Most of the time when people ask me why I haven’t started doing any “serious” freelance writing, I tell them it’s because I don’t have the energy to do it after coming home from the full time job. But that’s not really true. It’s partially true, but not the real reason. The real reason is the cliched one: I’m just too scared to apply to ads.

Yep, it’s true. I am a wimp.

There, now that it’s out in the open, let’s see about getting me over this fear. The other day Yolander wrote about applying for freelance writing jobs as part of a series she’s doing on the subject at All Freelance Writing. And I must say I was very happy to read this post because she debunks one of the biggest “myths” about freelance writing: that you have to apply to 10-15 gigs per day or week in order to find a job. This is another thing that’s got me a bit scared, particularly because I am working full time right now, so I just do see how I can possibly find the time and the energy to apply to 15 jobs a day. There’s just no possible way for me to do that. Weekly, maybe, but daily? Forget it.

But Yo talks about how she went for the quality queries rather than the quantity queries. She targeted the ones most appropriate for her and went for it. This is something that I need to do. I need to get into the habit of looking for the ads in the same places, but then only apply for ones that fit some criteria for me.

So that’s what I’m going to do. Once I get into the habit of looking at the ads and job boards, I’ll be looking at figuring out what my “ideal job” criteria are and then applying to the ones that meet them. That might mean I only apply to 5 jobs in a month, but as long as they’re the right 5 jobs, that’s fine by me.