Good that Love is blind!

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What’s your best chance of surviving as a freelance writer? Before answering this, let us tie this question up with the time and space in which we live. In the present world, earning money from writing words is one of the most difficult jobs. That is what makes at lest some of us wish, if we could live in the 19^th century when you didn’t have such competition.

Don’t click the corner button please; I know the reason why you went through the first paragraph. The reason is the same as that which spurred me to write these very words.

If you are a beginner, let me make myself clear—my intention is not to put you off from your writing dream. On the other hand, I am trying to address an issue which, due to its wild impact, remains unspoken-about in any writing class or book or web page about writing.

In my opinion, the question of survival is not a negative one at all. Just like a river that detours around any obstruction and finds for itself a new shore and a whole lot of life forms along those shores, the concomitant of being a writer is to find new paths and create new shores. If you understood my stand about the question of survival, you would also have understood the question getting transformed into a sign, a sign that calls upon the need for a vital detour.

Inevitably, a writer would be forced to choose or create a niche for him or her under such concern for survival; what I mean is, being genre specific. Most of them, dreaming about a literary grandeur, might want their profiles full of academic writings, in which the writer proclaims his independence from the readers. This style, which is jargonistic and dull, often drives readers away from spending their money, especially for a new writer.

On the other hand, if the writer becomes reader specific, he or she can find a space better accessible.

This detour also leads some writers to dedicate themselves in areas where they are good at or they actually find their love in. This helps in your maturation as a writer. For those who think popular literature or writings that are made for the common people second grade writing, I have only one thing to say, great books are never away from people and so are great writers. However difficult the concurrent situation is, even if we all wish to be Charles Dickens or Stephen King, the ultimate question is always the same; how committed are you to your work?

Recently, one of my friends, an aspiring writer, emailed me a You Tube video link, an interview of John Irving, in which Irving says if he were a writer of 27 starting off his career NOW, he would have been tempted to shoot himself.

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I asked my friend dejected; what are you planning to do with your life now?

He had a smile and said; I posted this video on my Facebook wall and sent it to many debuting writers too. It sure will thin out much of my competition!

He meant that the love for his craft is total and blind and that he would never quit.

Body and Words

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You are a writer. To flow like a river is your greatest ambition.

There are several ways to achieve this moment, the moment of flowing like a river. The best way to do this—apart from taking life as it comes—is to read. Once you have reached that point of free-flowing creative spirit (which is just a temporary state, by the way: you will lapse back into writer’s block and dream about your river again, many times.) there is a ghost that can afflict you, beware.

The ghost of sickness is just the corner away as you are mostly immersed in your healthy writing life. Writing is like having sex, the more you do the more your body will become weaker.

You must let writing drop for a specific time; take an interval from writing, from your journey down the river. The next most important thing is to sweep your room, clean yourself well and drink lots of water. These essentials must be followed by another very important life saving step; a good walk of 30 minutes in your garden or down the lane.

Physical ailments, just like mental ailments affect writing in an otherwise healthy writer. And by ‘physical ailments’ the implication is not just the super-special-incurable diseases; it could be a minor flu or an allergic outburst in skin rash.

From this sort of writer’s block there is only one way out; wait. One must wait until the disease subsides and one’s health prevails. In some cases, the beginning of the disease would be a luscious time for creative activity, which dwindles slowly and stops completely or partially once the disease takes hold. This is especially true in the case of flu.

Be as good as possible in behavior with yourself and remember you are the one who produced all those wonderful pieces of writing the day before. You might be seeing a dark blanket over your eyes, and nothing else, as if your eyes are covered; and the precious and deep thoughts that accompanied you the previous day might be no more. All the glory would just be reminiscence as if you in the past were just a relic now, without life.

This is a stage when the writer feels guilty of deceiving himself or puts himself in the position of a culprit who destroyed the healthy course of writing by submission to the ailment.

At this stage, the hardest thing to do is to forgive oneself. If you can do it you would be at peace with yourself and find your muse at your door step within a few days.

One more thing; don’t stop writing.

Just Two Things

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Did you choose freelancing as a career? You are in a journey then, down the river on a sailboat. There are no u-turns, no sudden breaks, no turning back, but just cruising forward. Every hope is channeled toward some unknown unseen wind that howls on your ear lobes to push your sail, balance your boat. This wind, in your life, is hope.

There are just two things that can help you see the destination you much set your journey off for—moving forward and hope. The first part is easy. In the river of life, everyone chose it or not, has to move forward, or….be drowned.

In any case, you can choose. And of course, as a person reading this article, your destiny is calling you to make that choice that no one has ever thought of, let alone you.

Choose to live. Choose not just to avoid drowning, but also to tame your best ally; the wind on your sails—hope.

Hope is the shoot of a rhizome that comes of perseverance hidden under the soil, for a long period of time. This rhizome in your professional life is your solid ground work, which requires perseverance and will take time to shoot its hopeful branches in helping you to take your sail boat forward. Confused of too much metaphor?

Hope is not just a baseless emotional consolation. There should be solid ground work on which to hold hope.

What exactly is this ground work? Is there a specific formula for it?

Ground work in a freelance writing career is the work that you do when you are not writing. The best course to a successful clientele and sustenance of hope is to focus your attention on the best ground work strategy.

Yes, it is; it is a strategy; one that each freelancer should locate and recognize. For me this strategy is the post-assignment service that I offer before one month after the completion of the writing assignment, and all for FREE. I ask customers if they need any further assistance, any change made in the contents or any modifications.

If the customers need any change, I would gladly assist them for their requirement. Such a service will accelerate the bonding between the freelancer and the customer.

Next time you can hope to get another deal from that same customer, because he or she has felt that happiness in your service that they hoped for from any service provider. This will get you moving—forward.

Hope met with hope; you would not just become a good freelancer, but top-notch.