Freelancers Should Write for Themselves

Most of us freelance writing types spend our days taking care of our clients. We write our expected posts, catch up on that ghostwriting project, research the keywords for that new web site that wants our content. All good stuff because it’s writing and as a bonus, we’re getting paid to write!

My question is, how much writing do you do for you?

We put a great deal of our energy into what we do for others. That is how it should be, I suppose. After all they are paying the bills, right? As well, I have to assume that if you are any kind of ethical writer, you put as much effort and passion into writing for others as you would for anything of your own.

With all of that said, chances are when you first started writing, you wrote for yourself and not for anyone else. Perhaps it was a journal or maybe stories that you wanted to see in print some day. Maybe you wrote magazine articles that actually did get published.

So when was the last time you actually did any writing for you? I’m talking about writing that is just for the pure joy and excitement of doing something creative. Something that you did without the nagging commitments of freelancing gnawing at the back of your brain.

I have to admit that my writing always ends up on the back burner. I have every intention of moving forward on my novels and then a client assignment becomes due or I get a new client and before I know it a week or worse yet, a month has gone by with nary a new word in my novel. Dang.

I used to think that writing for me when I had so many other things to do was selfish. I felt like I was shirking my freelancing duties when I wrote for myself. Well, I’ve changed my perspective completely and I now know that I am actually helping my clients by writing for myself.

When I take the time to write for myself, I am charging my batteries. I am creating. I am being creative. I’ve decided there is no way that this can be a bad thing for my paid writing. By indulging my creative fantasies, I am honing my writing skills in general. I am becoming a better grammar person, I am employing new techniques and I am becoming much more creative. All of my writing can benefit from these things. The reality of it is that anything that benefits me as a writer benefits any of the clients that I write for.

Also, there is this salient fact to consider:  “Hey!  You know that New York Times best-selling Novelist, George Angus?  That guy used to write my web copy!”

Posted by:   Future NYT Best-Seller George Angus