How slow living can help you be a better freelancer
+ pitch a story to SELF, four other job opportunities and 50+ pitching guides
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I coined a term on Twitter a few weeks ago: slow freelancing. Most of us know the term ‘slow living’, which in short means living your life mindfully, in the present, with (in most cases) a good dose of minimalism.
There’s a slow food movement, slow fashion, even a slow gardening one, but I’d never seen the term be applied to freelancing, or running a business. We often feel the need to send out several pitches a day because we’re worried we don’t have enough work or clients in case some pull the plug. We end up half-arsing those pitches, and while we’re not 100% happy with them, we send them off anyway - only to get no response.
There’s so much advice out there about prioritising work, clients and your mental health. Focus on clients that pay well, do the legwork before sending a pitch, pull yourself away from your laptop and go for a walk at least once a day. There’s advice on how to cold pitch, how to set goals without feeling overwhelmed or how to determine your freelance writing rates. It’s all solid advice that I’ve taken on and dished out too. It made me think; what if we pull together all that advice on how to be a successful freelance writer, and compile it under one term: slow freelancing.
It’s about proper business planning instead of ad-hoc decisions. Spending time crafting amazing pitches for a few great clients or publications you’d love to work with instead of sending out 10 meagre pitches a day to whatever email address you can find. Taking the time to form proper relationships with your clients and take an interest in their life and work instead of just conversing with them when you need more work. Behind the scenes, it means managing your money properly. Slow freelancing, to me, is an extension of my aim to live a more mindful and meaningful life.
Start with the foundation
It may sound like I’m telling you to start freelancing at a snail’s pace, but that’s not what this is. The slow living movement, and slow freelancing, is more a mindset than a set of steps or rules. It’s about focusing on quality over quantity. I personally think it’s also very much about getting your ducks in a row in several other aspects of your life, such as your finances, before you can comfortably follow a slow freelancing mindset and enjoy the fruits of your intentional labour.
Here’s why: if, for instance, you spend more than you earn every month, it’s more than likely you’re feeling a constant sense of anxiety and stress about your rapidly growing debt. I could tell you to focus on sending one or two stellar pitches every day instead of 10, but chances are you don’t want to slow down because you need more money and you think sending more pitches will land you more work.
All of this well-meant advice comes during a time of great uncertainty. It’s absolutely valid to feel all the feelings of worry, anxiousness and despair. Reaching out for help and taking care of yourself both mentally and physically is always very important, but especially now. Living more mindfully can be beneficial in general. Not spending money on things you do not need and only allowing yourself to buy essential items can make life simpler, and therefore easier to control in uncertain times.
If you assessed your spending habits and focused on lowering your expenses first, you may realise you don’t actually need more clients so desperately. Perhaps the ones you have already cover your monthly overheads and leave some spending money once you’ve paid your bills. That doesn’t mean to say you can’t aspire to more clients and more income. I mean, don’t we all want more money? What I’m trying to say is that if you’ve got the fundamental financial aspects sorted, you have more space to focus your growth strategy on finding work that aligns with what you want to be writing about, for well-paying clients.
Like what you’re reading?
Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash
This week’s great reads
I think it’s important to read widely, so you can expect to find a broad range of topics in this list every week:
50+ pitching guides for NYT, NatGeo, Wired, WaPo, Bustle and more
The elements of a solid novel, plus steps to take before you even start writing
Photo’s of the week: antarctic sunrise, suspended cabin, Shanghai lightning
Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash
Freelance/contracting jobs opportunities
Cold pitching companies and publications you’d love to write for is a great way to grow your confidence and your network, but if you’re keen on “warmer” leads - here are a few opportunities I found.
Note: I try to only include opportunities that are decent and well-paid. However, more often than not rates, unfortunately, aren’t discussed in the call for pitches/writers. You can check Who Pays Writers? or Contently’s freelance rates database to see if the publication or organisation is listed and what they tend to pay.
That’s it for this week’s WordCount! If you’ve enjoyed reading this edition, please feel free to share it with fellow freelance writers. Or have a look at last week’s newsletter.