Are you confidently traveling the road to abundance?

Is fear holding your writing career back? When I asked writers about that a while back, I was concerned with the responses I got.

I’ve learned fear is an epidemic in the freelance-writing world.

Fear your work will be laughed at.

Fear you won’t be able to deliver the quality writing a gig demands.

Fear that one flubbed assignment will spell the end of your freelance writing career. That you’ll never be able to earn your living through that thing you love…writing.

Well, fear not.

Tim Sanders @SandersSays

I met someone at SOBCon who knows all about fear and how to beat it to unleash a life of achievement and prosperity — and below is his system for growing self-confidence. He is Tim Sanders, a former Yahoo! executive, author of the popular book Love is the Killer App and a new book, Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence. Tim gave me permission to share the gist of his inspiring talk with you.

Tim related to the SOBCon audience the story of his hardscrabble childhood. He was basically a throwaway kid and ended up raised by his grandma, Billye, from the age of four. She brought him up on her farm by herself and put him on a solid path to college, but his world fell apart in his twenties, when his dad was murdered.

After 15 years of floundering with his self-esteem in the tank, he finally got back on track by returning to the basic values Billye instilled in him from childhood. Here are his rules:

1. Fight scarcity thinking. Often fear comes from a “small pie” mentality that says there’s only so much to go around. Billye taught Tim there’s always enough — and we can bake up more. Bravely share what you have, even when it’s not much, and you will build your self-worth and unleash abundance. Once, Tim recalls, a homeless man came to their door, begging for work. Though they had little, Billye fed him and gave him chores to do, then paid him $20. The magic of giving is it makes you realize your good fortune.
2. Screen out the bad news. Billye rarely watched the TV news, preferring inspirational readings. In an age where you can surf the ‘net and see alarming stuff 24 hours a day, Tim advises staying off Twitter and online news sites that first hour or so when you wake up. Instead, read something uplifting — maybe a book about writing. Keep a diary of how much time you spend consuming negative and troubling information — then cut it way back.
3. Surround yourself with positive people. Chase more negativity out by avoiding snarky social-media conversations and people who gossip. Find mentors and friends who will build you up.
4. Remember the good times. Tim says what you park by the “front door” of your mind — the memories you keep fresh — should be uplifting memories of past achievements. When you’re feeling scared or down, review these past successes to remind yourself of your abilities. Personally, I loved this point, as when I am flummoxed by a big feature article, I’ll still sometimes get out my old portfolio and flip through some of my favorite past clips. Reading those stories makes me realize if I wrote those complicated pieces, I can do this one, too. The only emotion that’s as strong as fear, Tim says, is validation.
5. Learn the pecan method for dealing with criticism. When Tim came home stung by classmates’ criticism, Billye handed him a pecan. She taught him criticism is an opportunity to learn something valuable — whether it’s about you or maybe the other person. Swallow the useful part of the feedback — the nut. Then, throw away the rest — the shells.
6. Exercise your gratitude muscles. People who feel down aren’t taking the time to appreciate all the good things that happen to them each day, Tim says. It’s been said the biggest natural-resource shortage these days — especially in America — is gratitude. Billye kept a dusty old dimestore “horn of plenty” centerpiece on her table, a Depression-era reminder that abundance is all in your perception of things.
7. Prepare for loss. Tim was doing well until the unexpected loss of his father knocked him for a loop. Know that bad things will happen, and rehearse in your head how you would cope. We all have setbacks in our personal lives and our writing careers — that query you thought was so terrific that never got a response, or the client who dropped you without explanation. Think about the resources you could draw on to bounce back from setbacks before they happen, and you’ll be ready.

Know that success is not a destination — it’s a direction. Keep moving forward.

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more free posts that help writers earn more. Coming up: Why changes at Google mean great new freelance-writing opportunities for you.

Road photo: stock.xchng – gbq902

My how the months do fly by! Time for another month-end roundup of tasty articles for writers that I’ve spotted online in recent weeks.

This time, I find many folks doing a great job writing useful posts on their very own blogs.

Remember, these are just in alphanumeric order, not in order of greatness. Note the appearance by copywriting great Bob Bly — his piece has some great tips on how to get the most marketing mileage out of writing an article for a client.

They’re all great reading! Enjoy.

