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Learning from Other Writers' Mistakes By Eve Menezes Cunningham When you work alone as a freelance writer, the slightest mistake can feel enormous. But it's often through mistakes that we learn the most lasting lessons. Freelance travel writer Kath Burke says, "Five years ago, I was going to interview a director of a major railway company. My commissioning editor had the great idea of doing the interview in the first class carriage of one of their newly refurbished trains. There was going to be a photographer there and a PR person, too-- all very organized. "But I missed the train! It could have been a disaster but I traveled up to Newcastle to meet them and we did the interview in a grungy station office instead. What a fool I felt! Since then, I always leave a bit more time before I set out for face to face interviews. My editor still laughs about it." Carole Edrich specializes in writing about extreme sports, dance, and risk. Freelancing for nearly four years, Carole says, "My biggest mistake-- and I keep doing it-- is taking on too much work. When I first started writing, I couldn't understand why other writers said it was so difficult to deliver work on time. "As I've got more work, though, I find myself regularly working 48 hours straight. The titles I work for seem to have deadlines at the same time each month and I have a reputation I don't want to lose as someone who can write at short notice. "It's not ideal but as I build my reputation, I'll be earning more so won't have to write as much. At the moment, though, I panic, drink lots of coffee and mate [green tea-like drink] and give up my social life one week each month." Lucy* has been a freelance copywriter for three years. She got stung early on: "I told a client that payment was normally due in advance for the kind of job I was doing for her but-- I feel so stupid-- because she was going on holiday and had a tight deadline, I said I'd do the writing for her immediately and she could pay me as soon as she got back. "I chased and chased and chased again but never heard from her. It's as if she dropped off the face of the planet. It was annoying but a very important lesson. Since then, I am much more clued up about contracts-- even if it's just an e-mail confirming all the important information." Jill Eckersley has been freelancing for 25 years. She says, "My biggest mistake was taking on a lot of commissions which sounded reasonable but then took much more work than I'd anticipated. Because publications often pay per 1,000 words, when you're inexperienced, you can easily agree to a too low fee. "Later, you discover that it's very different doing 1,000 words off the top of your head to finding four case studies or doing a celebrity ring round and dealing with all those agents. With experience, I've become much better at assessing how much I should charge for each piece." Kingsley Marshall has been writing about lifestyle for 11 years. He says, "I've never had any truly catastrophic moments. Although I do most of my interviews by phone, when I first started out, I used to meet people face to face, and made schoolboy errors: "During my first interview, I tried to note everything down by hand-- not recommended. For my second, I'd had the foresight to buy a Dictaphone to record it but the batteries ran out halfway through. So, again, I ended up furiously scribbling notes. Since that day, I've always made sure my recorder is charged up and I have a spare set of batteries." Moving on: - Join a writers' network-- this can be a formal organization or a couple of writer friends. All that matters is that you can talk to people about various issues that crop up. - Don't beat yourself up-- OK, you made a mistake. You're not going to be put on some world wide editors' list of freelance writers to avoid. - Do something nice for yourself! It will help you get past it much faster. - See how many positive things you can think of that result from the mistake. Start with three and keep going. There are always positives. Train yourself to look for them. - Investigate your options-- Can you do a short training course to brush up on copyright law / time management / assertiveness building, etc.? - Talk to a friend-- You don't have to dwell on the error or even talk about work. Just connect with someone and remember that your life is much bigger than this blip. - Don't let it derail you-- It can be easy to fixate on things that go wrong but after a (very) brief wallow, start investigating new opportunities and go for them.
Eve Menezes Cunningham is a freelance writer and Life Coach / Business Coach / NLP Practitioner specializing in coaching writers ( www.CoachingWriters.co.uk ) by phone and e-mail.
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