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This is a reprint of an oldie-but-goodie post that originally appeared in October 2008.

If you’re thinking of making the leap to full-time freelancing, first take our quiz to find out if freelancing is for you — and to improve any areas you may be weak in.

1. I’m self-motivated. Yes__ No__

When you freelance, there’s no boss looking over your shoulder to make sure you get your work done. You’re the boss. When you have an article due and the TV and laundry and phone are calling your name, what do you do?

If you’re not self-motivated (yet), don’t worry — this is something you can fake with external motivators. For example, you can partner up with a goal buddy who will hold you accountable for meeting your goals. You can also tell all your friends and family what you plan to do, so you’ll feel a responsibility to get it done. Or you can remove home distractions, for example by working at the bookstore (though that provides distractions of its own!). Here are more ideas for getting motivated.

2. I love to market. Yes__ No__

This is a sticky one. Most freelancers hate to market. It’s all about the writing, man! But in order to make it as a freelancer, you have to sell yourself to editors and clients. This means sending out letters of introduction, writing queries, making calls, sleuthing out the names and contact info for potential editors/clients, and maintaining a website. The only advice I can give is to just do it. You may hate it, but as you’re doing it, imagine all the wonderful things this marketing can bring you — the freedom to work where you want, to set your own hours, to write about things you love. If it seems that somehow you always run out of time in the day before you get any marketing done, set aside a certain day — such as Fridays — where you do nothing but market.

3. I can handle rejection. Yes__ No__

Let’s face it: As a freelancer, you will experience rejection. Even the best writers get rejected! You can get upset and lose a day of writing because you’re so angry/sad/frustrated, or you can suck it up and move on. I recommend the suck-it-up-and-move-on method. Just keep in mind that each rejection brings you closer to an acceptance, and, to be clichéd, the only way to fail is to never try. Also, remember that not all rejections are flat-out no’s…a personalized, friendly rejection from an editor is an invitation to send more ideas.

4. I have an emergency stash of money. Yes__ No__

Many experts recommend you have three to six months worth of savings stashed away before you start freelancing full-time, though of course more is even better. If you don’t have enough to get you by as you gear up your writing business, you may want to freelance on the side as you save up money from your day job. When I started out, I had a part-time office job, and I wrote queries and did assignments on my days off. If you work full-time, you can do interviews on your lunch hour, or before or after hours (thanks to sources in different time zones), and write in the evenings or early in the morning.

5. I’m fine with being alone all day. Yes__ No__

As a freelancer, you won’t be gathering with coworkers around the coffee machine chatting about last night’s Project Runway. I’m lucky that my husband is also a freelance writer, so we keep each other company. But if you’re an extrovert and don’t

Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, which posits that we can make the most of the 168 hours we have in a week if we examine where our time goes and how to use it more wisely. She also runs the my168hours website.

In 168 Hours, you talk about how it takes people a certain amount of time to ramp up for projects before they become really productive.

With anything there’s accelerating returns up to a point and then a point of diminishing returns. It’s a concept in economics. I think that applies to our work and applies to home. If you were spending only one hour a week with your children, spending another hour would probably do a lot of good and spending another hour would do even more good. But if you’re already spending 40+ hours with them, at some point each additional hour becomes slightly less important.

I think the point of accelerating returns is really relevant to writers because a lot of aspiring writers who want to become full-time freelancers are working around their day jobs or their kids’ schedules, so they’re fitting their work into small bits of time here and there. But if it takes you a half hour to get into the flow with your writing, it’s not very productive to work an hour here and an hour there.

People do get good at seizing 30 minutes when they can — but if you’re good at seizing 30 minutes, giving yourself a full three hours would probably be even better. Partly this is a matter of taking our work seriously. Often people think that freelancing is something you do while the kids nap or that you can just do on nights and weekends. It’s true, you could do some of it that way. But where people really start to see the money coming in and their careers moving forward is when they make it their full-time occupation. The brain focuses on it. If this is how you make your money then you will work harder, you’ll start seeking out new opportunities — and that’s more difficult to do if you’re writing only during naptime or only on evenings after your day job.

So do you encourage people to make the leap into full-time freelancing?

I do. Obviously, there are things you could do to make the leap easier or more safe and secure for your family, like having a couple of months’ worth of expenses in the bank. It’s also good to make sure that you’re making a leap with open eyes, as opposed to just closing your eyes and hoping nothing bad happens. That said, yes, you do just have to make the leap because that’s when you start to see the real returns.

