Can anyone give writing advice please? Should I call it a day?

I bet that's the problem, in addition to the client being an ass.

Miss Bee... on the other hand, if it's a matter of differences between UK and US english, the client should realize it. At least it seems to me that he/she/they should at least know there is a difference.

Either way, sometimes you have to fire clients. I've done it a few times, just a few. It goes both ways. And being mistreated in the form of rudeness is my #1 reason for telling them very directly they're fired and why.

Do not stress over this. There are millions of businesses who can use a good content writer. Just replace the offending client and forget about it.

Call it a day with writing? NO... never, ever.

Relax and enjoy the rest of your day...

It's not easy to imagine how anyone can answer such a dramatic, career-changing question as that without seeing even one of your articles, is it?

The information you're giving us covers such a small number of "events" that it isn't possible to say whether they're "unlucky", or "coincidences", or "a bad client", or "based on real problems".

The spelling issue isn't much of a problem, anyway - all you need is a spellcheck that handles both UK and US spellings.

I don't agree with this, at all. It's easy enough to change UK to US spellings and idioms. (I do it in almost every post I make in this forum, for a start).

Not necessarily so! I am Scottish, and I write for several US companies, and I have been doing so for over 16 years without the slightest problem. It's very easy to adapt the spelling, etc, of any writing to make it acceptable to US clients.

I had once been writing for a client in Florida for almost a year when he discovered that I was not American. He accused me of trying to deceive him, until I pointed out that I had never claimed to be an American, and besides, he had always been happy with my writing, so what was the problem?

He admitted there was no problem. He just thought there ought to have been a problem, but he couldn't find one, once he actually thought about it. :-)

John.

I have been doing outsourcing for about ten years now, this is the main thing I learnt: Clients hire you to offer solutions to their problems, not to know about yours.

When you start being a problem for a client, if he is good in his business, he will move on. What he says is irrelevant.

It sounds cold-hearted, but it is a matter of professionalism actually. The bottom line in business is to maximize profits, not to make friends. This is why I suck at hiring people, btw...

About quality... the definition of quality is different for a writer than a marketer. For a writer it is all about accuracy, unique view, and reader satisfaction. For a business it is the medium to force an action. If your reader has all the information at hand, he/she will never click in the link that is the life of the business.

So... deep breadth, re read what you wrote. See if you can rewrite to bring your customer business. And ask the guy if you can start over. If you did get it right in the past and he sees the right attitude, he will probably say "yes", because you are a solution for his problems again.

And about health... it is your primary asset. You can´t afford to get sick. So take your time to be in the sun, and take your essential nutrients (all 90 of them). I lost all my business and had to start over when I went down with EM hypersensitivity.

Hope it helps,
Sandra

This is not medical advice and blah blah blah...

You might want to see into antioxidants: vitamin D, vitamin C and selenium are at the top of my list.

I don't think it is. Far from it, in fact.

I recently considered doing some freelance writing for a bit of extra money, and joined Textbroker(UK version). They rated my initial sample a '3', which meant I would be getting paid very little for at least my first 5 articles. Level 3 articles are few and far between, but after sitting refreshing for a few hours, some appeared.

The list of articles were all placed there by the same client, were almost all on the same subject and had exactly the same instructions for each of them. You can only 'claim' one at a time, so I chose the one I felt I'd be able to do the best job with. Because of the lack of specifics in the instructions, I wrote to the client and asked for a better idea of what they wanted. It took them a few hours to reply, and in the meantime, I wrote the majority of what I thought was a good article.

I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, so did lots of research on the subject matter(I knew a bit about it already, as I use one of the company's products myself, but it's a huge company with a long history) to aid me in my article writing. Once the client replied and explained that he wanted a 'generic' article with a list of the 'cons', that was it. I'd spent a couple of hours of work researching and writing a 450 word(I was at around 300 words at this point) article that was going to earn me not much over £3 I cancelled the order and apologised to the client.

