I’ll be honest: I didn’t know what to write about this week. I have a document of literally hundreds of newsletter ideas, but as I was going over them this week, I kept thinking to myself: “These are awful. You’re terrible at this. You’re no good at it”
I hit that all-too-familiar wall in writing where you’re staring at a blank page or a notes document and you don’t know where to go. Nothing is tracking, you feel like you’re out of ideas and you’ll never write again, and you think to yourself, “Should I change careers and be a carpenter?” (No? Just me? I would love to be a handyman!)
All of this came up in a coaching session not long ago, when a writer was telling me they were in a very similar situation: pitches weren’t landing, and that was pulling them into a doubt spiral. I’ve written in this newsletter that so many of those one-on-ones turn into therapy sessions, so this isn’t at all uncommon, but that’s kind of my point: These slumps happen to literally everyone.
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This person was asking for advice on how to deal with it, and I gave them the same advice I give every time this comes up (and that I’m trying to give myself this week): You’re fine, this happens to everyone, and you just have to push through it. Slumps are real, but the horrifying, soul-crushing, yet imaginary stories our brains turn them into are not.
There are a million articles about dealing with self-doubt — I’ve even published some! — and many are helpful, but freelancers often deal with a very particular slice of it. Our creative insecurities are directly tied to our financial ones. When we fall into these spirals, we doubt not just the work itself, but what that doubt could mean: If we don’t pull it together we’ll stop getting work, then stop earning income, then our career goes bust, and all of a sudden we can’t pay the bills. This is called catastrophizing, and it provides precisely zero help in getting out of these moments.
(Totally unrelated side note: I edited that story I linked to, and when I was looking it up just now I noticed we published it March 23, 2020. Yikes. If only we knew the level of collective catastrophizing that was right around the corner!)
There’s no silver bullet to busting a slump, so I’ll just talk about what works for me, heavily influenced by advice I got on this from someone I consider to be the best features writer in American journalism and who, like all of us, deals with this constantly.
Give yourself permission to sit with the suck for a while and validate your feelings, because while we logically know things aren’t as bad as they seem in our heads, the emotions are still real.
But then try to separate the story from what is really going on. Yes, my brain is telling me that I’m out of ideas and I have lost the ability to write and I need to shut down Freelancing With Tim because I am terrible at this and I’ll be broke forever. But what is actually happening is that I’ve been sleep-deprived all week, no ideas are lighting a fire in me at this moment in time — meaning they’re not necessarily bad, they’re just not right right now — and I need to come up with something fresh to break through.
The second scenario there is a solvable problem; the first is a fictional horror story my brain is trying to trick me into believing.
Since you’re reading this, you can guess which path I took.
Good luck out there, and be kind to yourselves. Have a wonderful weekend!
September’s Zoom workshop lineup
A week from today @ 4 p.m. Eastern, Emily Stewart of Business Insider will join us for a session on how to come up with more, and better, knockout story ideas. Emily is famous for finding fresh, unique angles to topics and digging up ideas that never fail to surprise and delight readers — if you ever see a BI headline that makes you think, “Wow, I never would’ve even thought of that idea,” odds are it’s an Emily special. She'll give us a peek into her process so we can all generate stronger, more original, and more attention-getting story ideas.
On Sept. 24 @ 4 p.m. Eastern, Slate features editor Shannon Palus will join us for a workshop on how Slate builds its iconic features, and how we can use those techniques in our own writing. Shannon is an ace editor at crafting unmissable stories, and she works with and commissions a ton of freelancers, so I’m beyond thrilled for her to bring her years of expertise to this workshop and share her tips, advice, secrets, and wisdom about pitching and writing the perfect feature story.
On Sept. 29 @ 4 p.m. Eastern, Cristina Silva, managing editor and newsroom recruiter for The Boston Globe and author of Ask the Recruiter at The Poynter Institute, will join us for a workshop on how to best position yourself for full-time/staff positions. Working with job candidates is part of Cristina’s job at The Globe, and she brings that know-how to her careers column for Poynter, so this session will be chock-full of tips, advice, and guidance on applying for full-time positions. Bring all those questions you’ve been curious about to a real-life newsroom recruiter!
(As always, use the promo code “subscriber” to get 50% off registration to all events, and all registrants will get a recording, whether or not they attend live.)
Oh, a few other things …
Land a great pitch recently? I’d love to feature it in a future edition of our #pitchesthatsold series! Email me at [email protected] and put “#pitchesthatsold” in the subject line. Can’t wait to see ’em!
How much were you paid for your last assignment? Feel free to contribute to our ongoing freelance rate database here. I’ll be publishing updated results of this survey in a few weeks!
Got a question about freelancing or the wider world of journalism? Let’s hear it, and I may feature it in a future Q&A post! Fill out this form with your question(s).
I offer one-on-one coaching! Is your story falling apart and you need a second set of eyes on it? Want a seasoned perspective on a pitch you’re kicking around? Interested in talking about careers and/or building your freelance business? Maybe just want an edit on a story draft? I’ve got you covered! Click below to book a one-on-one coaching session to talk about pitches, story ideas and development, editing, careers, or anything else you might need help with! (Paid subscribers get 33% off any one-on-one session.)