I hear even full-time freelancers say, “I don’t have time to write” or “I don’t have time to market.” Why do people love to feel so busy that they can’t get everything done?

Partly this is a way of showing how dedicated we are to our jobs and our families, and of reminding ourselves that we’re important. If we say we’re busy, that means we’re in demand and that people want our time and therefore think we’re important.

I think we also have a tendency to confuse being busy with doing thing that are important. Often people will take on things that are not necessarily advancing them toward their career goals or helping their families become happier.

Can you talk about the myth of the time crunch?

There are 168 hours a week. If you’re working 40 hours a week and sleeping 8 hours a night, that’s 56 hours a week. That leaves 72 hours for other things. If you look at time diary studies, people are no

Today I interviewed the treasurer of a local university for their alumni magazine, and at one point in the conversation he said, “Your processes are geared towards getting you the results you’ve been getting. If you don’t like the results, then your processes are no good.”

I love this. It makes a lot of sense for the freelance writer: If you’re not getting the work you want, then you need to tweak what you’re doing.

The statement also resonated with me personally. Lately I’d been wanting to attract new magazine clients and mentoring/e-course clients, but felt stuck. How could I expand my business? My usual M.O. wasn’t working as well as I would have liked.

I had been viewing social media as a distraction to be used as little as possible, but by chance Eric got me a book called The Zen of Social Media Marketing from the library. As I read it, I realized that this is what I’d been missing. I can connect with people through this blog, but the way to bring people to the blog is to actually, you know, get out there and build my expertise on other platforms. I definitely need to keep tabs on the amount of time I spend on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but I’m excited about this change in direction and look forward to connecting with writers in new ways.

I call situations like this, where you suddenly take a leap into a new way of thinking and working, mind shifts. It was a mind shift in the summer of 2009 when I decided to cut my workweek down to two days (while maintaining the same income), and it was a mind shift two years ago when a coach talked me into offering phone mentoring (when I was previously scared of the idea).

Sometimes mind shifts come on of their own accord, but there are ways to help spur a mind shift when you feel stuck. So if you’re having trouble finding article ideas, thinking up new markets, or dreaming up new ways to sell your writing, here are some ways to force a mind shift.

Meditate. Sometimes we get stuck because we spend so much time running around putting out fires that we have no time or mental space to tackle the big issues. When this happens, I force myself to take a few minutes to lie on the floor and meditate. I often come up with fresh new ideas as, ironically, I’m trying to not attach to random floating thoughts.

Sometimes, opening yourself up this way brings on benefits without your even trying. The other day I was feeling harried and worried about not having enough work, so I shut my laptop and lay down on the floor. When I got up a little while later and checked my e-mail, there was a message from one of my favorite editors asking if I’d like to write a column for her magazine! That night before bed, I did a guided meditation from The Meditation Podcast. When I woke up in the morning, there was an e-mail from a custom publishing company I had written to weeks before, saying they were looking for freelance writers and would be in touch. I checked the time stamp and realized the e-mail had been sent at 10:30 pm the night before — the exact time I was doing the meditation.

Ask a coach. Whenever I feel like I’m stuck in low gear and need a mind shift, I set a session with my life coach. She’s the one who talked me into teaching e-courses even though my initial market research was less than positive. And it was a coach at The Yoga of Writing re

Author: Towanna B. Freeman, CDC,DD & Barbara H. Pellegrino, CEC
Publisher: iUniverse
Genre: Self improvement
ISBN: 978-1-4401-6387-6
Pages: 148
Price: $24.95

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

It’s hard to have a goal and not be able to achieve it. Unfulfilled dreams keep us frustrated, always knowing our lives could be better if we only knew what to do. Purposeful Action was written for women by two women who believe they may be able to help. In this book, Towanna B. Freeman and Barbara H. Pellegrino offer guidance in reaching your goals.

In the first section of this book, several questions are addressed. What will make you happy? What can prevent you from achieving your goal? And when do you want to accomplish it? A life balance wheel is provided, and maintaining balance is strongly encouraged. The last section is their suggested seven steps to fulfillment. These are presented as a cycle: celebrating, affirmations, contemplation, visualization, acknowledgment, gratitude and asking.

Both of these women are life coaches, and they share some insights from their clients’ experiences. They also suggest you may benefit from your own coach, in working through this process. If you’re looking to make important changes in your life, you may find this workbook helpful in clarifying your vision before you take action.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

I have had a streak of excellent reads the last few months! Only one book I reviewed did not make this recommend blog. Maybe that supports my theory that the best writers are writing for YAs.

