Did you realize that Stephen King was an expert on the art of freelancing? Neither did I until I read Salem’s Lot. Surprisingly, King’s vampire novel has quite a bit to teach.
Warning: Mild spoilers ahead.
1. Trust the prickling on the back of your neck
When writer Ben Mears came to Salem’s Lot to write his story about the old Marsten house, looking at it gave him the creeps. Now imagine what the story would have been like if, instead of trying to investigate, he’d gotten as far away from it as possible. Not much of a horror story is it? Good. That’s what a freelancer wants.
2. When the locals say a house is haunted, don’t go ghost hunting
People like Ben get into nasty situations by not paying attention to the warnings of others.
It turns out that besides giving Ben the creeps, the locals had lots of eerie stories to tell about the house at the top of the hill. Undeterred, Ben continued to investigate it. Don’t be Ben. People like Ben get into nasty situations by not paying attention to the warnings of others. Ben’s job in the book is to advance the drama. The freelancer’s is to cut the drama short if at all possible.
3. Don’t hang around with people who suck the life out of you
Say you ignored lessons one and two, or maybe you just had the bad luck to get stuck with a client or partner who drains all the life from you and your work. There’s a name for these types of people: vampires. They may not drink your blood, but they’ll give you a long slow death nonetheless, taking away your dreams, ambitions, and even your will to live. Though you might can ward them off temporarily with a bit of garlic, in the long run there’s only one way to get rid of them; take a stake to the heart of whatever forces you to be around them.
4. When the problem is bigger than you are, get backup
Faced with the prospect of overwhelming evil, Ben finally turns to his friends for help. They include a priest who has the tools they need, an old English teacher who knows everything there is to know about vampires and the Marsten house, a girlfriend who inspires him, and a twelve year old boy who doesn’t seem afraid of anything. Because the team has all the skills they need, they can begin to stem the tide. When you are fighting overwhelming forces, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to do everything on your own. Others can help, whether they are mentors, subcontractors, or just friends willing to give you a hand.
5. There are three ways out of a situation gone bad
- You can stay, fight, and die a miserable death.
- You can stay, fight, and (barely) survive.
- You can run and hope that it doesn’t catch up to you.
In the freelance world, unlike a horror novel, if you stay with a project gone bad, you probably won’t die. But by the time it’s over you may wish you were dead. Once a project reaches the point of horror, the smart thing to do is run.
6. Keep the faith
At one point in the novel, one of the characters has the choice of whether to act on his faith in the Good or to rely just on his tools. It turns out that in a battle between good and evil, tools aren’t much good without faith. The same thing is true for freelancers. Even if you’ve got your technical skills down to perfection, it doesn’t matter a bit if you don’t have faith in the Goodness of your work.
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