“The right wing and the left wing are both part of the same bird.”
I don’t know where that quote came from, but I’ve seen several people post it unattributed on social media, and after a very rough divisive week I think it’s our mantra for moving ahead or should be.
I don’t do politics a lot and I definitely don’t do it on this blog because it tends to be way too divisive and this blog is not about that. People who read this blog care about my writing knowledge and my work but not my opinions on foreign policy and politics and I get it because that’s exactly how I feel about my favorite authors too. So this post isn’t going to be political. This post is still about writing. Read on and see.
I think it’s important to remember that there’s more than one valid point of view and way of looking at the world, because people are different. No two people see things exactly 100% alike. I learned this through my travels to Mexico and Ghana and Brazil. And I’ve learned it from living in places where I was white but minority like El Paso as well as in places like Los Angeles, Kansas City, and St. Louis where the culture is very diverse.
To me, the best thing about having friends with different backgrounds, points of view, and world experiences is it gives you a lot of fodder for writing and character development. You can’t write well what you don’t know or are completely unfamiliar with. People try it all the time and fail miserably but the best writers write from knowledge and experience. They are good listeners, good observers of human nature, and tend to surround themselves with a variety of friends who don’t always agree with them on everything including politics. These writers learn to study the world around them for different points of view. It doesn’t hurt anything. It doesn’t necessarily even change your mind. But it does illuminate for other ways of looking at the same issue and reasoning about it that can sometimes provide insight, even if that insight serves only to bolster your existing point of view.
In the end, we’re all part of the solution and part of the problem, see? Regardless of how we see things. You can argue ‘til you’re blue in the face about who’s right and who’s wrong, throwing around polarizing, condescending terms like “on the right side of history” and accomplish nothing but raising your blood pressure. In the end, if we don’t find a way to work together toward common goals and common ends, we won’t go anywhere. All we’ll do is maintain stress and unhappiness. Who wants to do that?
So as we move forward after a difficult election into more difficult times —as Covid continues and so forth—I would urge us all to remember we’re all part of the same body of man, we’re all fellow humans, and that really we all have a lot more in common than we have different, and we would do well to spend more time celebrating that and less time focusing on what divides us as we move forward. I certainly think it would make for a happier world and a happier society. If you ask me, given what we’re dealing with right now, that would be a very useful and pleasant start. For what it’s worth…
Well, I’ve dreamed for years of full time writing and creative work, and at least for the past two months, I’ve been living that nicely. I’m grateful for this development. I had not had full time work since May 2010, when I was laid off. I have been on unemployment and food stamps and looking for work has been my job, but instead of letting it get me down, I also spent a lot of time writing and editing and developing my network. That has finally paid off in steady work which, if it continues at the present level, should put me at $30k income by a year from now, maybe more. It’s a great opportunity, and I’m thoroughly loving it. But it’s taken a lot of effort to learn how to do this and I continue to learn more all time. I get asked for advice these days on how to build a freelance career, so here a few key tips I’ve learned which have helped me so far:
1) Diversity — You need to develop your knowledge not only of diverse software but types of writing and editing. From technical to creative, marketing to fiction, you should be familiar with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Visio, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Standard/Reader and anything else you can get your hands on. The needs of the jobs vary but being diverse in not only the types of materials you can offer as well as the types of software platforms you are familiar with will really give you the most opportunities. It takes time to develop this, and, perhaps, money if you need software. Some of it can be bought used for much less price. Free classes can often be taken online. Whatever the case, you should develop skills as much as possible in as many areas as you can. And you should build portfolio samples to demonstrate them.
2) Disciplined Hard Work — There’s no way around this. If you want to make money doing this, you must treat it as a job. Set aside specific hours, keep track of them and your tasks, research proper invoicing and rates, track expenses and dedicate the necessary time to work. I have both a daily planner and large desk calendar I use as well as my computer and smart phone to track projects, deadlines, hours, etc. I also track when I bill clients, when they pay me, how much I am owed, bills, etc. I keep a large queue of projects going: https://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/10/28/works-in-progress-writing-editing-projects-i-am-working-on/ is my latest list. And I prioritize both based on deadlines clients ask for, when I receive them, type of work, etc. I am honest and up front with clients when time gets off schedule and I work hard to make sure they are kept abreast of all developments. In return, I am developing some steady clients who come back to me and recommend me to others. You must discipline yourself. You can’t be fly-by-night if you want to succeed. Clients do expect fast turn around and high quality. They have a right to when they’re paying you $25-30 an hour and expecting to get good advice. And it means you have to sometimes put your personal projects aside and put the paying projects first. The only way to keep room for your personal projects, in my experience, is to be disciplined and schedule your time well.
