Surviving a Freelance Slump

Yesterday was not a good day. Nothing seemed to go right – I was behind schedule on all of my projects (meaning behind on the schedule that I set for myself to finish everything, NOT according to the client's schedule), I was dealing with a couple of payment delays and so on, and so forth. Staying motivated took everything I had. And that's when it happened; those nagging whispers of self doubt started in on me. I started thinking to myself, "This is going nowhere"; "I'm so late paying this bill"; "It's sooo slow right now"; "Maybe I should stop kidding myself and just go out and get a (GASP) job".

Like I said, things were looking pretty bleak. I don't know why I slipped into such a slump. But reading this post by Yuwanda Black, "11 Reasons You'll Never Succeed As a Freelance Writer" at Inkwell Editorial's blog really helped snap me out of it. Yuwanda Black has one of the best freelance writing blogs in the blogosphere - in my humble opinion. She's been blogging forever, so you could easily spend a nice long evening learning everything you ever wanted to know about freelance writing from reading through the archives of her blog. She is very candid – not vague or generic – and quite generous with the advice she gives about what it takes to make it as a freelance writer. This is not an easy business, but success is attainable if you are willing to work very hard.

Yuwanda's post helped me put my crabby day into perspective. I am working. As a matter of fact, I'm quite busy with clients right now. I 've been working full-time as a freelance writer for almost a year (in August) and I still have my house, my car, food in the fridge and all of my other essentials. Things could be better – and it's entirely up to me to make it that way.

Her list was a wake up call for me. I am guilty of doing at least five of the writing sins on the list, and I promise to take immediate steps to correct that…