The Transcript

Don’t Quit Your Night Job

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Stefanie Flaxman: Hello there, Editor-in-Chiefs. I’m Stefanie Flaxman, and you are listening to Editor-in-Chief, the weekly audio broadcast that delivers the art of writing, updated for the digital age, to help you become a stronger media producer.

What the ‘Art of Writing’ Means

Stefanie Flaxman: I want to start off today’s episode by talking about that little phrase that I say at the beginning of each episode to manage expectations a little bit for what the show is about. If you go back and listen to the first two episodes, I explained my manifesto about what I’m trying to accomplish with the show, what my approach is to editing, and the things that we’re going to be discussing.

A quick recap of that is editing on micro and macro levels. The macro level is editing as a bigger picture strategy as you develop as an artist, as a content producer, as a creator, as a writer. Editing is about evaluating choices you’ve already made. I’m going to say that one more time so it’s a little clearer. I stumbled through a little bit.

Editing is about evaluating choices you’ve already made.

That’s the bigger picture issue of what I talk about and how you become a better writer by strengthening your editing skills. It really comes back to an awareness that you should maintain not to get down on yourself about not being the best you can be, but to be happy with where you are and then striving to get better by evaluating what is already going on by the choices that you’ve already made.

Then, in other episodes, I get into micro-level editing, which is the actual tips that you can put into practice. I know I haven’t done a lot of that so far. One episode I can direct you back to if you’re just dying this second to get a proofreading tip, my favorite proofreading tip is back in an episode called ‘Try It from a Different Angle’ and 2 Other Editing Lessons from a Shoddy Vacuum. I will put that link in the show notes for this episode over on EditorinChief.FM. That episode, just for example, was a micro lesson — something that you can actually implement.

I want to create this awareness because the art of writing — what I say at the beginning of the show — and your evolution as an artist and how you become a strong writer is a lot larger than writing mechanics. I think a lot of people might want to listen to this show, or listen to any show, because they think, “Oh okay, I’m going to learn this tip, and then I’m going to be a better writer.”

Why There Is No Definitive List Post That Will Help You Become a Stronger Writer

Stefanie Flaxman: The frame of mind you have to be in about how you approach your daily life and your creations are what makes you a stronger content producer. It’s what makes you a stronger artist, a stronger creator. That is many, many, many factors. It’s more than anyone could teach you on any podcast, and it’s different from person to person.

There are so many things that develop over time and so many different miscellaneous factors that you could never list out if you were going to list. There is no list post that is accurate in describing what it takes to constantly improve and become a better writer.

That’s not what I intend to do with each episode. I want to do a little housekeeping and manage expectations here to make sure that this is the right show for you. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, there’s another podcast called Grammar Girl. If you want to learn things like the difference between ‘complement’ with an ‘E’ and ‘compliment’ with an ‘I,’ you can go listen to that podcast because that’s what she talks about. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But learning the difference between ‘complement’ and ‘compliment’ won’t make you a better writer. You will learn something if you learn the difference between those two words if you remember it and then if you put into practice.

Yes, you’ve learned something, and you’re using two words that sound very similar and are spelled very similar correctly. But that doesn’t make you a better writer. That doesn’t mean that you’re attracting the right audience because you found your writing voice and that you’re really building content that is going to eventually build your business.

There’s a big difference.

How to Remember the Difference Between ‘Complement’ and ‘Compliment’

Stefanie Flaxman: Now if I don’t explain the difference between ‘complement’ with an ‘E’ and ‘compliment’ with an ‘I,’ I feel like I’m leaving you hanging a little bit, like you want that tip, and that will make me feel bad. I’m going to go off into the tangent. I’ll explain my version really quickly about those two different words.

‘Complement’ with an ‘E’ is spelled C-O-M-P-L-E-M-E-N-T. These aren’t dictionary definitions. These are from-my-brain definitions of that word. That word ‘complement’ is when things go together well, when they’re paired together well, when they complete each other.

The root of that word, I believe, is ‘complete,’ or it’s similar to complete. I don’t want to get technical with roots. I really don’t like technical terms about things. ‘Complement’ spelled that way with an ‘E’ sounds like complete.

Think about food that is paired with the right wine. You would say that that wine complements that food well, or it’s a complementary pairing. Again, that’s complement, C-O-M-P-L-E-M-E-N-T.

The other version of ‘compliment’ is C-O-M-P-L-I-M-E-N-T. That version of the word, there are a couple of definitions. One could be when someone pays you a compliment, meaning that they say something nice about you. I don’t know anything about that. ‘Complimentary’ is mixed in there, which means free. You get free Wi-Fi at a hotel. You get ‘complimentary Wi-Fi.’

The way I remember that one, ‘compliment’ with an ‘I’ is I have this little phrase that I say in my head — “I win” — because you get a compliment if someone says something nice about you. “Oh, I win.” Or, you get free Wi-Fi at Starbucks or at a hotel, “Oh, I win.” That’s how I remember ‘compliment’ with an ‘I’ and then ‘complement’ like pairing wine with a good meal was ‘complement’ with an ‘E,’ which is more like complete. If you remember ‘complete’ and ‘I win,’ then you will use those words correctly.

The very roundabout point of my story is that I just explained something that is not going to make you a better writer. I told you the difference between two words, which is helpful, but I hope to do something bigger here to help you realize what it takes.

This constant improving and evaluation process that — if you are aware of that — is what is going to add up over time, and you’ll see an improvement in your content.

The First Time I Wrote the Title of Today’s Episode: Don’t Quit Your Night Job

Stefanie Flaxman: The title of today’s episode, Don’t Quit Your Night Job, is taken from a line that I wrote at the end of an article in 2010. It was actually the first guest post that I pitched to Copyblogger that was not accepted. I’m going to have an upcoming episode, or episodes, of Editor-in-Chief that’s going to be about rejection and how to proceed when you don’t get what you want.