3) Networking/Reputation — Almost every opportunity you get will be the result of referrals or tips from someone else. So building a good network and reputation is very important. Not just a reputation as a nice person either. Although my approach of treating people the way I want to be treated is definitely paying off, so is my reputation for meeting deadlines, going out of my way to help and encourage clients, going the extra mile from time-to-time when it’s called for and always doing quality work. Consistency in all of these things will be vital to your success and I highly recommend that you figure out what they mean for you and how to deliver them early on. A big part of this relates to deadlines and billing. Every client wants it yesterday. No one is patient when it comes to this stuff. But if they want quality, they have to give you the time to do it. I always estimate longer than I need so if things come up I am covered for delivering late. It’s far better to please them by turning things in early than disappoint them by being late. The same is true of billing. Estimate higher than expected. Surprising them with a smaller bill than expected makes them smile. Surprising them with a higher bill than expected never does. In fact, it can cause conflict. So don’t create potential conflict by failing to allow for delays and unexpected circumstances.
4) Multitasking — You will have to have the discipline and dedication to juggle multiple projects. There’s no way around it. And it can be hard. It’s hard to edit more than one book at a time. For me, editing a novel and a nonfiction piece can be done simultaneously. I can also edit short stories while editing a novel. Editing two novels at the same time is too hard. You get confused on story elements, voice, pacing, etc. and it slows you down, so I have to keep that in mind when setting up my queues. I tell the clients where they are in the queue and when they can expect me to deliver, and if that changes, I inform them why and how much extra time they should expect. I also offer discounts for larger jobs. You can’t live on one job, so you’ll need several. I spend an hour or two a day doing marketing work, an hour or two paid blogging, and at least four hours on editing, every day. My personal writing time comes beyond that. But at $25-30 an hour, again, I am averaging $125-150 a day which, 5 days a week (I actually work 7 right now) will add up to around $30-40k a year.
5) Marketing — A big part of your marketing is word of mouth. There’s no way around it. But you should also have a website with rates, client blurbs, a list of projects, a bio, and a blog containing helpful tips, talking about your process etc. Put links to this in your bios and email signatures, and spread the word when you can. Ask clients for referrals. Ask friends as well. Let people know what you’re doing. Do some free work in the beginning to prove yourself. Also sites like www.fiverr.com offer the opportunity to demonstrate what you offer at lower rates that can help you build up your client list for later. In the beginning, you start out as an unknown, so you have to make effort to show people you’re capable. From doing websites for people to marketing materials, beta reading critiques, story critiques, and even editing, you can get people talking about and recommending your work. That brings you to the attention of people searching for someone to help them. It takes time. I did so much volunteering for three years and now it’s paying off. From www.fiverr.com 30 minute editing jobs for $5 to editing an anthology gratis to prove myself, I did what I had to, and I’m grateful it’s paid off.
I’m sure I can do more posts on this if it interests people, but that’s enough to really get you started down the right road. I hope it helps both direct and encourage you. I know it’s worked for me, and I hope it continues to. I hope it works for you, too. For what it’s worth…
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince(2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, headlined by Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, a Ray Gun Revival Best Of Collection for Every Day Publishing and World Encounters and Space & Shadows: SpecNoir with coeditor John Helfers, all forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.
This is Part 2 of a post which began on Anthony’s blog at http://anthonycardno.com/?p=309. Comments are only allowed here to ensure people read both halves before commenting. After all, this is a dialogue about avoiding miscommunication and assumptions. And we’re not looking for you to agree with our opinions nor to convince you of them. Comments will be moderated.
BTS: Listening is a dying skill these days One of my profound frustrations today is how people get labeled bigot just for having religious beliefs that marriage is sacred and between a man and a woman. As you know, I have no issue with civil unions. But we disagree on gay marriage. Yet we agree that gays shouldn’t be discriminated against and should have rights for their partners. Some label me a bigot just for that. But I don’t feel like a bigot.
