6 Truths That Every Writer Must Accept

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6 Truths That Every Writer Must Accept

By

April Aragam

Copyright © 2013, April Aragram, All Rights Reserved

 

You might believe some myths about writing that have been holding you back from enjoying and achieving all that you can in your writing career. This article outlines 6 truths that every writer has to accept for a successful and long-lasting writing career.

1. Rejection is not personal

Some people take rejection harder than others. Some understand that it’s normal for a writer to get rejections. Others are offended by rejections and torture themselves about what went wrong. The truth is that there isn’t a writer in the world who never gets a rejection for a piece of writing. Even if you work with an editor all the time and they love your stuff, a rejection isn’t personal. You editor doesn’t suddenly hate you. It simply means that what you’ve submitted isn’t right for any of the upcoming issues or someone else submitted the same idea first.

2. Guidelines are for everyone, not everyone else

Even if you have been published in many magazines and online publications, you still have to follow writer’s guidelines that are provided by a publication. While you may have had success submitting an attachment at some publications, that doesn’t mean that all are open to them. Some editors might prefer a submission in the body of an email. To know what an editor prefers, you must refer to their guidelines. There isn’t any way around this.

3. Editors can’t always reply personally

Editors are busy people. They may receive hundreds of emails each week. Due to this reality, an editor might only be able to reply when they are interested in publishing a piece. You might receive a form rejection letter from others. Form letters shouldn’t be scoffed at because if you didn’t get one, you might not hear anything at all. Hearing something, even in that form, is better than nothing at all. Some guidelines may also state how long to wait before submitting elsewhere. This is helpful in the event an editor can’t respond to pieces they’re not interested in.

4. You need to save money

As a freelance writer, you know that one month might bring in a pile of cheques, while the next might bring in nothing. That’s just how it goes. To account for this in your bank account, it’s important that you set aside money for those dry months. Not only do you need to save money to get you through the dry months, but you also want to have emergency savings. While it’s important to save, don’t forget to treat yourself every now and then.

5. You can make money freelance writing

It might be easy to moan and groan about the fact that it’s hard to find gigs and have a steady flow of money coming in, but the truth is it can be done. People are doing it every day. It takes hard work, but so does every other job. You don’t need to work 18 hours a day to do it either. All you need are goals and a plan. If you are five years into your writing career and still writing solely for the low-paying publications, you are only holding yourself back from making more money. You don’t need to stop writing for those publications, but you can add more to your repertoire. You can aim higher. You have to meet and query new editors. You can email new editors once a week. Making more money means writing a little bit more. Don’t stop writing at 10am because you finished and submitted an article. If you keep producing more articles and queries, you will inevitably sell more. Hard work truly pays off.

6. There is always something to learn

You can bury your head in the sand and pretend you have nothing left to learn about freelance writing, but the truth is there is always something to learn. Reading the blogs and books of other freelancers is a great source of information. Different freelance writers will have various tips and tricks that you might not have thought of. You might also be introduced to new contests and markets that you might not have found otherwise. Absorb all that you can from other writers.

 

Being a freelance writer requires a lot of patience and understanding, not only with yourself, but with others as well.