A guest post by Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer

If you’ve been a freelance writer for more than a couple of months, you’re probably familiar with the feast-or-famine lifestyle. For two months you have nothing, and then suddenly you’re so slammed that you don’t have time to eat, sleep, or shower. Your bank account goes up and down like a yo-yo. And with every feast, you wonder if it will be your last.

I’ve been going through the cycle for almost 14 years, and have learned how to smooth out the bumps.

1. Market when you’re busiest. It seems counterintuitive — why try to carve time for marketing out of a week that’s crammed with assignments? You have work. Duh.

The smart freelancer knows that the marketing she does now is what’s going to supply her income three or more months down the line. It takes time for marketing to turn into sales, so waiting for the assignments to dry up before pounding the pavement isn’t the best tactic. Even when I’m on deadline, I’ll be sending out article queries, direct mail to copywriting prospects, and letters of introduction — not to mention touching base with all my clients and following up on queries and letters of intro that are more than two or three weeks old.

2. Be the ant. Remember the fable of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant spends the warm months gathering food while the grasshopper has fun singing and hanging out with lady grasshoppers. Come winter, the grasshopper has no food and the ant, who’s rolling in goodies, tells the grasshopper to get lost.

The moral of the story for freelancers? No, it’s not that ants are jerks. It’s that you need to save money from the feast times to get you through the famines. It’s tempting, when you’ve just deposited thousands of dollars worth of writing checks, to splurge on a vacation or a new wardrobe. You feel like the good times will last forever. But take my word for it: There will be a famine period and you’ll wish you’d saved some of your cash. Try to build a cushion so you don’t have to beg an ant for money when you have no work.

3. Space out (your deadlines, that is). This is something that affects your schedule — and your sanity — more than your income. Until recently I had a problem where I’d have five articles due in one week, and then the next week (which of course had zero deadlines) I’d spend recuperating from exhaustion. Now I know to negotiate deadlines so that they’re more spread out. Just yesterday, in fact, an editor asked me to turn in an article on March 14. I already have an article due on that day, so I asked my editor for more time. She immediately agreed.

Don’t be afraid to ask for more time on a deadline when you’re offered an assignment. Editors and clients often build in extra time on projects so they’re not stuck in a crunch if the writer flakes out. And I promise, they won’t yank away an assignment just because you asked (well in advance) for a few extra days.

4. Trust. When you’re going through a famine, it seems like you’ll never have work again. This is it, you think. The end of the line. You start scouring the want ads for minimum-wage temp jobs.

I’ve felt that way myself — many times since I began freelancing full-time in 1997. But the more years that went by without my having to search for a 9-to-5, the more I began to trust that even the scariest famine would end. For example, when my husband and I adopted our son two years ago, I planned to take a month’s maternity leave and get back to work in February. But February passed with hardly any work. And March. And April. Things looked dire at the time (though we did have money thanks to tip #2 above), but when I did my taxes at the end of the year I realized that I earned the same amount as I had the year before, even with the four-month famine. The assignments did come back.

Even the best writer goes through the feast-or-famine cycle. It can be a scary ride, but if you plan right — and trust that there’s always work out there for a good freelancer — you’ll be just fine.

Linda Formichelli runs the Renegade Writer Blog, one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers, where she dishes out advice and offers an e-course on breaking into magazines, phone mentoring for freelance writers, and a free packet of 10 sample query letters.

Cartoon by Sean DSouza

A guest post by Sean DSouza of Psychotactics

Imagine you were reading a mystery novel. You’ve just finished five pages. The story line is becoming really interesting.

And then you turn the page

And find the sixth page has been torn out. Now that’s really irritating, eh?

But let’s suppose you decide to continue reading anyway

And you move to page seven, and pick up the thread of the story. And you’re reading page eight, page nine, page ten.

And page eleven is torn out. At this point, you’re more than frustrated.

And this is the feeling that many readers have when they read your article.

It’s because you’re not planning your disconnectors.

So what are disconnectors?

Disconnectors can be simply described as a sudden stop.
So let’s say you’re telling a story.
Or telling a joke.
Or singing a song.
A sudden stop in the middle of your story/joke/song would be a disconnector.

But a disconnector isn’t a bad thing, provided you understand the difference between a planned and an unplanned disconnector.

Planned Disconnectors.

Planned Disconnectors are what you see on any TV serial. You’re watching this villain chasing the hero. The tension builds up. And it reaches a crescendo.

And the scene changes to something else. Like a scene at the beach. What you’ve just experienced is a disconnection. One moment you’re watching a crazy chase. Next moment the waves are lapping on the sand.

And this experience is a planned disconnector.

But how do we know it’s a planned disconnector?

Because the villain and the hero will show up again in the same serial. Which means the thread of the serial is to disconnect, then connect, then disconnect.

And this planned disconnector allows us to pick up the thread of the serial.

But what of unplanned disconnectors?

Unplanned disconnectors are simply a factor of too many thoughts. Imagine that same villain chasing the hero. And you don’t see the scene again.

The scene doesn’t re-connect at all. So you’re left with half a story.

And that’s frustrating

Because the reason you were reading the story, was because you were interested.

If the story suddenly ‘disappears’, you’ve created a disconnect. The reader may tolerate the disconnect, as long as you bring up the connection later in the article.

So let’s see an example:

Peter worked for few years as a volunteer in a little village in Peru. He really enjoyed his work and felt he was doing something useful. Eventually he moved back to his own country, and got a job.

35 years later, his professional life came to an end, as he had reached the mandatory 62 years retirement age. His volunteer Peruvian years came back nagging him more and more.

What happened to the people he had lived with 35 years earlier? What became of the village? In the case of Peter, his time was filled with questions about the people and the village in Peru.

It was difficult for him to focus on other activities. He
eventually went to Peru.

Martha felt that retirement age came to early. She still had things she wanted to do professionally. She resented seeing her years of professional experience as a bank manager almost being cancelled by the fact she reached retirement age.

She felt drained of all her energy. She felt tired right in the morning when she woke up.

See what happened in the story above?

You got into the story of Peter and Peru. But the story suddenly disconnected. And went on to Martha.

Now as you read further, you’d expect the writer to bring back the connection. To complete the Peter in Peru story, as it were.

But most article-writers never bring back the connection

They’re so eager to move to the next idea, that they fail to
complete the first.

They’re onto the next idea. The next paragraph. The next piece of information.

And the reader is now totally confused. But reads on any way.

But isn’t that the point of the article – get the reader to read on anyway?

Yes, it is. As we’ve found, disconnectors provide an intense lift in drama. Or a drop in drama. But if the reader continues to find disconnects, and there’s no connection, the reader feels cheated.

They feel like they’ve read to page five. And then page six is gone.

And then continued to page ten. And page eleven is gone.
This unplanned disconnect leaves an incomplete, icky feeling.

And it’s not what you set out to do

So either complete your story in the greatest detail (No, you don’t have to create disconnectors at all).

But if you disconnect—disconnect deliberately! Or not at all.

***

Most businesses wonder why customers get to the point of buying, and then suddenly back away. Psychotactics shows you exactly how customers think–and why they do what they do. To find out more, go to http://www.psychotactics.com

Check out this great article: 100 Inspirational Posts to Make You a Better Writer