Are you writing fast food?

Seth Godin has been prodding my work ethic with his blog posts recently.  He has a knack for putting into black and white blog form what my own little Jimminy Cricket has been chirping about for ages.  The thing is that I find it a lot harder to ignore a successful entrepreneur and writer like Seth than I do my own tiresome and repetitive conscience.  Two things really came to the forefront of my writing troubles this week and both were based on a lack of proper motivation.  I wonder how many other writers out there empathize with these issues?

1. Do You Take The Easy Jobs?

I'm not necessarily saying that being guilty of this comes down to laziness.  My willingness to take on quick and easy jobs is more tied to my need to create a steady income stream than an unwillingness to tackle more challenging projects.  The trouble is, that as writers we need those challenging jobs in order to grow, both professionally and creatively.  Sometimes we need to take a risk that a project will fail, or won't see print in order to find a new voice or practice a new style. 

Big risks mean big rewards, and this can be a difficult balance to find for freelancers.  Investing time and energy into a large investigative article can be frustrating if you find that all of your pitches ignored, or even worse, have the article bought under the "pay on publish" model and have to wait for months to see the financial rewards for your work.   However, the process itself offers a value that is separate, but just as valid as the monetary one.

Someone compared this writing ethic recently to "writing fast food".  You might have a steady stream of customers, but at the end of the day you have to admit to yourself that you are never going to get those customers to pay more than a few measly bucks for the product. 

Examine your hurdles to writing more meaningful, in depth, longer or challenging pieces and try to find ways to combat them.   You will thank yourself in the long run.

2. Do You Only Write When You Feel Like It?

I am uber-guilty of this one. Again, not because I shirk work when I can't be bothered, at the expense of losing work or clients but simply because I take full advantage of deciding my own working hours.  I often work 16 hour days, and then sleep late the following morning.  Or take a couple of days off when I would rather be at the theatre instead of my office, because I know I can knuckle down for the rest of the week to meet deadlines.

The issue with this habit is that it doesn't encourage any kind of dedication to the work itself.  As I take on more and more clients, I find myself being tied to a more regular work week and need to address my schedule with less of a Peter Pan philosophy.  If I want to increase my income, I have to write every day, whether I feel like it or not.

In short, I need to give up the fast food and begin a new, healthier writing regimen.