Robin's first book, Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature, was a 2008 BBYA book, and FAT CAT is on the fast track to be a winner for next year. Catherine, Cat, is a brilliant teenager with a knack for scientific inquiry, which is put to the ultimate test during a yearlong science project to be judged at a high school level fair in the spring. Through the luck of the draw, Cat draws a picture from which she uses herself as the primary scientific experiment and observation. This project is anything but ho-hum. Amanda, Cat's best friend, is beside her all the way. I want Amanda for my best friend. Along the way, Cat discovers that she has become a "guy magnet" and has a crash course in repelling guys. Cat has to face a four-year hurt by her former best friend, Matt. She cooks her way into the hearts of all around her. But does she win the competition? Does Cat understand what has happened to her?

I liked Cat; her focus, her commitment to herself. And what does her story come wrapped in: a funny, well-paced story that YAs will love reading.

ENDERS' Rating: *****

Robin Brande's Website (I suggest following her website if you are a writer).

Author: Kathy Caprino
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Genre: Personal Growth / Business
ISBN: 978-1-57675-559-4
Pages: 237
Price: $16.95

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

Although it’s been well documented that many men go through a midlife crisis, women have only recently recognized a similar life transition. When a woman suddenly finds herself stuck in a career that no longer seems to fit and she longs for something more, she often has no place to turn. Breakdown, Breakthrough was conceived when Kathy Caprino found herself in the midst of her own professional meltdown, and provides answers for women facing these struggles.

When a woman feels out of control in this stage of life, she needs to be empowered to make the right choices. Four areas of empowerment are covered in this book: with self, with others, with the world, and with the higher self. In all four areas, the reader is invited to step back to explore what might be causing the problem, let go of something that just isn’t working, and say yes to something new that might work better.

Caprino shares the wisdom she’s collected from women who have been through some dramatic changes that improved the quality of their lives. In addition to sharing their stories, these women offer advice and affirmations to guide us on a similar breakthrough. Action steps and probing questions are also provided.

A resource list of reading, websites, and groups is included, and Caprino suggests that you may need the support of a life coach or therapist, if you feel you can’t make these changes alone. But the most important thing you can do now is to recognize and take action to make your life the best it can be. Breakdown, Breakthrough can provide the expert assistance you’ll need on your journey.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

Did you ever think it’s not the economy, of the toughness of the industry, or just plain bad luck that’s keeping you from flourishing as a freelance writer — but your own limiting beliefs? Many aspiring freelancers are wonderful writers with salable ideas, but they can’t break out of the writing-for-cheap (or worse, writing-for-free) stage and make a full-time living doing what they love. And even while they complain about their lack of success, they have plenty of seemingly-reasonable explanations for why they aren’t even trying.

Here are some of the excuses I’ve heard from my mentoring and e-course clients — and how you can bust those limiting beliefs.

Excuse #1: “I have to pay my dues.”

Many writers believe they can’t write for magazines that pay a decent fee until they “pay their dues” by writing for markets that pay peanuts. But who decides what constitutes paying your dues, how long you need to do it for, and even that you have to do it at all? The term “paying your dues” is meaningless, because no one has defined exactly what it is and when it ends.

When I hear someone say they have to pay their dues before pitching the magazines they really want to write for, I know it’s a stalling tactic. I never hear a writer say, “Well, now I’ve paid my dues and it’s time for me to get cracking on my dream markets.” Because there’s no defined limit to paying your dues, writers just keep toiling away at sure-thing markets instead of risking rejection by the big guys. It’s the perfect excuse for not making the leap to better markets.

I’ve never heard an editor, when approached by a writer with a brilliant query and stellar writing, say, “I can’t possibly accept this — this writer hasn’t paid her dues.” In fact, consider this:

* I have a friend whose very first clip was for Cosmopolitan. She went on to have a successful freelance writing career and even write books on freelancing.

* Last year one of my students landed an assignment to write a short for SELF magazine. She had not a single clip before that. Now, she’s working on an assignment for Parenting that’s worth $1,300. She’s had only two assignments and she’s never worked for less than $1.50 per word.

* I recently had a mentoring client who kept “paying her dues” by writing for exposure and wondering why she wasn’t making more money. I convinced her to stop writing for free and cheap, and within ten days she had an assignment that was worth twenty assignments from one of her el-cheapo clients.

