Words on a page

Each December, I take some time to go over how the current year’s freelancing went and to plan for next year. This year, though, I’ve decided to take another route. December has been a time to reflect on my freelance career.

I’ve been quite fortunate in that I’ve been able to make a good living over the last few years as a full-time freelance writer (mainly freelance technical writing). Even when I was working for The Man, my freelance writing brought in a decent to substantial portion of my income, and allowed me to express myself in ways that I couldn’t in my day job. Admittedly, that day job also involved writing but …

Regardless, I should be happy with what I’ve done and how my career has progressed. But on reflection, even at this early stage, I’ve come to realize that I haven’t really achieved many of the goals that I had when I started out as a freelance writer in the early 1990s. I won’t go into my usual feelings about not having done as much as I could.

In fact, I get the feeling that I’ve become more than just a little comfortable and complacent in what I’m doing. For me, that’s not a good thing. I really need to challenge myself. If I don’t, then writing really just becomes a monotonous exercise.

On top of that, I’ve come to the realization that I’m pulling myself in too many directions. Things are going fairly well, but I’m also feeling very fatigued mentally. There’s so much that I want to do, and so much that I need to do. The problem is giving those things a priority. And it’s becoming harder and harder to find time to tackle all the want to do projects.

The plan? Over the next few weeks, I’ll be doing a major re-evaluation of the direction in which I want my freelancing career to go. It could involve a number of minor tweaks. Or, a radical change could be in the air.

More on this in 2010.

Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com

To be honest, I’m not an obsessive counter. Not of words, or of how much I’ve written. OK, I’ve mentioned when I’ve broken some barriers, but strangely enough friends informed me of those numbers.

It’s not that I don’t pay attention to how much I’m writing on certain article assignments, but I can’t tell you off the top of my head how many words I’ve written since I started in this weird and wonderful business all those years ago. I bandy about the figure 1,000,000 words — articles, corporate, and technical writing. On top of that, all of the words that I’ve written in practice, in blog posts, or in things that were just never published. Could be more, might be less. But I like the thought of six zeros …

The other day, I was finishing off a rather productive week when the urge to count how much I’d written that week struck me. Where that urge came from, I don’t know. But I decided to give into it. And what I learned shocked me. In a good way. Aside from the corporate writing that I do during the day, I found that I write anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 words in my spare time. That include the articles that I write each week and anywhere from five to eight posts for the various blogs that I maintain.

Those numbers got me thinking. To be honest, I always feel that I’m not writing enough, and that I could do more if it wasn’t for … well, various factors. Including my own innate laziness. But maybe that impression is dead wrong. Obviously I do get a lot done. Sure, I could probably do more. But what I do is nothing to be sneezed at.

So, if like me you feel that you don’t do enough writing tally up how much you put down on paper or on screen each week. The numbers might surprise you. And if you do that experiment, why not share it with the fives of people who read this blog by leaving a comment.

Goals. They’re important for success in any endeavour or line of work. That includes freelance writing. In fact, I’d say that for the freelancer goals are essential. Having goals not only enables us to grow as writers and as professionals, but also drives us to increase our incomes.

Setting goals is easy. When I was starting out in this wacky business, my goals were (in my mind, anyway) pretty modest. I just wanted to earn a living by writing. And it was a struggle. Probably more of a struggle than it should have been. The problem wasn’t me or the goal. It was how the goal was defined.

Although setting goals is easy, it isn’t as easy at it seems. That’s not to say it’s an incredibly difficult process, but defining a goal like I want to make more money this year is one thing. We all define vague goals. What you really need to do is define a specific goal and work from there.

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As you may or may not remember, at the beginning of this year I started a process of rewiring the systems. While the process is going well, it’s going to take a little longer than I anticipated it would. Why? As I’ve discovered, it’s not something you can rush.

Intrigued? Then keep reading.

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That’s what musician Trey Gunn called it in a post to his online diary. And that’s what I’m doing now. Which explains why posting has been … well, more than just a tad thin over the last little while.

Part of that rewiring has involved changes to my writing Web site. Part of that is a new focus on other aspect of my business, ones in which I’ve become more confident over the last year or so. Some of it’s just a major push for simplification in my personal life — doffing ideas, thoughts, and things I no longer need or use.

It’s an ongoing process, and I wish that I could tell you more. But I’m at what I call the fragile point right now — one wrong word or wrong move can ruin everything. It’s more a psychological point than anything else, but it’s still important that I don’t put too much pressure at that point right now.

Rest assured, though, I have a number of (what I think are) interesting and useful posts in the pipe. Keep checking this space for them.