Overcoming the Fear of Being a Freelance Writer
I'm addicted to newsletters. At the start of my journey as a freelance writer, I was trying to learn everything at once. Newsletters were a way to have the information close and ready for me. But soon, I felt paralyzed from all the information out there. I wasn't ready to do all that I've learned, so it was better to do nothing.
One day, I opened an email that said something like: "You don't need to learn all, learn what you can now, use it. Then return to learn again." That changed my perspective.
Procrastination and fear can be close to each other. I've realized that I was using the learning part (that is vital) to avoid the action part. Starting a freelance writing career is scary. But trying to build a path to learn shouldn’t exclude your action plan. When I realized that my problem could be the same as other people's, I decided to organize some steps to overcome the fear and get to the action.
See your career as a cycle
A writer will never stop learning. Through your journey, the need to learn new things will be a constant activity. That's why it is unhealthy to be stuck on learning. It is impossible to know everything.
Embrace the fact that the world will always have something new to discover and see your career as a freelance writer as a cycle. Create a method to learn, execute, analyze, then start all over again. Without the action part, you will never know what techniques are better, how to apply them, or adapt if necessary.
This cycle will repeat throughout the years and will become easier.
Know the why
What is your purpose? Talking about motive and value is becoming cliche, but it can help understand your journey and from where the fear is coming.
When you know why you're starting your freelance business, where you want to be as a writer, what the value you want to deliver, the how's will be more simple.
Keep your why in mind, write it down if you need it, and remember if you feel drained or lost. Your why could be from fulfilling a dream to gaining more money; this will help you make better choices and understand your path.
Every freelance writer will face hustles along the way. Your why is to remember the motive you started.
Think in the long term but act on short term
It is vital to have a career plan; however, it can also be scary. A long-term plan will have many items to do and goals that will take longer to achieve. It can look that you will never be able to do all that is needed.
Thinking in the long term and acting on the short term help to solve this problem. Break your goals into small steps, doing what you can now. Little by little, you will start to see changes. Small steps transform into tasks that are solved quickly, but they are leading you to your goal. You don't need to do massive jobs at once to be productive.
If all you can do today is send a pitch to one publication, do it. Don't think that this is small; every action is leading to your success. Do what you can now and when you can do more, do more.
You will always need to make choices
All professionals need to choose paths during their careers. Freelance writers are no different. In the beginning, you will find multiple opportunities and see that the roads you can take are almost infinity.
It is vital to make choices. You cannot write about everything, but you can also write about more than one subject, so choosing what you write and how you write it will be a routine.
Make choices that are healthy for you as a writer and as a person. Understand that you need to decide wisely. When you're happy with your possibilities will be more simple to overcome the fear and act.
Remember, no one started as a great writer. All of us need to try, make mistakes, try again. This process is necessary to learn, but it will never happen if we get paralyzed by fear. Learning from reading the work from other people is an important part; however, learning from your mistakes is even more beneficial.
Don't be afraid to let people know you're a beginner or make a fool of yourself sometimes. You only will know how it is to be a freelance writer if you act like one. So write. And reading newsletters sometimes will not do any harm.