* My very first assignment, based on my very first query back in 1996, paid $500. I never paid a dime of dues.

Look: Paying your dues is just an excuse. No one is tracking what you do and judging whether you have written for enough peanuts-paying clients to start pitching your dream markets. If you have a great idea and you present it well, no one will care whether you slogged your way up from the bottom or just burst onto the scene.

Excuse #2: “I need to learn more.”

I hate to say this since I teach e-courses of my own, but some writers take every writing course they can find yet never feel like they know enough to actually get started pitching markets. “I can’t get started because I don’t know every single thing there is to know about query writing.” “Well, now I know how to write a query, but what happens when I get an assignment? I

Don’t miss our next free teleclass for writers!

Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 8:30-9:30 pm ET (Note that this is East Coast time; please check for the correct time in your time zone. Also note that this is PM, not AM!)

Topic: 5 Tips for Finding Story Ideas That Sell with Diana Burrell. Dread coming up with story ideas? Feel like every idea you think up has been done a million times before? Diana will share with you some of the best strategies she has used herself to come up with story ideas that sold to national magazines, newspapers, and websites. There will be time after the class to ask your questions about generating salable story ideas. Diana and Linda will be making special offers for teleclass attendees only!

About Diana: Before she became a full-time freelance writer in 1999, Diana Burrell spent over 10 years working in advertising and marketing, both on the agency and client sides. The one thing she loved was coming up with ideas and concepts, whether naming a new caulking product or developing national trade show promotions. She learned how to generate vast numbers of ideas quickly, sort through them, and refine the best ideas into concepts that excited customers. This skill has served Diana well as a freelancer for magazines and newspapers such as Parenting, Oxygen, Family Circle, Clean Eating, The Boston Globe, Psychology Today, The South China Morning Post, The Atlantic Food Channel, and more. As the co-author of The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success and The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock, Diana’s no-holds-barred advice has inspired many aspiring and working freelancers. Diana teaches an e-course called Become an Idea Machine: How to (Painlessly) Build Up an Inventory of Story Ideas to Sell to Magazines through the Renegade Writer blog.

Conference number: 218-895-0763

Passcode: 2244#

**This is not a toll-free number. If you have unlimited long distance, you won’t pay for the call, but if you pay for calls by the minute, it will appear on your bill.**

Here is the link where you can access the participant keypad controls. This will tell you how to mute the call, how to get help, and more.

If you’re interested in taking part in the call, please e-mail me at [email protected] with “RSVP Ideas” in the subject line to let me know just so I can get a rough tally of how many people to expect. I may also e-mail you materials if we decide to have “handouts.” (If you prefer to remain totally anonymous, that’s fine too.) Don’t worry if I don’t reply to your RSVP — if you send it, rest assured that you’re in!

Also, if you’re interested in receiving free teleclass notices via e-mail, please subscribe to the teleclass e-mail list here.

Thanks so much, and we look forward to seeing you there! [lf]

Author: Sharon L. Lechter & Greg S. Reid
Publisher: Sterling Publishing
Genre: Self-help
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6764-7
Pages: 256
Price: $22.95

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

In 1937, Napoleon Hill wrote the classic Think and Grow Rich after spending twenty years interviewing the wealthiest and most successful men of his time. Although this book is still as applicable today as it was when it was written, Greg S. Reid felt the need to update some of this wisdom, accounting for changes that have happened since Napoleon Hill’s day.

In Three Feet From Gold Reid and his co-author Sharon Lechter share the success secrets of some of today’s business leaders. Don Green, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, assisted and supported this venture in carrying on its founder’s tradition.

Although it’s told as a story, with several fictional characters added to give it some depth, the wisdom Reid and Lechter impart in this book are profound. Nuggets like “A dream is just a dream until it is written down — then it becomes a goal” and “Never make a major decision in a valley” are scattered throughout the text, as the main character learns from his new mentors.

Nothing can ever take the place of Hill’s classic work, but Three Feet From Gold is an inspiring book that picks up where Think and Grow Rich leaves off. This new classic belongs in every positive thinker’s library.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

This sequel to Lucky tells the story of the middle sister, Allison, of the recently-rich-now-“broke” Avery family. Allison has a wicked sense of humor, is quite bright, and views herself as the ugly duckling of the family. One night in a dream she trades her cell phone to the devil in a deal to make her gorgeous in the eyes of seven people. Will the deal create opportunities or tragedies? What is wrong with her demented cell phone? Maybe it was not a dream, but a real deal. Vail does a great job of creating a unique story for Allison, leaving Phoebe on the fringe and introducing Quinn, the eldest sister, more. This easy and humorous novel, about true friends and family connections, will surely be a hit among readers enjoying light, realistic fiction. Like Lucky, another great cover!

