Posts Tagged "confidence"
Breaking into Freelance Writing
For a while now I’ve been wondering whether there was a way I could start making some money from my writing talents attempts . Money is, quite frankly, in rather short supply and a little extra here and there would come in very handy. It was a very definite decision of ours that I would spend the first couple of years of Kai’s life at home with him while Ant went out to work, and one I am happy we made, but it is tough. Very tough.
Writing is what I love. It’s what I think about most of the time. It’s the thing that feels the most natural to me; the most right. When I am writing I finally feel like I’ve found my calling and my place in the world, that I have discovered my purpose. It’s exhilarating, addictive, and terrifying in that it seems to come with so much emotional investment. It’s only natural that I would want something I love so much to be able to earn me a living.
Increasingly I’m beginning to think that freelance journalism ISN’T for me: I don’t know whether I’ve got what it takes and fiction is my real dream, and where, I think, my particular skills lie, or, at least, I hope they will once I’ve practised a bit more.
But when lovely Linda from ‘You’ve Got You Hands Full’ contacted me telling me about a new column she was running on her blog offering freelance writing tips and asking if I had any questions to start the ball rolling, I immediately thought of about half a dozen. Because I know that there are lots of you that ARE keen to break in to freelance writing and that, like me, you find the whole field a little overwhelming and wouldn’t know where to start.
Linda has provided a wonderful advice-filled post in response to my (many) questions that offers a great insight into anyone thinking of trying to get some paid writing work. From Linda’s response it seems like the opportunities ARE out there, but only if you have the right skills to offer and know how to market yourself.
I’ll be honest, the more I learn about the freelance writing market, the smaller and more out of my depth I feel. I’m not sure I’m the kind of writer that would be good at networking, at selling yourself, at finding an angle. And that makes me wonder what kind of writer I am, or if, in fact, I am any kind of writer at all.
But these are my issues, not yours, and you may feel braver and more confident about making your forays into the field.
I’d really recommend you give Linda’s post a read and check out the advice she offers – as someone with a lot of experience in the field she is definitely a voice worth listening to.
Read MoreI have confidence in… erm… something?
Picture if you will.
I am sat here in my jeans and over-sized sweater and my messy boy hair, wearing novelty socks and eating too many chocolate digestives. I haven’t brushed my teeth yet. Unlike most mornings, today I did manage a whole fifteen minutes under a hot shower while Kai emptied the bathroom rubbish bin of tissues (don’t judge me – I’m strengthening his immune system), but absorbed in my hot-shower bliss I may have absent mindedly shampooed three times and conditioned twice so the messy boy hair is slightly lank. The over-sized sweater despite being clean on this morning already has some banana on one sleeve and what I think may be snot on the other. In the last 24 hours I have burst into tears a record number of five times and kicked two inanimate objects. I have had four hours sleep.
There are many things this scene screams. Confident, secure, fully-functioning grown-up is not one of them.
I have been struggling especially with the C word lately. No, not THAT C word. Confidence.
You see I seem to have mislaid mine. It’s not down the back of the sofa with the half-eaten rice cake. It’s not in the overflowing washing basket (hell it wouldn’t fit in there). It is not hidden behind the pile of clever books I can’t bring myself to read.
In fact, I don’t know where the frick it is. I haven’t seen it in quite a while.
More and more I envy those people who seem to ooze it from every perfect blemish-free pore. Those people that manage to combine motherhood with work and successful careers, with exciting projects coming out of their every orifice . Managing to fit deadlines around school runs, gym sessions and skin care regimes.
It’s like they are privy to a secret I have no idea about, passed about in hushed whispers while I was in the loo.
Around you – yes you accomplished people, I am left feeling so ineffective. So immature.
Why do I feel like this? Where on earth was I when the confidence ticket was handed out? (in the loo again probably – really should have worked harder on my pelvic floor).
I am 27. But I look kind of young for my age. I have a tendency to get written off by people, spoken to by strangers with that unique mix of patronising sympathy and instant dismissal. Old ladies can never believe it when I mention a husband, “but my, you’re too young to be married surely?!” and act surprised when I manage to come out with a vaguely intelligent or articulate comment. I always get asked for ID – once when I was buying PETROL which was more than insulting (surely I look older than 17? Don’t I??!!) My brother is two and half years younger then me and I look like his scruffy kid sister.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m sure when I’m 40 I will be grateful of this fact but right now it’s not really helping in the confidence department.
Social situations? Oh god where do I start. The stuttering? The complete brain freezes that make me incapable of speech? The completely irrational habit of coming away from all social encounters feeling dreadfully insecure and convinced I am the most scorned and despised person on the face of this planet?? I’ll stop there.
And then there’s work. Or ‘work’ as it should probably be referred to. Finding your way as a fledgling writer is not easy I can tell you. One of my opening exercises with my writing course was to free-write about your doubts about becoming a successful writer. I wrote six pages without even blinking. The thought of me ‘making it’ seems laughable. Successful writing seems to require a breeziness and articulate confidence that I can only imagine.
(Oh god. This is turning into a whiney post isn’t it. I apologise – there is a point I promise.)
It’s just I’ve been wondering what it is I’m missing? The right hair cut? The right clothes? The right pen? An ability to speak in whole sentences?
It’s easy to feel like those things would make all the difference but somehow I doubt it.
It’s also easy to feel like I’m the only one in the world left feeling so small, so insignificant.
But I’m not. I know I’m not.
I casually mention on Twitter about feeling like this and all of sudden I’m met with dozens of responses. All from women who say they feel the same. Many of them successful, accomplished women whom I admire.
And I’m left wondering… maybe the idea of a mysterious, innate secret to confidence is a misnomer? Perhaps, actually, none of us are the secure, confident people we imagine each other to be.
Maybe it’s not about FINDING confidence at all but actually just about FAKING it? And some people are just much better fakers than others?
So do you know what? That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give up trying to find it and settle for faking it instead.
And we’ll see what happens.
Now where’s that guitar case? I need to go swing it round on a mountain top.
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Taking a bit of a breather from the Sleep Carnival today – but do keep your submissions coming in, especially if you want to get your hands on the prize of all prizes which still seems to be causing a ridiculous amount of hysteria (not that I can blame you).
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