ARC: Do I think your view, that marriage is only between a man and a woman while civil unions are for all, makes you a bigot? No, I don’t. Your actions speak louder than a one-sentence summary of your belief. I can see how people reading that one sentence might think you a bigot, because they’re reacting to one idea out of context — they’d need to know the full Bryan Thomas Schmidt to understand just where that statement is coming from. Another problem with our society is this penchant for the “sound bite:” let’s not look at a man’s words in the context of who he is and what situation he’s in, let’s take the sentence that is most likely to incite high emotion, and therefore high ratings. Look, if I thought for a second you were a bigot, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and you know that because you know me. Again, you have the right to think “marriage is only one man and one woman,” and I have the right to think “marriage is any two individuals.” Those thoughts alone don’t make either of us a bigot. And we can disagree on the definition of marriage and still be friends.
BTS: Because we are more than the sum of any one issue, yes, we can. Why don’t more people know that? Anyway, we also have a lot more in common than we do different. While you’re being gay profoundly shapes you and your worldview and even, perhaps, politics to some degree, and my Christianity does the same for me, when we look beyond that, we have a lot in common and once you realize that, it’s hard to just dismiss somebody as unrelatable. In fact, it’s hard to not want to relate to someone because in reality the number of people you find with this much in common can be rare. So accepting you for who you are dealing with things respectfully means I get a great, valuable friendship and a needed perspective. I certainly hope it does the same for you with me.
ARC: Oh, it absolutely does the same for me. It probably comes down to this: I don’t enjoy being told I’m wrong, but I do enjoy being challenged. It’s okay to make me think and as you said earlier, it is beneficial to have to defend your worldview. There’s a difference between defending and being defensive, of course. And what works about our friendship is that when we move beyond our commonalities, we’re able to question and defend without being defensive. I mean, how much fun was it the night we met up for dinner, rambling through a dozen hot-button topics (Obama! Evangelism! Whether Self-Publishing is Good or Evil!) and then having the family at the next table ask us if we were brothers? I realize part of their reaction was the “two guys in their 40s with glasses” deal, but I think part of it was how we were bantering and disagreeing without arguing.
BTS: You’re saying I’m not as handsome as you? Is that what you’re really saying? I mean, come on, I have enough girls mocking me without you doing it.
ARC: To quote David Letterman, “once again, Bryan, you have crystallized my thoughts eloquently.”
BTS: Wow. That’s just cold. LOL Anyway, yes, we do cover a lot of subjects. We have fun, even teasing each other, and in the end, who gives a crap what our sexuality is? It must be someone other than me, because I could care less.
ARC: And the same can be said for our religious beliefs. I have yet to have a conversation with you where I felt religion was being thrown in my face. The same can’t be said for every Evangelical I’ve met.
BTS: Well, what good would it do to throw my beliefs in your face? What good would it do for you to throw yours in my face? It would just destroy our relationship. And since I know it’s a valuable relationship because I took the time to listen and get to know you, then that would be stupid. I have had people I always considered smart and friends unfollow me on Twitter for disagreeing with me. It’s been very hurtful. I listen to their opinions even when they offend me. I fight the urge to respond as necessary, attempt to be thoughtful when I do respond, and yet they don’t follow, which to me is like saying “I don’t care what you have to say.” And that is all too common these days amongst people with differences. I think it’s destroying our unity as a country and our morale as a society.
ARC: Unfortunately, I think of the downsides to social media (as opposed to in-person socialization) is how much easier it gets to be rude, dismissive or outright threatening. Things people would never have the guts to say in person spew easily from their Twitter accounts and Facebook profiles. I’ve become so much more aware of it in myself in the past year or so thanks to posting book reviews on Livejournal and now the interviews and blog posts on my own website that I now take a step back when I’m about to lay into a service professional of any kind. I try to think how I’d feel.
