Work Principles for Writers: 7 - 9
Just a quick review of the previous work principles we’ve covered in the last two weeks:
- Imitate high quality
- Learn from successful people
- Ignore cheaters, scammers, and get-rich-quick promises
- Never think you know it all
- Help other writers
- Don’t pick fights
Today we will add the next three principles to the list, but first a little more review: What is a principle? To my favorite source for word definitions, Webster’s 1828 dictionary, and we find the following among the list of meanings:
- Ground; foundation; that which supports an assertion, an action, or a series of actions or of reasoning.
- A general truth; a law comprehending many subordinate truths; as the principles of morality, of law, of government, &c.
- A principle of human nature, is a law of action in human beings; a constitutional propensity common to the human species.
I am presenting these work principles as the grounds for the actions you take as a writer, as general truths applied to a specific area (freelance writing), as tenets derived from principles of human nature. For example, our first principle for today is
7: Be diligent in your work to succeed
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There’s nothing new or unknown to successful people in this idea. You know that if you want to get beyond the scraping and pinching that so many of us freelance writers are stuck in, you have to work regularly, diligently, sometimes (it seems) ceaselessly. It’s easy to forget though, easy to put aside, easy to procrastinate, easy to look for another perfect job that won’t require you to be so darn diligent all the time.
That’s why this principle is out there: it’s true, and if you print out the list and tape it by your computer, or copy and paste it over to your desktop, you can remind yourself that you have to be diligent to succeed. Yes, you know it’s true: but sometimes you need a concrete reminder of the truth, something to stand on, a visible foundation for the action you already know you need to take.
8: Work ahead, even when there is no immediate “need”
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It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then I get through the first half of the day and realize that I’ve done everything on my schedule. My to-do list is just a pretty row of check marks, my drafts document is caught up with my editorial calendar, and I still have a beautiful afternoon in front of me. What’s my first instinct? What would yours be?
I want to take off, take a nap, take a drive, play Tetris, call friends, take a walk, do anything but move ahead on the work waiting for me. It’s a general truth that when we get comfortable, we start getting lazy, a little apathetic. It’s another general truth, though, that opportunity comes unexpectedly; if you’re not ready, it keeps on walking.
When you get caught up, don’t make that illogical leap into feeling that you’re automatically ahead. You’re not, yet. You’re just at the breaking-even point, and if you want to be more successful than you are right now, you have to push past that mark. So when you finish a project early, don’t go nap. Keep working on and be ahead of schedule on your next project. You’ll see three benefits from this action: first, if you run into a need for more research than you thought or trouble with some portion of an article, you have a little extra time to deal with it; second, if you complete the project and send it to the client done well and finished early, your reputation with that client is forever in the highest ranking; and third, when you finish work early and have a clear afternoon or day, you are free to find rush jobs that otherwise would not fit into your schedule.
9: Do good work, always, for every client
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When you were growing up, did you have one parent who was kind of a stickler for details and another who just wanted the job done? I did. I knew their preferences, and you can be sure I never did more than I had to in order to make either one happy. If I were cleaning up the kitchen for Mom, I washed those dishes until every part gleamed: otherwise, I would be going back and doing it again. If I were helping Dad in the yard, I did what had to be done to get the job finished: he just wanted it done, not perfect.
It’s easy to fall into the same set of varying standards with clients. We humans tend to discern pretty quickly what the minimum requirements for “survival” are, and then we set our mark there and never push ourselves further. And I’m not suggesting that you provide a 1000-word article with 3 referenced sources when all your client wants is a 500-word, opinion-based article from your perspective. Certainly, you can stay within the guidelines of each project. But certainly within those guidelines you can produce the best 500-word opinion-based article that it’s possible for you to write.
Even if you know a client will accept something less than high quality, don’t produce it. Don’t lower your standards. Don’t accept mediocrity from yourself. Mediocrity spreads like cancer, and soon you’ll be trying to get away with less than your best for clients who won’t take it. You put your writing reputation in jeopardy.
If you can’t force yourself to maintain high quality standards for “low-quality” clients, then don’t take those jobs.
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