Here’s the second challenge that you’ll need to confront as a freelance writer. This is something that any writer worth her salt will struggle with.

Fear of your writing

You’re not confident as a writer. You’re your harshest critic.

• You’re terrified that if you dared ask for more than $50 for a 1,000 word article, you’ll receive a scorching email from the client that they’ve found a better writer for a much lower rate.
• You want to answer this charge, yet you’re worried that your reply email to the client will bounce back.

Remember, you gain confidence in your writing by writing consistently, not by thinking about writing without doing it.

Do a comparison

Go ahead. Compare yourself to more established writers and by that, I mean compare your writing to theirs.

Take their writing apart to see how they wrote the article, the story, the blog post. Then practice rewriting it and see if you can do it better.

If you have a website (and you’d better have one, if you’re serious), publish the piece and (if you dare) open the comments. You’ll definitely get pointers from some readers.