Your Bandwidth For Bullsh!t
make it work for you.
Warning: I’m going to tell you a kind of gross story. I promise it has a point.
In 1926, Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen was on an Arctic expedition when a terrible storm forced him to take cover under his dog sled. The Danish explorer folded all six feet, seven inches of his burly self under the makeshift shelter, while snow and ice turned the whole thing into a dome of frozen white. He was trapped. Hours passed. I assume he contemplated certain death during that time.
But he didn’t die. Instead, he pooped. Freuchen defecated into his hand, waited for it to freeze, then whittled the poo-cicle into a dagger that he then used to chip away at the ice tomb and escape.
Freuchen went on to write books and articles, edit a magazine, and fight the Nazis. He even appeared in an Oscar-winning movie, based on one of his books. He started his own movie production company, founded the Adventurer’s Club of Denmark, and won $64,000 on an American TV game show.
The man was a badass. But also, this one time, he pooped in his hand. Which adds a certain panache to his story, I think.
Now it feels very weird to insert myself after subscribing this legendary human, but stick with me here.
Let’s talk about the bullsh!t we deal with when we’re working really hard on our journeys to greatness.
Last year I was getting a bunch of assignments from a publication I didn’t love working for. The topics were dense but they wanted very short articles. With two to three expert sources, whose titles took up half the word count. Also, make it voice-y!
The assigned length gave these articles a technically decent per-word rate, but I had to spend so much additional time whittling words away while trying to preserve some of the “voice-ier” sections, tweaking and rearranging sentences to squeeze everything in there. Which is actually a great practice for improving your writing—but arguably unnecessary when the article is going on the internet and there’s plenty of room for an extra 200 words to help properly explain the topic at hand. Anyways.
I’d submit the piece and at least two editors would offer feedback that often conflicted with the other. Once I addressed all their questions, the darn thing would be 900 words anyways.
Every assignment felt like a guaranteed headache. But they answered my pitches and consistently gave me work—and that’s not nothing during a global pandemic when most of your clients have disappeared. So I stuck with it—kept pitching and writing and whittling words.
A friend of mine was writing for the same publication. We would often compare notes on the frustrating expectations, late payments, and snarky editorial comments, confirming that they were indeed pretty terrible to work for.
She stopped writing for them, and I kept going.
Part of me felt weird about my willingness to keep dealing with the particular bullsh!t at this publication. She was demanding better—why wasn’t I? Did I not have as high expectations for myself and my work? Was I contributing to the poor treatment of other freelancers by continuing to hand in articles when my last invoice from two months ago hadn’t been paid?
Over time, editors came and left seemingly faster than the two-week turnaround on assignments. The rates changed slightly and the editing process changed significantly. The work got better, and I got to write some things I’m proud of. Eventually, I was given a package of assignments with big word counts and bigger rates. The editor said she was impressed with my writing style and was excited to work on an extended project with me. That project turned my year around. It greatly increased my income for several months, and freed up brain space once occupied with finding more work to focus on some other exciting projects.
Turns out, putting up with the bullsh!t was absolutely worth it.
But that’s not always the case. Much has been said about the importance of demanding more for ourselves as self-employed writers. Technically, we collectively have the power to push for higher rates, more considerate editing processes, and timely payment. I encourage all of you (and myself) to ask for more money whenever the opportunity arises. And to find clients that pay well for work we enjoy. We all deserve that.
But also. Let’s be real. There is a certain amount of bullsh!t that every single freelance writer will put up with. You just have to decide how much space you have for it.
I was in a position where I had the bandwidth, because taking on stressful assignments was less stressful than not paying my mortgage. My friend was dealing with plenty of bullsh!t from other clients, and so she did not have the bandwidth for this one.
Sometimes, firing the client or no longer pitching a publication that pays a bad rate is the best thing we can do for ourselves. We clear up room in our schedule and energy opens up to go find bigger and better things.
Other times, we have to put up with some bullsh!t to keep up with our bills. And that can pay off as well.
I got a lot out of sticking with this particular publication. The challenge of the word count on complicated topics made me a more succinct writer, I developed expertise in a niche I hadn’t written on previously, and I was eventually rewarded with a big project that turned my year around.
I think the secret is to not worry too much about what you should do, and base your decisions on what you’re able and willing to do. Whatever bullsh!t you have on your plate right now might eventually allow you to dig your way out of your current situation and emerge in a much better one. It might become a crucial (or at the very least, entertaining) detail in the story of your journey to better things.
Who would Freuchen have been without that poocicle-situation? Well, had he not felt the need to embark on that particularly dangerous journey, perhaps he wouldn’t have gone on to do all that other cool stuff. Or perhaps he would have lived a perfectly happy life, but with all ten of his toes. (He suffered severe frostbite during the ordeal and had to amputate several himself.) But his story would be a little less interesting.
I’m not suggesting we subject ourselves to torturous ordeals for the sake of the story. But whatever frustrating challenges you’re dealing with in your work, I do want you to know that it will eventually, somehow lead to something better.
Sometimes you gotta take the bullsh!t and mold it into something useful. Keep chipping away. Then get the hell out of there.
Stay inspired,
Britany