, but I guess time will tell.  I went ahead and finished the article, then told the client that there was no charge.  I feel so guilty for spacing them off, that I didn’t think asking for money would be appropriate.  I had made a mistake but that doesn’t make it easier for a client who’s expecting an article on time.

In my real world life, I’m a Boy Scout leader.  One of the things I try to teach the kids, and my own children for that matter, is that we all must be responsible for what we do and say.  It’s the same thing for writers.  When someone asks us to write for them, we have to be responsible enough to do the work in a timely manner, and make sure that they’re happy with the end results.

I hope the client is happy with the article, and that they will come to me again in the future.  Though it’s true that stuff happens, it’s also true that we writers have an obligation to meet our deadlines and have the decency to be held accountable for what we put down into words.  When there are a few or a hundred other people out there reading the things we have to say, we need to take into consideration that those words may hit home with some.  We need to be responsible writers.

Holy Cow!!! It’s April and I haven’t posted anything new here. Guess I need to fix that. I do apologize for not posting anything new around here, but I’ve been very busy which is a good thing. I think I mentioned a few posts ago, about a friend of mine who went and told the world that if they were in the market for a great writer, they should look me up. Though I wasn’t sure my friend was in his right mind, I did appreciate what he did for me, and more so now.

I’m thrilled to admit that I have 5 clients that I write for on a regular basis. You have no idea how cool that is for me. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to be a professional writer. I had no idea what that entailed at the time, but I sure do now. So, here’s my take on what it is to be a real writer. For my real writing buddies out there, please bare in mind that I have had no official education in this area, I just knew this is what I wanted to do, and I did everything I could to see it happen. Ok, I guess you could call 10 years of trying to make things work on the Internet before getting to this point a formal education, but you know what I mean.

Ok, now for those of you who want to be professional writers, here’s what you need to be aware of. First of all, you will have clients who think you’re the greatest writer in the world, and you’ll have clients who will have you rework your articles a hundred times before they’re happy. You can’t please everybody no matter how hard you try. You will also have the client who will tell you pretty much what they want word for word. I used to hate these types of clients until it dawned on me that they were paying me to let them write the article. Well duh!!!

You will have periods when you think the work will never end. Guess what, it does. Just when you think you can’t handle one more assignment, it all goes away. First time this happened to me, I thought I’d done something wrong. Don’t take it personal. Unless your clients have come to you and said, “Hey, you suck”, it could just be that they’ve got all the articles they need or that they’re just out of money. This is when you need to have a few projects on the back-burner. I have several, sometimes way too many. Yeah, I’m one of those people who has too many irons in the fire.

You will also have clients who order a couple of articles, then suddenly won’t have the funds to pay you. This is where a writer’s life can get sticky. Depending on the client, you need to stay on top of this matter. Don’t be too overbearing, or they won’t pay at all. However, if you let it slide, you may never see your money. If you run into this, my suggestion is to send gentle reminders about once a week. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of reminding them. They’re busy people too. I can’t tell you what to do if they don’t pay you at all, as I haven’t run into this problem yet.

Finally, be prepared to bang your head against your keyboard on regular occasions. Some of the assignments that clients send you will have you tearing your hair out. You’ll be pretty sure that the client is a total nutjob and wants to take you with them. When this happens, my suggestion is to breathe in deep, close your eyes, then dive in with both feet. Sometimes riding the crazy train is a good thing.

Honestly, I can’t say if this is the life of every freelance writer. This is the way it works for me, and so far it’s been well worth the time. If you can take a little rejection, a lot of frustration, and find it within yourself to laugh off the garbage, then you’ll be a writer in no time. It only took me 10 years.