ENDERS' Rating: Looking forward to Quinn's novel!

Rachel Vail's Website

“We do stupid things when we’re hurt. But let me save you some grief. When you feel bad, it’s often best to do nothing at all.” Couldn’t we all have used that a time or two? Along with Molly’s widower, advice-giving dad, live her three bachelor uncles. The chorus of advice and platitudes from the uncle-crowded back seat of her dad’s truck zipping to Aunt Tip’s Bangee’s Wake Irish pub is hysterical. Molly wants to do what is right for herself..if only others would let her! Molly O’Keefe has a slimy boyfriend that everyone knows that he only wants to “ravish and toss” her. Molly is prone to giving in to her self-centered, carpe diem buddy Vanessa. She ends up in The Girl Corps, red cape and all, to discover some strength to deal with the Trevor situation and even more.

ENDERS' Rating: Fun read that keeps you turning the pages!

Stacey Goldblatt's Website and Blog

I’m reading a book by Lama Surya Das about Buddhist values, and there’s a lot of talk about the beginner’s mind. I also learned about this concept when I studied shorin ryu karate. The beginner’s mind is an attitude of openness and the belief that there’s always more to learn.

I think the beginner’s mind is the perfect attitude for a writer — especially in today’s economy, when we’re all looking for new ways to land writing gigs. In fact, The Renegade Writer is all about the beginner’s mind: Why not try this? Let’s see if that works. Instead of saying, “I’m an expert and I know how this works,” we can benefit by saying, “This has worked for me in the past, but maybe there’s something else that will work even better.”

For example, I’m a huge proponent of e-mailing queries — and I was even when all the magazines and books insisted that you had to snail mail them — but a couple of years ago, I wondered what would happen if I went back to my early days of querying and sent letters of introduction to custom publishers via mail. I mailed out around 25 packets with letters and clips, and had a lot of fun collating clips just like in the old days. One publisher held on to my clips for over a year, and surprised me with an assignment out of the blue. I can’t say my snail mail experiment fared any better than my usual e-mailing tactic, but it may have gotten me an assignment I wouldn’t otherwise have gotten.

Here are some ideas for harnessing the beginner’s mind in your writing:

1. Instead of dipping into your tried-and-true (read: overused) list of go-to sources, why not start from scratch and find someone with a fresh outlook on the subject?
2. Rather than churning out the usual bullet-pointed article or anecdotal lede, try new formats. Would your editor go for an illustration with call-outs or a clever chart?
3. If you always pitch magazines X, Y, and Z, try finding some new-to-you magazines to query. It’s always good to expand your client base.
4. Put together a beautiful snail mail package with a query, clips, and your business card. Maybe e-mail-overloaded editors will find your package refreshing.
5. Do something crazy. One writer, in our Comments section, mentioned that she uses a funny, self-deprecating subject line on her follow-up e-mails. My business cards say “My clients think I’m swell.” I once interviewed a writer who ends his queries with a joke. What can you do that no one has done before — but that might work?

What have you done lately that breaks out of your old, tried-and-true methods of working? What happened? I’d love to hear about it in the Comments below. [lf]

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I was taking a look at a book called The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back by James Waldroop and Timothy Butler, and one of the habits stood out to me: “Never feeling good enough.”

This is what holds students in my e-course back from reaching for their dream magazines (until I make them, of course!), what makes writers accept peanuts for pay, and what makes freelancers work with pay-on-pub contracts. “Who am I to ask for more? they ask. “Who am I to think I can write for Woman’s Day, or National Geographic, or Mother Jones?”

I’m here to tell you that if you have the basics down — you know how to write, you have good ideas, you’re persistent and professional — and you add value by being an expert in a certain topic, say, or having access to good sources — you have no reason not to be successful as a freelance writer.

So how do you beat this self-defeating behavior? According to the authors of The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back, “You need to become aware of feelings of insecurity and inferiority as you actually experience them.” Do you feel a pang of anxiety when you think about negotiating up from ten cents per word? Do you feel insecure when calling sources to get quotes for a pitch when you don’t have an assignment in hand? Be aware of these moments.