1. 7 Secrets You Should Know About the Craft and Business of Writing Fiction by Kath and Therese of Writer Unboxed, on Courage 2 Create
2. 10 Simple Keys to Becoming a Better Blogger by William tha Great on WeBlogBetter
3. Can You Write an Article Like This One? by Bob Bly on Constant Contact
4. Doing Nothing Wrong? by Lori Widmer on About Freelance Writing
5. Everything Will Conspire to Stop You…So What? by Robert Bruce on Copyblogger
6. How to Create an Instant Yes by Goddess Leonie on Problogger
7. How to Easily Write Brilliant Blog Posts by Stanford Smith on Pushing Social
8. Make Money Blogging: If I Can Do It, So Can You by Barrie Davenport on Live Bold & Bloom
9. What to do When You Don’t Hear Back From Potential Clients by Angie Atkinson on WM Freelance Writers Connection
10. Writers: Why It Doesn’t Matter if a Marketing Tactic Works by Jenn Mattern on All Freelance Writing

What’s the best article about writing or blogging you read this month? Feel free to share links to some more useful posts in the comments below.

Did you like Stanford’s post that made this list? He’s the co-presenter on my free teleclass coming up April 6, Top 10 Reasons Why Your Blog Isn’t Earning Money. Come check him out! Seats are filling fast — register now.

Photo: Stock.xchng – dchapell

Victoria Mixon

by Victoria Mixon

Write for a living!

Great salary, great benefits, professional editors at your beck and call, and a long-term career track. A dream come true: technical documentation.

I’ve been involved in tech documentation in the computer industry for over 20 years, which is a good long chunk of time. I remember the launch of certain technology now on display in the Silicon Valley Tech Museum. Many of my closest friends are tech writers—even my husband is a tech writer. We live pretty darn well!

So what does it take to break into the industry?

1. A college degree. When I worked for IBM back in 1992, it didn’t matter what your degree was in—my writing partner had a PhD in anthropology. But times have changed, and now managers expect you to have a degree in a writing-related field like English or Journalism. So get that one under your belt.And think about whether you’re interested in working in computer technology, medical, biotech, legal, or some other industry, and take a few classes in that subject while you’re at it. You’ll need them to make yourself attractive as a newbie to prospective employers. You’ve got lots of competition—some of it from folks with actual technical degrees who just prefer the writing.
2. Being in the right place at the right time. This means living where technical companies congregate. When I started out in the computer industry that meant Silicon Valley, but the industry has expanded quite a bit since then, and now the top companies have offices all over Southeast Asia and Europe. And the industrialized world is simply littered with start-ups, some more profitable (and therefore able to afford tech writers) than others.Computer documentation took a hit in 2008, but the imminent retirement of Boomers means the medical field is expanding fast. Talk to the folks teaching the technical classes you’re taking in your chosen field. Find out where the companies are.
3. Desire for a career. Technical companies hire new college graduates for tech writing positions all the time (because they’re cheaper than experienced writers), but they’re less likely to hire a professional writer who just happens to have turned their sights on tech documentation. If that’s you, be prepared to try harder to impress them with your dedication. They don’t necessarily trust you to stick with them if your sights land on some more attractive job later. You can’t breeze in and out of tech writing on your way to bigger and better things.If you want to be a tech writer, count on being a Career Tech Writer.
4. Flexibility. The giants of any industry have quite specific corporate cultures. At IBM we used to laugh about the image of IBM suits with their shiny wingtip shoes, but when I started wearing a nose ring to work I got frowns from management. They also might claim the right to review what you write for publication apart from work and may very likely demand drug testing. Those guys aren’t messing around.Start-ups are a lot looser, and their corporate cultures can be pretty fun, especially if they let the maverick engineers out of their cages on Friday afternoon. Start-ups are terrific places to make idiosyncratic friends—unfortunately, they also tend to go bankrupt once in awhile. Tech writers typically circulate in the industry, so your resume will always be very important to you.
5. Pragmatism. The money sounds good. . .and it is. A brand new tech writer can expect to be offered around $50k/year plus stock options, and an experienced writer will break $100k plus stock options and some very nice bonuses. Contractors can make significantly more—although you won’t get stock options, bonuses or maybe benefits—but you’ll need some regular salaried experience before they’ll take a chance on you. Still, a lot of even the smaller corporations offer perks like free chow in the break room, on-site pool tables, ping-pong and gyms and travel expense accounts.Be prepared for the fact that technical industries are built around the technicians—the computer, medical, or biotech engineers, the lawyers or other specialists—and you’re only there for support. This means your department is in line for the chopping block whenever the company tightens its belt, either for economic reasons or to attract a prospective buyer. It also means you and your peers are going to spend a certain amount of time sending each other emails about how you can’t get no respect.I hope you have a sense of humor!

If you’ve got the attitude, qualifications, and personal stability for a salaried career in writing, then technical documentation is an excellent choice for you. It’s nothing like certain writing careers, such as English professorships or publishing acquisitions, which focus entirely on the traditional publishing industry. And, while it has a lot in common with other nonfiction areas such as journalism or ad copywriting, which focus on producing lots of clean, clear copy on deadline, it’s not only about the writing but also about understanding technical subjects and using specific software to create books.

Ask yourself if this sounds like the dream job for you. And if it does. . .well, pull up your socks and do what you’ve got to do to get yourself there!

