Oct 20 2008
Narrow your focus
I love Gordon Ramsey. I watch “Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares” every night on BBC America. Some of what Ramsey tells the restauranteurs in his show applies to all business owners, including freelance writers.
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Ramsey seems to favor simple menus with focused food choices. He advises the restaurant owners to focus on one type of food (pub food, fancy schmancy food, soul food, etc.) and not try to offer 1 dish for every palate that may come in.
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This lesson can be applied to your writing. I know, in the beginning, you can hardly turn down work and it can be too limiting to your experience, wallet, and client base building efforts to try to work in just one niche. However, you can be cognizant of what topics you can write about almost effortlessly, and what you don’t really understand and can not comprehend in the time necessary to meet the proposed deadline.
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For me, I stay far, far away from anything to do with building. Nails, screws, saws and what-have-you. For me to learn how to construct something within 2 business days and then write about it will result in:
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A> Disappoint my client with useless information
B> A disjointed article on a subject I may never master
C> Severed hands of anyone who actually utilizes my article
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I sure don’t want blood on my hands. Do you?
I like Gordon Ramsay too but what cracked me up is the part you said about your a,b,c in construction writing!