Then, write down the ways you sabotage yourself when you get these feelings of insecurity. For example, maybe you give up on ideas instead of following up because you fear you’ll annoy an editor. Or you blast off half-formed e-mails to potential sources, secretly crossing your fingers that they won’t respond because you’re afraid of interviewing. Or perhaps you politely accept assignments at low pay and with bad contracts, lowering your income because you think you’re not worth more.

Finally, for each item you wrote down, think up ways you’ll counter it in the future. For instance, you may write, “When an editor calls with an assignment, I’ll ask her if I can get back to her in an hour. Then I’ll have time to think over the offer and decide if and how to negotiate.” Or you could write, “I’m going to schedule follow-ups in my calendar for two weeks after I send in a pitch — and then I’m going to send a polite e-mail that I’ve run by a writer friend to check for typos.”

Then — do it! Make a conscious effort to put the kibosh on your saboteurs. As you take bold steps, you should feel your confidence grow. (And your income should grow, too!) [lf]

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In a guest post on the Zen Habits blog, Albert from UrbanMonk.net describes the 5% trick:

My favorite tool at this stage is the 5% statement, created by Nathaniel Branden, who is widely considered to be the father of the self-esteem movement. It works by allowing you to take steps in small increments. Trying to change completely overnight, as some might suggest, often creates fear, uncertainty, and resistance.

A 5% statement is split into 2 halves. Examples would be:

If I were to be 5% more responsible today, I would ___________.
If I were to be 5% less lazy today, I would ___________.

The first part of the statement doesn’t have to change. But every morning when we wake up, we think of something that fills in blank, and then do it! As you can see, 5% is small and harmless enough to let us overcome our fears and procrastination. Being flexible enough to do different things everyday in pursuit of the same goal also keeps us from boredom and routine. Even better, it encourages us to think of new ideas to try (although we can simply do the same activity 5% more each time).

How could you use the 5% trick to reach your writing goals?

Thanks to Tim Hooker for linking to this post on his Facebook page! [lf]

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“Acting as if” is a personal development trick where you imagine how someone who’s in a position you aspire to would act, and then do those things yourself. For example, say you want to be a best-selling author. What would she do? Chances are she would set aside a certain amount of time to write each day, and allow no intrusions. If you want to be this writer, that’s what you need to do. Or maybe you want to be a magazine writer whose work lands in places like The New Yorker and The Atlantic. How much research do you think such a writer would do on his ideas? What style would this writer write in? Where would he find his ideas? You need to do the same.

This tactic can help you make decisions as well. For example, if you’re presented with a terrible payrate or an editor asks for a revision, ask yourself what your perfect writer self would do in this situation. You might get up the courage to negotiate more pay or handle the revision request with professionalism.

How can you “act as if” you’re the writer you want to be? Please post your ideas in the Comments below. [lf]

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Let’s face it — freelance writing is scary. When checks don’t come in, you feel like you’re on the brink of economic collapse on a personal level. When you need to call an editor, your mind floods with images of the editor slamming down the phone in your ear (but not before telling you not to quit your day job). And when you send out a query, you fear that it will come back stamped “Reject,” or, worse, fall into a black hole of nothingness.

You need guts to brave the freelance life. It’s not for sissies! If you’re feeling that your courage could use a boost, follow these tips.

1. Be your own shrink. I have an anxiety disorder, and during cognitive behavioral therapy I learned a handy trick: Delve down to your worst fear and ask yourself how likely it is that it will happen. For example, say you’re afraid to call an editor. What’s the worst that can happen? The editor may reject you. Then what? You may never get an assignment again. And then what will happen? You won’t be able to pay your bills. So? Well, you’ll lose your house. And then what? You’ll die homeless and alone. Now ask yourself: How likely is it that you’ll die homeless and alone because an editor rejected your call? That’s right: Not very. This exercise can be very helpful in revealing how silly some of our fears are.

2. Buddy up. Ask another freelance writer to be your goal buddy, and share your fears with him or her. I have a goal buddy who I’ve known since the beginning of my freelance career, and we schedule a phone call once a week and bolster one another’s confidence by listening and offering suggestions. Just be sure to choose a buddy who has a positive attitude, and not someone who will feed your fears. You have enough fears of your own without a goal buddy who gives you even more.

