photo courtesy of law_keven
I don’t know any different, I was born with it. My disability that is.
What a mouthful! And what a pain in the…well you know what. I don’t think I could ever describe to a non-sufferer what it’s like, I have no base comparison. I don’t know what it’s like to not suffer from it.
One of the worst things is the feeling of being caught between two worlds. On one hand I’m not paralyzed like many other wheelchair users yet paradoxically they can take part in many more activities than I ever could. Don’t get me wrong I would never trade my condition for the loss of a limb or the use of my legs but as long as I suffer from MG there are some things I’ll never be able to do.
Things like wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, archery, fencing, swimming and holding down a full time job.
I’ve tried them all and I’ve had to give them all up and one thing us freelancers can all relate to is the loss of a full time job – whether it’s by our choice or not.
Enter freelancing and working from home. Ahh the thought of it is enough to make anyone drool with anticipation. Work whenever we want, however much we want, no boss to answer to. Makes you want to leap up and quote Mel Gibson’s Braveheart:
“Freedom!”
Yet the reality is far from that ideal. Not unattainable just a long, hard slog to get there. Somewhere along the line we inevitably find ourselves in that God-forsaken, soul-draining place, the freelance writing rut.
You know what I’m talking about here right? You just have to replace that lost income but all you can find is the low-paying gigs.
Perhaps you lack the experience the better jobs are asking for. Perhaps you’ve yet to build your portfolio, your blog or maybe you just lack the confidence to go after what you are worth. You do know what you are worth right?
Arrgghh! What do I do?
You don’t seem to have much of a choice. If you don’t take those jobs you won’t be able to pay the bills or feed the kids. The other alternative is to get another 9 to 5.
Personally speaking I can’t rely on a part-time job. For one thing I need to take more sick days than the average employee. Not just for the extra time I need to recover after getting sick but for the days where my condition makes it impossible to work. Throw in the limitations on what daily tasks I can perform and you’d be hard pressed to accuse an employer of being prejudiced against me.
So the only choice we have is to do the low paying crap, build up our portfolio and then go after the real work. It ain’t gonna work and I’ll tell you why.
The problem is these types of jobs ask for everything but give nothing in return. Take those ads for 500 word articles paying $2-4 a piece.
How long does it take you to research and write one 500 word article? A couple of hours, maybe 3? I mean you can’t cut corners here, it has to be your best work if it’s going to go in your portfolio. At $4 a piece how many hours are you going to have to spend to pay just one bill?
You put in all that work and effort, you get $4 for it and you’re telling me you’re not going to be demoralized? How about after several weeks of doing the same thing until you get the portfolio you always wanted and then you pitch for one of the higher paying jobs.
And get rejected.
Climb Out Now
So how do you get out of that rut? Don’t enter it in the first place. If you’re already in it then don’t dig yourself in by continuing to go after the same shitty jobs.
Pitch for the ones that will pay you what you’re worth. Aim high even if you haven’t got every little thing they need, all it takes is for one of them to give you a break.
And remember, no matter how dire your situation may seem there’s always someone who has something else to contend with, something that complicates things just that little bit extra.
Just look at me.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Someone’s been taking the passionpower pills! Great post, Marc! I hope you get all the success and financial abundance you deserve. You’re absolutely right when you point out that many of us are scared of asking for what we know we’re worth. But if we don’t believe we’re worth it, how can we expect anyone else to! Your post reminded me of one of my favourite quotes, by Michaelangelo: The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.
Janice’s last blog post..Write Like Grissom, Feel Like God
Very insightful post.
I signed up with textbroker a while back. But at the rates they pay, I’m a little underwhelmed. Of course, something can be better than nothing. Moreover – it could give one an opportunity to have clients directly hire for better pay.
That being said, your arguments for not working for such lousy pay are good ones.
Freelance writing is something I’ve been very curious of for a while. I’d like to look into doing it part time. But I really get the impression that it’s really difficult to find work.
Perhaps more research is in order.
Bamboo Forest – PunIntended’s last blog post..How to Know if You’re an Enlightened Being
@ Janice: That’s an awesome quote. Going straight to my swipe file. Thanks for sharing.
Bamboo Forest – PunIntended’s last blog post..How to Know if You’re an Enlightened Being
@Janice I *love* that quote. Thank you for your kind words
@Bamboo Approaching it as a part time thing may work in your favour. You won’t be pressured into taking the low rate stuff. I don’t think finding the work is that difficult it just takes a lot of patience and perseverance.