BTS: Oh I get testy with those people if they provide bad service or don’t know what they’re doing but they have several chances first. But I do think you’re right about the downsides. And I think it’s also a shift in culture. I never liked Political Correctness, which to me feels like a form of forced censorship or morality. It’s so arbitrary, too—whatever offends the most people is on the list and what doesn’t isn’t. But at the same time, maybe we’ve gone too far the other way. I don’t know a lot of people who could talk about things we talk about as calmly as we do and stay friends. And as far as my religious beliefs, they are complicated. And they are mitigated by two beliefs I hold dear. One is my belief in the depravity of man. I believe all of us are sinners and depraved and since God doesn’t rank sin in the bible, except blaspheming the Holy Spirit, we are all equally sinful. Second is my belief that Jesus taught and modeled loving others above ones self first. That means that you love the sinners, regardless of your feelings about the sin. Christians throw that around like a cliché but was does it mean to live it? It means, even if I believe homosexuality is a sin, I cannot treat you as if I am the judge or any better because I am a sinner too. The Scriptures also make it clear that God is the judge. And frankly, I don’t want the job. Would you?
ARC: God please no! I spend enough time sitting in judgement on myself, I don’t need to add sitting in final judgment of others to the mix. We are, it seems, the odd birds out in the fact that our conversations stay friendly despite the hot-button topics. I obviously do not think homosexuality is a choice at all. And I’ll defend to the death your right to think I’m wrong. Of course, you express that opinion much less violently than many people do. And again, that’s why we get along — we disagree, we know we disagree, but we also don’t resort to anger and violence to try to persuade the other person he is wrong.
BTS: Well, I actually am surprised you know that. I don’t remember specifically discussing it. But in any case, the reality of it is, even if it is a choice, I make sinful choices, and so I am in no place to judge anyone else for theirs. And it’s far more complicated than simple judgment calls can address anyway, isn’t it? But for me, the more important thing is another of my core beliefs: we are all made in the image of God, as human beings. If you are in God’s image, then to disrespect you is to disrespect God Himself, isn’t it? And that’s a choice I refuse to make.
ARC: What I really meant to say, but mangled it, was that IF you thought I was wrong, I’d defend your right to think it. But you’ve hit on something we agree on: we are all in God’s image. I believe that, no matter what version of the Creator someone may choose to worship. And again, this sort of brings us back to the question that started it all: why are we friends? Because we have more in common than we don’t have. Setting belief aside for a moment, we also agree on, for instance, the concept that writing every day, even if what you write is total crap, is far more beneficial than not writing on any given day.
BTS: Oh absolutely. As long as you can stomach your own crap. Just kidding. But we also both love reading, love books, love Scrabble, love Science Fiction and Fantasy, love people, and we love to laugh. That’s a lot right there.
ARC: Yes, we do love Scrabble, enough to both gracefully lose to each other and rub it in each other’s faces when we win. And yet we also seem united in our disdain for Words With Friends, so there are even some things we dislike together! I think you’re a far more committed SF/F fan than I am, though. Matters of degree, really, but I need to bounce between genres, which is why right now I’m reading a memoir (Jane Lynch’s HAPPY ACCIDENTS), a noir-ish crime thriller (Lawrence Block’s GETTING OFF) and a fantasy (Jay Lake’s ENDURANCE). But it was our mutual love of SF/F that connected us in the first place. So it all comes back to that common ground: we can be friends despite the fact that the stereotypes of “gay” and “Evangelical” say we should be at odds, because what we have in common far outnumbers our differences.
BTS: Don’t forget our mutual passion for Sherlock Holmes. I mean, come on, and pulp books and stories? Speaking of which, we need to wrap this up because you have a column to write. So thanks for dialoguing with me. I hope it helps others to realize there’s value in friendship despite differences. Who knows what golden experiences they could miss out on by not giving people who differ from them a chance? I wouldn’t pass up our friendship for anything.
ARC: Nor would I, my friend. And I proudly call you that, and will continue to! Thanks for instigating this conversation. I hope it makes some folks think about mutual respect and perhaps second chances.
BTS: Indeed. May it encourage them to dialogue and reach out like we have to be enriched. If you live inside a box, you get stale. Only by stepping outside the box does your world expand to colors you never knew existed and I sure love a rainbow in my life. Anyway, let’s open this to comments and jointly ask people: a little snarkiness is hard to avoid sometimes, as we realize these are challenging topics these days but we will approve all posts so any foul language, insults, disrespect, etc. will not even be posted nor will it be responded to. These posts are for productive dialogue and that’s what we want to see here. Please respect that.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novelThe Worker Prince, the collection The North Star Serial, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. He’s also the host ofScience Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Excerpts from The Worker Prince can be found on his blog.
