Hello Reader,
This was not how I was expecting to spend my lunch break.
I'd boiled a couple of eggs the day before and put them in the fridge for later.
I don't really like cold eggs, so I grabbed one of them and put it in the microwave to warm up a bit (yeah, you know where this is going, don't you).
I set the microwave on for 20 seconds and made the mistake of walking away.
At 18 seconds I heard an ominous "pop."
I swung around and raced back to the microwave as fast as I could.
But I was too late.
Just as the "done" signal dinged, the egg exploded.
And it went everywhere. Including the floor, because when I opened the door, bits of egg yolk tumbled out. Odd fact … the exploding egg yolk bits flew further than the egg white bits.
Grumbling under my breath, I started cleaning up. But the still warm pieces of egg just smushed into tinier bits and smeared everywhere.
I finally gave up in defeat and ate my lunch, glaring at the offending mess.
Once everything had cooled down, I finished cleaning up. But there are now bits of egg yoke in places I can't reach. Like just inside the holes of the grill or air vent (not sure which it is).
And it can be like that in our writing work sometimes.
We do something that we know might be a bit risky. Like not putting away enough to cover our taxes. Or not backing up our drafts and portfolio. Or not turning all those emails and calls and what we assumed the client said (or meant) into an actual, agreed set of terms.
Oh, we might try to soften the risk. But just like I thought 20 seconds wouldn't be long enough to cause problems, things can still unexpectedly blow up in our faces.
Don't know about you, but I hate cleaning up messes that could have been avoided.
Here's the thing about that egg. I KNEW twenty seconds might be too long. I just decided it probably wouldn't be, and walked away.
That's the same move that catches a lot of us out. Not the risks we never saw coming, but the ones we spotted and half-covered. The rate we agreed to in a friendly email, with the scope left fuzzy. The article we said yes to before anyone mentioned a kill fee or who owns it afterwards. The tax we keep meaning to set aside.
The deals that only live in your inbox
These rarely blow up on a quiet week. They go haywire the week you finally step away from work, right when the client remembers the brief differently and you're not there to sort it.
So before you take any time off this month, pick the ONE loose arrangement you've been meaning to tidy and haven't. The vague scope, the rate that was never confirmed, the rights that were never spelled out. Send a short, friendly email that says, in plain words, here's what we agreed, and ask them to confirm. It doesn't need to be a formal contract. A clear trail in your inbox is enough to save you a mess later.
A five-minute job for ChatGPT or Claude
If digging back through a long email thread is the bit that stops you, hand that part over. Copy the relevant emails or your notes from a call, paste them into ChatGPT or Claude, and ask it to pull out what was actually agreed.
Then give it a prompt to sharpen the result. Something like "Turn this into a short plain-English summary of what we agreed. Ask me as many questions as you need before you write it, so you don't guess." It surfaces the gaps you'd otherwise miss, and you send it off in five minutes instead of thirty.
Worth a listen this week
If you're getting ChatGPT or Claude to help you tidy up those client agreements this week, this is worth listening to. I sat down with Sara Lohse for Ep 250, The one thing ChatGPT can't do for your business.
The short version is that AI is brilliant at the tidying and the drafting, but it can't be the person in the relationship. It can't read the room, build the trust with an editor or client, or decide what you actually stand for as a writer. Worth a listen if you're working out where the tool ends and you begin.
And that's it for this week. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Trudy (and Treasa)
P.S.
Speaking of not doing it all on your own, if this week has you realising how much you've been carrying solo, this is a good moment to check out Treasa's Boss Responses community.
It's built for freelance writers who want steadier work and a few good people to think things through with, the sort of place where a fuzzy client situation gets untangled fast. Worth a look if you'd like some backup heading into the quieter months.