This was a wake up call for me. Why would I write articles to build other people's businesses when I can continue to build my own and earn a lot more in the process? Even if I stuck with this, it would only be a matter of time before I got stressed out and quit. Why? Because I'm a quitter? No. Because I find it difficult to take orders from someone else and be accountable to them when I know I can be far more successful being accountable to only myself.

My point is that it could be a blessing in disguise that this situation arose with the Elance client. Maybe writing for others just isn't for you. It certainly seems to have caused you some stress. You also sound like me in that you want to get everything absolutely right and it bugs you when you feel you haven't.

Judging by the way you have written your posts in this thread, I think you're an excellent writer. Maybe there are some technical imperfections(like with me and my 3 star rating ) but you express yourself very well. Have you considered building some sites of your own and maybe promoting products? (As an affiliate or your own). Being your own boss and not having to answer to others(who may even move the goalposts) can take some of the weight from your shoulders.

Whatever you decide to do, the best of luck

I take a multivitamin and reinforce vitamin C (6 grams in winter). Both youngevity and nature´s sunshine have a 90 nutrients colloidal one.

Do a search for Carole Baggerly for vitamin D, and also look into Carolyn Dean to balance vitamin D with magnesium.

I also put mms in my night stand, it is great to clean the air from mold and bugs (it even works as a healthy mosquito repellent). When you use mms, you can´t mix it up with vitamin C, you need 12 hours between one and the other.

I don't think writing something, then returning to it to edit and proof read is the mark of a bad writer, but the mark of a writer who really cares about their writing

I totally hear you about having to compete with people in countries where they can charge much less. It can be quite intimidating, especially when you are just starting out.

I'm sure there are clients out there that would be happy to pay you for your services, and pay you very good money for them. Finding them is often the hard part though, as you have found.

That´s wonderful when available. If you have time, have a look at this, at about min 28:

Sorry, I disagree. Writers not only move the fingers. They happen to use their brains too.

If your mind is foggy, you can´t write to the same standard.

Sandra

I'll second EVERY word of that!


And if you can't find solace or advice from a father who is . . .

Then who else can you turn to?

Ahh, good old WF, that's who . . .


You feel like a nervous wreck, ask advice as to whether you should quit, and trump that with mutual exchanges of remedies for your ailments (which you blame for perceived writing deficiencies).

I'm sorry, and this may come across as harsh, but writing IS a harsh occupation. Firstly, GET OVER IT. If you intend to make a full time career of writing then accept that there will likely be many, many more future complaints about your work, no matter how good at your trade you envisage yourself to be. It's a fact of life for any writer.

Secondly, you're obviously a person who takes criticism to heart. Whilst not a fault as such (as any writer hates to be accused of poor workmanship), it will however eat away at your confidence if you let a single isolated case gnaw away at you. The best writers have the best attributes, and one of the most defining is confidence. Without confidence you're going nowhere fast as a writer. Feeling confident in your research, work, and output, in addition to confidence in dealing with people from all walks of life (and mentalities) who request your services, is all important.

You, and you alone know the answer to that question.

If you've got a broad back that can take pleasure with displeasure, and if you're ultra confident in your abilities (as any good writer should be) then you carry on regardless and put this isolated incident down to exactly what it is - experience.

However, if (as seems the case) you're particularly prone to accepting criticism badly - whether or not it was warranted - then you're just not cutting it, and there's a thousand others that would jump in your shoes.

Hey, that's life. I've wrote over a hundred books including many best sellers, but still take a deft one from a retard critic on the chin now and then




.

It can take a few projects to be able to deliver exactly the style and voice a client prefers so helpful criticism isn't bad at all - but if others say your work is good and one person is consistently finding fault, stop working for that person. You can tell him honestly you don't feel you are giving him what he expects - or can just tell him you are cutting back on your workload and not taking any more work for a while.

If you don't feel well - take care of the problem. Take pride in your work if you feel you do a good job. One client doesn't define you - but you seem quick to blame yourself.