It’ll be a follow-up episode or a series to a recent episode of mine called What’s Your Favorite Word. That could be another listening assignment. If you haven’t listened to What’s Your Favorite Word, you can go back on iTunes or over on EditorinChief.FM and listen to that. I will put the links in the show notes. That I will do for you.

‘Don’t quit your night job’ means that, if things aren’t working the way that you want them to in your freelance business — whether it’s a side project, or you’re trying to do it full-time and it’s just not working — here we go again with editing on a larger level because you have to accurately assess what is going on with your business before you move forward in the right way.

I will say the editing mission statement one more time: editing is about evaluating choices you’ve already made. The writing is the making of the choices, and the editing is evaluating those choices.

My Fascination With Varying Levels of Success Between Two Equally Hardworking People

Stefanie Flaxman: I have this fascination with what’s the difference between two people that are really working hard and one is moving forward and having breakthroughs and the other person isn’t. They’re equally ‘working hard,’ whatever that means. They are dedicated. They are into their thing. But one person is having breakthroughs, and one person is not.

Let’s say person A and person B. That’s who we’re talking about. Person A is having these breakthroughs, but person B, who is working just as hard, is not. The philosophical question I love is ‘what is the difference?’ I always say something is philosophical and maybe it’s not, but I love examining what is the difference between these two structures.

The large factor, according to my theory, that will lead to profitable breakthroughs in your business is when you’re not moving forward just to move forward, but you’re moving forward intentionally. Then those actual results manifest later.

The ‘What Is Good? What Is Bad?’ Methodology for Conquering a Business Problem

Stefanie Flaxman: I have a system that I want to share with you today about how you can actually evaluate these choices you make every day in your online business. If you are freelancing or running your own online business, you are making tons of choices all the time, and you’re just really hoping that you’re making the rights ones. If you’re not, you can always adjust and regroup. Obviously, you want to increase your chances of getting it right the first time, or the first couple of times.

I’m going to give you what it is, and then I’m going to go over a very specific example that you could adapt to your own online business. I like to keep things really simple. I don’t like fancy terminology. I don’t like complicated processes for things. I just call this the ‘What Is Good? What Is Bad?’ evaluation process.

You want to look at what you’re doing in your business, and you want to identify what is good, what you like doing. This could be for your writing. Again, I don’t know what your individual situation is. Obviously, you know. I don’t know. Let’s just say you’re evaluating a choice to start with, and then, like I said, I’ll get into my specific example.

What is good? Come up with a statement of what you’re doing that is going well or what you like doing — something positive in your routine about your business. Then you want to identify what is bad. The problem that you need to overcome where, if you did overcome that, you would see the results that you would want to see.

You answer two questions about what’s going on in your situation. Then under ‘What Is Good?,’ you will write down three steps that you can take to do more of that or to continue doing that because you like it or it’s working out for you. Something to keep the goodness going.

Then under the ‘What Is Bad?’ category, you will write three steps that you can take to resolve that issue or to move you forward in a way — in a manageable way where you can overcome those obstacles or, if you do those actions, it will increase your chances of getting the result you want. Not that it’s an overnight thing, but you know you’re doing something that is a specific action that has to, at some point, lead to … it could be a roundabout breakthrough, but it’ll be some breakthrough.

The reason why I like this methodology is because there is so much advice out there of what to do. I always got really overwhelmed — and I still do — if things aren’t manageable to me. If I’m doing nothing, I just get really frustrated because I feel like I’m doing nothing.

With this method, you put six things in motion that you know you’re either resolving a problem that you have or you’re helping continue what you liked doing and what is working for you. You make these steps manageable things that you can actually accomplish.

A Specific Example of the ‘What Is Good? What Is Bad?’ Methodology in Practice

Stefanie Flaxman: The example that I have for you and, again, I hope you can adopt this to whatever your situation is with your online business, but I know about the freelance writing and editing world because that’s where I came from before I worked for Copyblogger.

My example of a situation when we could use the ‘What Is Good? What Is Bad?’ methodology is let’s say a freelance writer is trying to make that her full-time income, but she’s struggling. She needs to make 1,000 more dollars a month to feel financially stable and to feel good about her job as a freelance writer.

A lot of the joy of why you would become a freelance writer in the first place would be stripped from you, and you forget about why you would want to do it in the first place if you don’t have that stability that you had when you had a job — even if you didn’t like your job. That’s the problem that we have. A freelance writer and she needs to make 1,000 more dollars a month.

We’ll start with the ‘Good’ part of methodology, ‘What Is Good?’ The ‘Bad’ is pretty obvious. I’ll state the ‘Bad,’ too. Then we can go back through each part of the exercise. The ‘Bad’ is she needs to make 1,000 more dollars each month. That’s the obstacle.

Then the ‘What Is Good?’ is that she really does like writing, and she really wants to still make this her career on her own terms. That’s why she started her own freelance business in the first place. She wants to keep doing it because that is her. She wants to have this self-directed, creative career that I talk about a lot on Editor-in-Chief. She wants to be the Editor-in-Chief of her business and her life.

Under ‘Good,’ she could just write, “I like writing. I want to continue with this lifestyle. I want to continue forward, pressing on, trying to be a freelance writer who is financially stable.”

The three actionable steps that she could take would be one, increase her blogging schedule. She likes writing. Well, she should do more writing because the more content you produce — you know how the story goes — the better it is for your website, the better it is for search results, the better it is for your online portfolio as a writer.

So one step under the ‘What Is...