Apr
Freelancing and Creativity Blocks: Insecurity and Intimidation
What the hell is this post about?
- Insecurity: The freelancing and creativity plague
- Intimidation: The killer of business success and creativity
- Why insecurity and intimidation suck
- The QRW Weekly Theme
The challenges freelancers face in establishing and continuing a successful writing biz are pretty overwhelming. The challenges those who strive to be more creative face are equally as numerous. But when it comes to identifying the biggest blocks to business success and creativity, my money is on two interweaving biggies: Insecurity and Intimidation.
Insecurity: In-se-cure-eh-tee. Noun. 1: The condition ascribed to all bullies and other school torturers by mothers anxious to calm their seriously freaked and possibly bleeding kids. 2. The apt description for the state of the worldwide economy. 3. The state of lacking confidence. 4. Something we’re supposed to be over by now, dammit!
It’s a frustrating thing, insecurity. No matter how confident we may be in other areas of our lives, no matter how successful we may have become in terms of business goals, insecurity can still strike. I get it every time I start a new project. I have a moment of sheer panic, one in which it becomes painfully clear that I am a major faker, a charlatan akin to circus folk, completely incapable of stringing a few words together, let alone creating a coherent report, or website, or magazine article, or brochure, or any number of other projects. I have a desperate urge to run far away, take my Battlestar Galactica DVDs and my meager wallet contents and my cat and head for those mythical hills.
Of course, by now those moments are brief and manageable. But they still exist. And so do the moments of intimidation.
Intimidation: In-ti-meh-da-shun. Noun. 1. The condition of cowering before that of which we are afraid. 2. The mental bullshit we allow because we are insecure.
Oh yes. See, I get intimidated by many things. I’m intimidated of sources for articles, who have those impressive letters behind their names that signify crazy long periods of education. I’m intimidated by other writers who have done this for much longer and with much greater success. I’m intimidated by agents and publishing firms, by clients and their power over my purse, of those girls that are always impeccably stylish and put together and who project that personification of coolness and could-care-less-ness…
I digress. What’s sucky about intimidation is the fact that I allow it to happen. I’m insecure, and so I can get intimidated.
So how to deal with it? That’s this week’s theme. Tomorrow I’ll take a look at insecurity and intimidation in the book writing and selling process; Thursday I’ll think about insecurity and intimidation in the freelance marketing area.
In the meantime, it’s your turn. What makes you insecure? What are you intimidated by?
Like this post? There’s more where that came from, sugar. Subscribe by email or RSS to follow the weekly theme, and to never go without a daily dose of QRW…
Hmmm… good question. There isn’t much that intimidates me (and that’s probably what gets me into trouble more often than not!)
I think I feel more intimidated by personal projects than work. Work is work; it’s impersonal and my job. But private projects? I wonder if I’m sometimes in over my head or whether I truly can pull it off.
Sometimes. Only sometimes. I think the trick, in my case, is knowing that even if I don’t make it, that’s okay. I’ll live, learn, and be better next time.
Thanks for the link!
April 29th, 2008 at 6:43 pmAmy, you’ve gotten to the nugget core of insecurities most writers face. Writers need to remind themselves that they provide a service, like those of lawyers and accountants, who have no lack of confidence and that, contrary to popular belief, most people can write just because they learned the theree r’s in grade school. Witness IMing for that. Keep up the good work.
April 29th, 2008 at 8:25 pm@James - Hello, and welcome to this corner of the blogosphere, James! I think you bring up a good point. In my post tomorrow I’m looking at what for many people is a personal project: writing fiction or nonfiction novels. It’s there I think insecurity and intimidation can grab on with a kungfu grip. It’s ideal when “work is work,” and I think that comes with time and experience. Thanks for stopping by, and check out tomorrow’s post.
@Sherree - Absolutely. That’s a great point, and something very pertinent when it comes to marketing freelance services. I’ll write more about that and intimidation on Thursday…
April 29th, 2008 at 8:50 pmI think it’s tough as a freelancer because it’s a subjective business where you’re only as good as your last story or press release. For me, anyway, every time I work for clients, I feel I have to prove myself all over again. And, yes, that leads to a certain level of insecurity and doubt. Even though I know in advance how I’m going to structure my lead and paragraphs, but there’s always that lingering question of whether I’ll hit the mark or fall short or whether the right sources will be available to enable me to craft a good story.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:01 pm