One of the characteristics that I am *not* known for, and which I have spent a lifetime trying to develop, is patience. I’m an “instant gratification” kind of girl when it comes to most things.
Obviously, building a freelance writing career does not exactly cater to that aspect of my personality. The reality of waiting four to twelve weeks for a response to a queried article idea drives me to distraction. The thought that it can take nearly a year between having a book accepted by a publisher and having it actually published boggles my mind. And how many hands do you have to shake, how many business cards do you have to distribute, and how many cold calls do you have to make, before you can drum up even an erratic flow of local business writing projects?
That’s probably why I so enjoy the Internet. Query responses sometimes return in a matter of days, or even hours. Ebook publishing is almost instantaneous. An article submitted to an online publication one day can appear on the Web the next. You can bid on writing projects a half a world away without having to shake one hand or make one cold call.
But even in this amazing time for writers, it takes patience and perseverance to build one’s career, reputation and income. Sure, we might have the capability to whip up a meal in minutes, travel to different time zones in hours, or get published by the end of this week. But to create for ourselves a fulfilling freelance career calls for tapping those same virtues that our ancestors survived on long before the advent of microwaves, airplanes and email.
That’s not such a bad thing, though. Homecooked meals still taste better than six-minute frozen entrees. You see much more of the world when you walk, or through the windows of an automobile, than you do from a height of 20,000 feet. Similarly, the satisfaction you will derive from a career cultivated on patience and perseverance will run much deeper and last much longer than if you could just add water and become an overnight success.
No, Rome wasn’t built in a day, thank goodness–look at how long it has survived. Keep that in mind as you work to establish your own writing foundation, one building block at a time.
Here’s to your writing success!
Mary Anne Hahn has written numerous articles on writing, the writing life,
business and career topics. She is also editor and publisher of
WriteSuccess, the free biweekly ezine of ideas, information and
inspiration for people who want to pursue SUCCESSFUL writing careers.
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