A. Victoria Mixon is a professional writer and independent editor with over thirty years’ experience in both fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of  The Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual. She can be reached through her blog, Victoria Mixon, which was recently named one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers.

Got questions about breaking into tech writing? Leave a comment and we’ll do our best to answer.

by Ollin Morales

Before you read this article, I would like you to try something:

Move your eyes away from your computer screen and take a deep breath. Feel the air as it moves through your nostrils, down your throat, and feel it fill your diaphragm to the brim. As you do this, I want you to take in your surroundings.

Notice the light as it flows through the window, acknowledge the noises you hear, the chatter of the people around you, the chairs and other objects that surround you. Do not resist anything you see, hear, or feel. Just become aware of everything.

Do this exercise right now. When you have done this for a few minutes, come back to me.

You done?

If you did it right, you should feel a little bit more at peace and relaxed.

Most importantly, you should have felt that a certain, negative emotion was not present: fear.

Now, before I go on about how to overcome your writing fears, you need to first understand how fear works. Once you understand how fear works, you’ll feel a lot better about yourself and you’ll understand what Franklin Delano Roosevelt meant when he said:

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

When Fear Was A Good Thing

Fear actually serves a very important purpose in our human physiology.

Dr. Joan Borysenko, in her book Minding The Body, Mending The Mind, calls the process by which fear manifests itself in our mind and our body as the “fight-or-flight response.” I won’t go into too much detail about this response but what you, as a writer, need to know is that human beings were initially designed with sophisticated hardware that utilized fear to help us survive “life or death” situations.

You see, there was a time when we humans were just hunter-gatherers out in the wild, susceptible to dangerous predators. In those days, when we saw a tiger, our mind sent a signal to our body. The body, in response to this signal, made our palms sweat, made our heart beat faster, caused our muscles to tighten, and sent a shot of adrenaline through our veins. Our mind was so sophisticated that, in a nanosecond, it would prepare our body to run as fast as it could (or to fight as hard as it could) in order to survive a tiger’s attack on our lives.

When Fear Became A Bad Thing

This “flight-or-flight” response was very useful back in the caveman days, but as many of us are realizing, our primordial response to highly stressful situations has now become harmful to our livelihood.

Have you felt, for instance, after receiving a rejection letter from a potential employer, that your heart started to beat faster, your palms began to sweat, and a shot of adrenaline went through your veins that sent you reeling?

You have felt that way?

Guess what? We all have felt that way. That’s because we, as human beings, are hardwired to respond in this way to high levels of stress and fear.

In the example above, your mind mistook that rejection letter as a tiger about to attack you, and so your mind sent a signal to your body that it was time to run (or fight for its life).

Human beings were not built to handle a 21^st Century workload. We were built to hunt, gather food, eat, poop, sleep, have sex, and avoid being eaten by predators and that’s about it.

How To Overcome Your Fears

As we’ve discussed, your mind is designed to look at something you fear as a tiger ready to kill you. However, the truth is you will never die from having your writing rejected, criticized, or misunderstood. I repeat: WRITING FREELANCE ARTICLES NEVER KILLED ANYONE.

But you are still afraid, right? So, how do you get past your fear when your mind wants to view every rejection as a tiger ready to attack you?

The answer: you need to stop relying on your mind to overcome your fears.

It is your hunter-gatherer mind that is behind all your fears, so you can’t expect that same mind to help you overcome your fears.

Therefore, the only way to move past your writing fears is to move past your mind.

“But how do I do that?”

Remember that exercise you tried at the very beginning of this article? That exercise is called meditation.

Meditation is one of the best tools a writer can utilize to overcome their fears. Because when you meditate, you leave your mind and return to your body and the world around you. In a sense, you return to reality and discover that there is actually no tiger that is ready to attack you. Your “fight-or-flight” response is neutralized.

“Are you telling me that the only thing I have to do to overcome my writing fears is to take a long, deep breath and look around me?”

Yes, the answer is that simple.

But even if the answer is simple, the process of meditation is not. Just like your ability to write great articles, meditation is a skill that you need to learn, practice, and perfect.

If you need help getting started, I recommend reading books by Dr. Joan Borysenko, Dr. John Kabat-Zinn, and Thich Nhat Hanh to help start your journey into meditation practice.

Here are two articles from my blog that discuss meditation in further detail: The Key to Finding Peace When You Sit Down to Write and Patience.

Good luck to you, and remember: When it comes to your freelance writing career, you really have nothing to fear but fear itself.

What do you fear most in your writing career? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Ollin Morales is a writer and a blogger. {Courage 2 Create} chronicles his journey as he writes his first novel. Through his blog he also offers a writing consultation service designed to help his readers improve their writing skills.

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Tiger photo via stock.xchng user MeiTeng