@Marc and Bamboo,
I fear I may have gone from quote addict to pusher…
I’ve just had an idea for a guest post. As I enjoy folks’ comments boxes as much as their posts, maybe it would make interesting reading for my readers, some of whom are freelancers too, if you two could write a post that’s like a chatty dialogue about the pros and cons of some aspects of freelancing? A waft of testosterone and a bit of male wit would make a nice contrast to my long, lyrical pieces; they probably make people like James with Pen want to poke their eyes out with knitting needles.
Janice’s last blog post..Write Like Grissom, Feel Like God
It’s not just freelance writing that this happens with m’dear! I think pretty much anyone running a business singlehandedly has experienced this.
I HATE what lowering your rates does to your self esteem and self worth, we end up doubting the value of what we do and our potential for increase.
Very well said Marc!
@ Janice LOL at your comment!
Melinda’s last blog post..Free Blogathon April 2009 – Come Join Us!
@Mel Agreed. People underestimate their self-esteem or self-worth. We think we can handle a situation but rarely do we see the bigger picture. Not only is the low paying gigs a drain on your resources it’s a drain on you
What about floating?? Could you just go to a pool and float? That’s what I do every week (with my underwater mp3 player). I’m a Florida girl, so it’s hard for me to imagine someone not being able to get in the water.
Hayden Tompkins’s last blog post..Why We Hate Marketing
Here’s what I do. It’s funny too because Cindy and I were talking about this just last night. I’m unwilling to bid on jobs that are not worth my time. I can’t do base work that pays me less than I would earn at McDonalds just to keep running around the track. Instead, I take the worthy jobs that come my way and spend the rest of my time building something that will net me profit in the future. Of course this is a strategy that works in theory, but I have not yet been watering the garden long enough to watch the flowers bloom.
Writer Dad’s last blog post..I’m Moving!
@Hayden Yeah I can do that. I love the water (Pisces) so I can and will get into it with various floatation devices and just chill.
I did have something that resembled giant bubble wrap that I wore as a jacket and I had a go at swimming but it was too much of a drain for me.
@Sean A sound plan. I’m doing something similar. Using active income to build up a passive one. I’m sure we’re on the right track my friend.
Also, you don’t need to do $5 jobs for your portfolio. You can use your own blog posts, you can write for charity, and you can even create samples for the sheer purpose of showing the quality of work that you’re capable of generating. Personally, I find $5 for a 500-word article pretty insulting. I’d rather write a piece for a charitable organization if it’s destined for my portfolio (note that you might not be within legal rights to publicly display your paid work, depending on your contract with client). And at $5, I’d have to write a piece in about five minutes… Nah, I say don’t even bother with those.
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..How Poetry Writing Improves All Other Writing
Great advice Melissa, I totally forgot about charitable work and plain old samples to build a portfolio.
By the same token we should also link to our guest posts on other blogs, after all others have deemed our writing to be good enough to post on their websites.
That’s another addition to my todo list.
You could maybe just get a widget for now and call the list Guest Posts I’ve Done. Later, they could become a heading in a page on your navbar button called Portfolio.
Janice’s last blog post..Fleet Foxes
Thanks for the suggestion Janice. The more I think about it the more I feel it should be highlighted fairly prominently. That and a hire me ad…
Now there’s a radical idea Marc – marketing yourself!!!!! LOL!
Melinda’s last blog post..Do You Have Permission to Market?
It would be radical for me. It’s the only thing I have difficulty in writing about, me and my services. Marketing myself is now my new name for writer’s block.
Marc, get over it and do it already! Seriously! Give me a yell if you want some help.
Melinda’s last blog post..Do You Have Permission to Market?
Marc, first of all thank you for reading and commenting on my guest post over at Blogopolis Blueprint – it has been a delight to discover your Welshscribe blog! Secondly, I applaud you for encouraging writers to stand up to the abominable pay rates being offered out there. As a former freelance business copywriter, I am stunned by the low pay offered through some of the “get paid to blog” and writer-client connection sites. Unfortunately, I think writers labor under the assumption that if they can crank out enough of these $2 articles, they can make a living wage. In reality, some simple math will show that they would burn out long before they ever got to that point. What happens, of course, is that the more writers try to fulfill these assignments, the more the clients think that quality writing can be had for this rate of pay.
Melissa, your idea about preferring to write something for a charity is wonderful – as a pro bono piece, your work then comes from the heart, benefits the charity, and benefits you as well by appearing in your portfolio. It doesn’t reward the “client” who thinks your work is literally worth nothing more than pennies.
Hi Janet. Thank you for taking the time to post your perspective.
I agree with you. A lot of writers who take up these jobs just aren’t looking at it closely enough or thinking it through long term. That burn out is nigh on impossible to imagine or even admit to ourselves. In the end though it’s just not a road that’s worth going down.