Freelance Writing Concerns – Am I Good Enough

My freelance writing career seems to be puttering along well enough. The trouble is that my freelance writing INCOME has sputtered. It makes me wonder if I am good enough to pursue this dream. When other sites are getting thousands of readers each day and me, well, not so much, then I wonder and worry if it is the writer and not the search engines.

My freelance writing scares me some days and this weekend was one of those moments. I even considered abandoning my fulltime freelance writing to pursue another avenue of income (although at this point in my health walk I do not think that gym job would be easy to get – but that is another story for another blog).

This weekend I completed a freelance article for a local paper. I sent it to an internet writing friend (because those online friends can be brutally honest). She bragged on my skills as a writer and my heart. The encouragement did wonders for my ego but the balance in my checkbook seemed to counter act that moment.

Freelance Writing Concerns

1. Can I pay the bills this month? It was fine at the first of the year. Many people said that freelance writing jobs slowed down at the first of the year. But my freelance writing income is now lower than it has been since I started. The truth is that I have to choose to believe in my abilities and to continue to pursue new opportunities with boldness! That means instead of whining to my IM friends all afternoon I need to perfect some manuscripts to send in, finish editing my novel and finally complete that non-fiction proposal. The more income opportunities I pursue with my freelance writing then the more likely I will be to find that income.

2. Am I delusional? I have always been a dreamer – and I am not the only one (sorry, could not resist). I am one of those people that can tell you exactly how I would spend the money when I win the lottery and I do not even play the lottery. There are moments when I think that my dream of being a writer is just a delusion I have created for myself. But the truth is that I AM a writer. I work for national and regional magazines. I write for newspapers and international internet companies. You can Google me. I AM a writer so it can not be a delusion. And where my dreams take me next is only a matter of action that is put behind those dreams.

3. Will other people talk about me? As a freelance writer I reveal my heart and often my soul to anyone that wants to read it. I already know that other people will talk about what I write (and often not in a good way). I am from a small town so I grew up with the gossip. It does not matter what I do, where I do it or how I do it because there is always some person that will wag his or her tongue in my direction. The truth is that I can not let others or their opinions dictate my walk. It is a simple concept and one that I thought I had mastered at one point in my life but that I am now searching to master once again.

Those are my top three concerns about my freelance writing; at least they are the top three concerns that I have right at this moment. I think any endeavor that requires a piece of me the way that writing does can be scary. Stepping out means there is always that chance of being run down. Developing a successful freelance writing career – with pay to match – means pursuing with passion, determination and boldness all that I know that I am right now and all that I desire to be tomorrow. I am a writer and I am continuing on a path to becoming an even more successful freelance writer.