Having confidence in your work

I ran across this gem of a quote in Tolkien's foreword to The Lord of the Rings:

Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.

There is a delicate balance of self-confidence that a writer needs to strike. Lacking faith in your work won't win you clients, but being over-confident is a turnoff too.

Personally, I find in Tolkien's statement just the right amount of confidence mixed with humor. It's a good outlook for a writer, isn't it?

Go after it with a club

If you are really serious about being a writer and making your living via freelancing, you will need to be able to force yourself to write when you don't feel like it. Deadlines wait for no muse.

Last night I was working on an article that was due, but that I didn't feel like doing. So I found this quote on my iGoogle page rather pertinent:

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

- Jack London

That pretty much says it all about writing. If you can't go after it with a club, if you are the type who has to wait to write until you feel "inspired," you are probably not going to make it as a freelance writer.

It's actually no accident when we feel inspired to write. Usually it's because we're thinking about something, and start getting all fired up about it as a result. So when I don't feel inspired, that can usually be rectified by finding the path of least resistance: by starting to work on a piece of the project that is relatively easy.

In this case, rather than trying to start with the first paragraph of the article (the hardest part for me to write, after the concluding paragraph), I compiled the quotes and facts I wanted to use into a rough outline. I felt a weak spark of interest, so next I started working on whatever section caught my interest first — even if it was smack in the middle of the article. Before I knew it, a half an hour had passed, and I was fully immersed in my work.

Having to do work we don't feel like doing right then is a fact of life for a freelance writer, just as in any other profession. Learning to control your muse, rather than the other way around, is one of the things that divides the successful writers from the wannabes.

Great quote for writers

I want to share with my readers my new favorite quote about writing.

The quote appears in Henrietta Twycross-Martin's preface to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson. (The book is witty and hilarious, and I highly recommend it. The movie is also beautifully done.) Twycross-Martin was lucky enough to be able to interview Watson while writing the preface, and when they were discussing why Watson stopped writing abruptly in the mid 1940s, Watson said, "You can't write if you are never alone."

This quote holds much meaning for me, as I'm sure it does for my fellow freelancers — particularly since I know many are also stay-at-home parents. I have enough trouble writing when my husband is home, particularly on the weekends, so I can only imagine (though I'm sure I will someday experience) what it is like to juggle parenthood with freelance writing!

I have often found that late at night, after Michael has gone to bed and no one is calling or emailing me, is the best time to be alone and work. We also often go to Barnes and Noble or Tattered Cover, where I can work in the café while he browses or reads. And when I get really desperate, a trip by myself to a coffee shop or the library serves to ensure I get my "alone time."

What about you? Do you relate to this quote, and if you do, how do you ensure you have enough alone time to write?

A quote for bookaholics

I have my iGoogle homepage set up with a "Quotes of the day" section. One of the quotes today is particularly relevant:

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel

I have stacks of to-be-read books in various places throughout the house, so I can totally relate. I know that many of my other fellow freelancers, such as my friend Kathy Kehrli, probably can too!

Favorite quotes meme

Shannan Powell has tagged me to participate in a unique new meme. The goal is to share a favorite quote and dedicate it to three other bloggers. Those three then have to do the same with their favorite quotes.

I didn't have a favorite quote in mind, but I knew the Brontë sisters have some great quotes. Since the Brontës are my favorite classics authors, I started my search there, and found my new favorite quote — one I'm sure I've heard, but have since forgotten:

I'm just going to write because I cannot help it.
-Charlotte Brontë

That definitely speaks to the heart of who I am, since writing is not just my career, but also my identity. I have no doubt other writers will agree, so I'm tagging Kathy, Harmony, and Amy. (Yes, I know a couple of you have already been tagged, but think of it this way — at least you already had to do it.)

This quote describes me

One of iGoogle's quotes of the day pretty much sums up my attitude toward books:

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"

-Henry Ward Beecher

I've gotten better than I used to be, primarily because with all my other hobbies I have to save money where I can: Now, instead of buying every book I want to read, I check most of them out at the library. Having due dates also prevents me from developing stacks and stacks of books I own but don't have time to read.

Even so, every time I'm at the bookstore I have to fight down the urge to buy something.

Writers' quote of the day

This was one of the quotes of the day on my Google homepage:

"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."

- GK Chesterton

How true. Can you think of any bad novels you've read that have told you something about the author?

A good quote about wannabe writers

I ranted a little while back about wannabe writers. This week's Writers Weekly feature, "Write Through the Crisis: Finish the Novel First" by Alice J. Wisler, contained a line that I thought was a perfect summary of my entire diatribe:

"But what separates the writers who actually complete something and those who are just wannabes, is nothing less than sheer hard work."

Yep. That pretty much says it all.

A quote that reflects on the cheap internet content epidemic

In light of all the crappy content popping up on the internet these days, I found this quote rather amusing (and all too true):

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true."

--Robert Wilensky

This quote brings to mind all of the cheap content that people commission for the sole purpose of bringing in AdSense revenue. While there are some services that pay decent prices for this content, there is also a regrettably large population of wannabe entrepreneurs who post ads offering writers a dollar or two per article. Many of these ads also say that they don't expect high quality work...which harkens back to the old joke that a monkey could do the job. In this case, it's probably true, and Mr. Wilensky might even agree with me.

Now, before any of you SEO content writers get upset with me, keep in mind that I write this stuff too. However, if you're upset because you happen to be one of the writers selling your soul for a dollar an article, please take it from me - you can earn more for your labor than those fruitcakes will offer you. Search all the job boards daily, send a cover letter and resume to anything that looks like a decent offer, and refuse to work for anything less than what you are worth. (And that rate, regardless of what you decide it is, had better be above minimum wage!)

Leave the crappy content - and the crappy-paying content - to those who couldn't write to save their lives. There's no reason why real writers should allow themselves to be lumped in with the "monkeys."

A quote for writers

Yesterday, Google had the following quote on my home page (I have a section for quotes of the day):

"A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
-Thomas Mann

My first reaction, of course, was to deny that the quote had any truth. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how true it really was. I mean, how many non-writers talk about writer's block??? I think that writing really is more difficult for us writers, for two reasons: 1) we do a heck of a lot more of it than other people, and 2) we have a whole lot more riding on our writing than the average non-writer.

Darn funny quote of the day!

I found this quote about typos rather amusing - particularly as a writer. I've noticed the high number of typos in writing that is generally awful, and I wonder if those typos - either intentionally or unintentionally - have taken my mind off of an equally awful subject. However, I try to avoid typos in my work, so with this quote in mind I wonder if that means I have a high opinion of my topics, my writing, or both?