Welcome to Writer Rants–where every Friday a writer just lets loose on whatever the heck is bugging them this week. Enjoy
Writers have to deal with so many myths, coming from people who don’t understand what goes into writing content. I’ve never met a writer who could read a client’s mind and churn out flawless content in the blink of an eye. There isn’t a writer who can type faster than a speeding bullet or leap over impossible deadlines in a single bound.
Explaining that to clients can sometimes get a little frustrating. There is a small minority of clients who don’t understand the nature of writing. They expect a writer to be a superhero and become angry when the writer can’t deliver on those impossible expectations.
It takes real skill to create content people want to read. You hear the myths about the writing life all the time. Here are the realities:
Writers Are Not Mind Readers
Communication drives writing. A client and writer need to be on the same page from start to finish. This can only happen if they communicate early and often. If a client has specific expectations for content, they should discuss their needs with a writer ahead of time. This gives a writer a chance to let a client know if they can deliver on those expectations or if the project needs to be altered.
Content Always Needs Polishing
The first draft of an article or blog post almost never emerges from a writer’s mind perfectly formed. It takes time to explore a topic and refine it down to the final product. Getting useful feedback from a client along the way can help speed up the polishing and refining of content so it is ready to be delivered faster. Expecting perfection from the beginning leads to a tense working relationship.
Deadlines Must Be Reasonable
If you were to read a book on how to hire a writer, avoiding impossible deadlines would top the list. Writers need a reasonable amount of time to produce content. If you hire a writer to write an article today and want it due yesterday, that’s not going to work well in the end for either of you. Reasonable deadlines foster better quality content. Impossible deadlines lead to poorly written content. It’s that simple.
Quality Writing Deserves Quality Pay
Writers are typically more flexible to rushed deadlines and stricter content requirements from a client when the price is right. If you want quality content, you need to make the compensation equal to those expectations. You get what you pay for when it comes to writing. Clients who have their hearts set on discount content will end up hiring a discount writer to create it.
John C is a professional writer and editor who has written articles and blog posts dozens of websites and publications for more than a decade. His current goal this summer is to branch out into the exciting world of fiction writing.
