How to Work with a Writer
Over a year ago I attended a networking workshop in which I received my first real criticism as a writer. During one of the sessions, another participant in the day said, “I don’t believe in content writers. They’re useless.”
I laughed and responded by asking why the individual held this opinion. He replied,
“I’ve hired two content writers in the last year and neither one has done their job correctly. It’s a total scam. Anybody can write.”
Next, I asked,
“So, when you say that they haven’t done their jobs correctly, what does that mean? What were they supposed to do that they didn’t do?”
“Well, you know, they never sent me a finished draft.”
“You’re right, that’s a huge problem,” I conceded, “but what was the deadline? How long did they have to work on the project?”
He replied,
“I never gave them a deadline. They were supposed to send it to me when they had time.”
“So did you ever contact either of them back to ask what had happened to your draft?”
“Of course not,” He responded, “It isn’t my responsibility to chase them down.”
Since then, I’ve given this scenario a lot of thought, and now I want to share some of those thoughts with you.
The world, especially my corner of it, is saturated with writers. I’ll be the first one to say that not all of them are good, which is why it’s important to know how to work with them. Today, I’d like to give you the same advice that I gave him. Hopefully it improved his relationship with his writers, and maybe it can help you with yours.
Tip 1: Deadlines. Deadlines. DEADLINES.
Hiring a writer is like hiring anybody else, and you have to be honest and upfront about your expectations. If you need a 500-word blog post in the next 7 days, you need to tell them. Even if deadlines aren’t important to you, set one anyway.
Having a date on the calendar will help your writer plan their schedule to ensure that your work is well researched, edited, and on-time.
Tip 2: There are Different Kinds of Deadlines.
Writing is subjective and hiring someone else to write your blog can be like asking someone to draw a picture of your face. Both parties might have the same image in mind, but how they choose to portray it may be different. This is why, when I work with clients, I always set at least two deadlines.
First, we set the Final Draft Deadline, which is when the piece will be ready for publication. Next, we work backwards and set the Rough Draft Deadline, which is usually a week or two prior to the Final Draft Deadline. I commit to sending a rough draft to the client on the Rough Draft Deadline to keep them a part of the writing process and give myself time to adjust the piece as needed to better match their needs.
Tip 3: Communicate, Please.
I’ve been told that writers have a reputation for being “flighty” and that clients are sometimes concerned about giving negative feedback because they don’t know how the writer will respond. Please, please, please, don’t be afraid to edit. You’ve hired this person for a reason and you should love the product. If your writer can’t accept changes or edits, you’ve found one of the bad ones and you should take your project elsewhere.
I’m not saying that the man from the story above was wrong, but I’m not saying that he handled the situation perfectly, either. As with many things, setting clear expectations and communicating is the key to success. The most common mistake I see people make when they hire a writer is that they don't set a deadline or expectations for the work-- even though writing is a creative field, it's important to treat it like any other type of work, and I doubt you'd let your accountant do your bookkeeping three weeks late.
Hopefully, setting expectations, deadlines, and upholding lines of communication will help you work with the writers in your life a little bit better. Understanding them, however? That's another matter entirely.