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When your writing rules YOU

June 19, 2008 on 3:05 pm | In 2008, Don Vaughan, Freelancing, Perseverance, Professionalism, Writing | 5 Comments

It wasn’t so much an epiphany as a slow, gradual realization that I was no longer in control of my career. True, I was getting plenty of assignments, many of them lucrative, but I had fallen into the trap of accepting everything that crossed my desk in a frightened attempt to maintain an “income stream,” and in so doing I had killed the very thing that made me want to become a writer in the first place.

I’ve been writing for more than 30 years, and have worked steadily as a freelancer for 17 years. I entered freelancing in 1991 out of a desire to write what I wanted to write, not what others wanted me to write. But now, nearly two decades in, I was right back where I started, a realization that made me increasingly unhappy.

So one morning not too long ago I woke up and said, no more!

My problem, I realized, was that I had become lazy and complacent. I had developed bad habits that were keeping me from achieving my full potential as a professional writer. I had no one to blame but myself for the rut I was in, and it was up to me to climb out and start climbing up.

The first thing I did was resolve not to waste time on small articles for small markets. I wasn’t going to burn bridges — that’s never a wise career move — but I was going to politely decline the small stuff and more aggressively ask for larger, better paying features.

More importantly, I began jotting down the big ideas that had been filling my brain over the years, and identifying the larger, better markets that might be interested in them. This included, among others, Rolling Stone Magazine, Readers’ Digest, GQ and the larger inflight magazines. It might take me a while to break in, but I realized I never would if I didn’t start making the effort. These markets weren’t going to come to me, I had to go to them — and with my very best work.
Driven, I spent an hour and a half at Barnes & Noble evaluating markets and writing down pertinent contact information. Magazines that used to intimidate me are now targets in my sights. I may miss with my first shot, and maybe even my second and third. But eventually I’ll hit the target, and all of my efforts will have been worthwhile.

I’m also working harder and faster. I don’t procrastinate anymore. When I get an assignment now, I immediately get my questions together and move fast to arrange interviews. The faster I work, the more I work. And the more I work, the closer I come to my goal of writing what I want to write.

I’m telling you this because I want you to push and encourage me. Like the smoker who tells everyone he knows that he’s trying to quit, I want you to MAKE me work harder toward my bigger goals.

If you do that, I promise to do the same for you.

– Don

Sell What You Have: Lessons learned from the rich young ruler. (Lk 18:18-23)

June 18, 2008 on 7:45 pm | In 2008, Advertising, Debbie Howard, Freelancing, General, Marketing, Writing | No Comments

The words pierced me like a carefully targeted arrow hitting its mark. Yet, I was neither rich, nor young. Neither was I a ruler. Or was I?

There were some things he’d gotten right, this young man who stood questioning Jesus. Yet, there was more required of him. He ruled. But he lacked the ability to exercise dominion in the arena of marketing.

As a young writer, aspiring to see my articles in print, the revelation flooded my understanding, jolting my little world of I-don’t-like-to-do-marketing. The words bathed me with new understanding. “Sell what you have.”

It only takes a moment for the higher thoughts of the Lord to penetrate and shatter the hidden secrets of the heart. I, like the rich, young ruler, was holding on to my writing as he did his possessions. With a change of thinking, I pondered the words. “Sell what you have.”

What you have…not what they want.

Sell it! Don’t give it away.

Sell what you have.

You’ve got it, something others need to survive, overcome, endure…succeed.

What have you already written? What have you written that has value? What are you storing up in barns, even building new barns to hold, instead of getting it out into the arena of valued product?

Writer’s rich with ideas must accept the challenge Jesus presented to the young ruler. It requires a change of focus from possessor to promoter. From marks to market. From my possession to my responsibility to get the message out.

What could the rich young ruler have done? What can we, rich young writers do?

Accept the challenge and obey the command.

Hear the affirmation in the command. Ponder this for a moment. Jesus told the man, “Sell what you have.” He obviously knew what the man had. According to the young ruler’s response to the Lord, he kept five of the ten commandments. Jesus did not discount the accomplishment. He could just as well have said, “Don’t keep the secret to your success, the ability to keep these commandments, stored away in your own barn. Make this available for public consumption. Feed those who are struggling with that which you have mastered.”

Jesus’ words of command were also words of encouragement. It was an affirmation of the young man’s wealth. I know what you have. Sell it. Get people to make an exchange. At the same time He was also saying, “There are people out there who are willing to pay for what you are storing.”

Think about this for a moment. This is Jesus speaking. He knows who you are and what you have to offer. He knows the needs of the people and he’s standing before you with one simple command. “Sell what you have.”

Package what you have for public consumption. Someone needs it. Someone will buy it….and you will experience new life. Isn’t that the essence of what Jesus said to the man?

Let’s take this a step further. Let’s brainstorm together. What unmerited thinking shackled the rich young ruler? Could it be summed up by saying, “I don’t know how? I don’t have the time. I’ve never done that before.” After all those are some of the excuses we’ve been using isn’t it? I don’t know how to find out who needs this information. I don’t know how to query an editor. I don’t know how to edit the article. I don’t know how….? Fill in the blank yourself. I’m sure you, like myself, have said it enough times to know the refrain by heart.

Here’s a thought to ponder. This ruler was being challenged by the Lord to expand his knowledge base. Yet, he was content to just possess. Many in the body of Christ stand at the same threshold. We possess knowledge of the Christian life. We have overcome in several, if not many, arenas. We have some trophies and we sometimes recall the moments of triumph. But have we recorded those victories, the lessons learned and the encouragement for others?

I want to leave you with this thought today. Are you a rich young ruler? Are you secure in your level of accomplishment? Take this challenge today. What truths have you mastered? What area of your life has been transformed. What food for thought do you have that others will be nourished by? Write them. Record them and pass them on. They’re valuable and someone will make an exchange (buy) in order to reach the level of success you are basking in today.

–Debbie Howard