3. Do it anyway. In her book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Dr. Susan Jeffers tells us that the bravest people aren’t fearless — they feel fear just like anyone else. The difference is that they do things in spite of their fear. So you feel a jolt of anxiety before sending a query? Acknowledge the feeling and hit Send anyway.

4. Join the conversation. There are plenty of writers’ forums where you can confide your fears to many sympathetic ears. You’ll see you’re not the only one with these fears, and hopefully get constructive advice on how to banish them. Be careful, though, as some forums have members who seem to specialize in pessimism. Lurk before you post.

5. Exercise it. Courage is like a muscle; the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. Do the things you fear, and eventually the fear will dissipate. For example, I’m much better at written communication than speaking (that’s why I’m a writer and not a speaker!), so I was always afraid of calling editors and sources. After calling hundreds of editors and sources, though, I can now pick up the phone without a twinge of fear. Keep plugging away at your fears, and soon you’ll wonder what you were ever afraid of.

6. Remember there’s no such thing as perfect. If you’re putting off sending out a pitch because you fear it’s not perfect yet, ditch that thought and send away. An imperfect query that’s in an editor’s in-box has an infinitely better chance of succeeding than a query sitting on your hard drive. The more queries you have out there, the better your chances of landing assignments. It’s a numbers game, so don’t limit your numbers out of perfectionism.

How do you fight your freelance fears? Please post your advice in the Comments below. [lf]

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I’ve been teaching Magazine Writing Basics for a while now, and when I taught my last session, I added two phone consultations to the e-course – one during the first week, and one at the end of the 8-week class. I wanted to speak with my students because I really feel that teaching magazine writing is like teaching … well life … in a way. Although there are tools and techniques that are common to all writers, in the end, writing is personal. Where you wind up depends upon where you want to go in the first place – with subject, style, voice, format, and markets. As I had expected, talking with students at the outset allowed me to customize the class for each one of them. What I didn’t expect was what I would learn at the end.

I had a particularly illuminating discussion with a student the other day. She had started out the course with a great deal of passion for writing about food and sustainability. She had a smart, edgy, funny style that she was already employing in her blog. But somehow the article that she wrote for class just didn’t have that same sparkle. It didn’t sound like her, and despite a few revisions, it just didn’t sing. I knew she could do better, but I hadn’t been able to put my finger on what was wrong – although I had been able to help her with the technical problems of organization and lead.

When we spoke, I discovered the problem. “I learned in your course that I don’t want to write how-to articles for audiences that don’t know anything about eating and the environment,” she said. “I don’t read those kinds of stories myself. And if I’d just been writing that story on my own, instead of for a class, I never would have kept at it for so long.” It turns out that she loves creative nonfiction and reads it all the time. She’s a New Yorker reader, not an Oprah fan. And service stories aren’t her thing. She’d written one because she figured that service pieces were marketable. And her lack of enthusiasm came through – for her, writing this piece was like pushing a rock up a hill.

The good news? She’s about to embark on a real journey to become a skilled writer of creative nonfiction. She may even get a master’s degree. She has the talent – she just needs to learn some techniques and to practice. The big lesson for me: I need to make sure that students are true to themselves. One of the most important things any writer can do to improve his or her work is to do some self assessment: what do I care about? For whom do I want to write? Which authors do I love? Which magazines and writers do I read all the time? Which do I avoid? What kinds of topics and what sorts of writing energize me?

Writing well is brutally hard if you’re trying to make yourself into something you’re not. And it’ a joy – and really, kinda easy – when you allow yourself to be who you are, and let the world see who you are.

What a lesson.

Have you done any self-assessment lately? In your work, are you being true to yourself? [Elaine Appleton Grant]

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Renegade Writer instructor Alison Stein Wellner and I have decided to out ourselves in 2009. No, not like that … like this:

Alison's lair

Diana's mess

We’re slobs! We decided that in 2009, we’re going to clean up our freelancing lives, and that starts with our offices. We’ll start by showing you photos of what we’re dealing with (believe us, it’s scary) and we’ll take you along on our adventure. My goal is to have my office cleaned up by the end of January; my messy, disorganized office is taking its toll on my income-producing abilities, as well as morale. Alison’s doing a bit of travel in early 2009, so I’m not sure what her goal is.

So tune in January 1st for our first installment. If you’ve got a messy, disorganized work space, we’d love it if you’d join in. Send us your pictures, stories and updates to share with the world. Come on, let’s make 2009 a cleaner, nicer place to work. [db]

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