Your inbox is loaded with emails from prospective clients with writing assignments they want you to tackle. You happily accept all, knowing you’ll pull some all-nighters if you have to just to hit your due dates. This is freelancing, after all, and with the unpredictable nature of work availability, you’re ready to capitalize on the full-plate opportunity.

As you look through your assignments, though, it hits you: these are all so different. It would be one thing to crank out a bunch of pieces for one client, but you’re writing a blog post for a software company, website copy for a pool builder, an ebook for a travel agency, a press release for a beauty retailer… And you’re just one person! It was hard enough to find your own writing voice, and now you’ve got to identify and adopt several others.

You know your clients are counting on you to properly represent each company’s personality, and you want them to feel like you captured their brand’s voice — so that the next time they need something written, they’ll immediately think of you. But with such a variety of assignments, how can you nail each client’s voice, every time? Here are some ideas:

1. Interview the client

Conducting an interview with your client gives you great material for developing the appropriate voice for their writing needs. This works particularly well for smaller businesses, where you probably have access to company leadership (and the brand’s personality likely closely reflects the owner’s).

Get the head honcho talking about the beginnings of the company, the business model, target customer profiles, company values, and overall mission. Hearing this information in the client’s own words is invaluable. What kind of vibe are you getting? How can you incorporate it into the piece?

An alternative to the sometimes-tricky task of coordinating schedules for a live interview is using a questionnaire. Simply put your interview questions in an email, suggest a due date, and send it off to your client. While you won’t get the off-the-cuff — and likely more colorful — version of the info, you’ll give yourself and your client a chance to work through the questions at a time that works best for each of you individually.

Real-life example: When I received a completed questionnaire from one of my recent clients, I immediately noticed a liberal use of smiley-face emoticons. As I read through their answers, I giggled to myself at the response to my question about what differentiated them from their competitors: “We’d tell you, but then we’d have to kill you.”

I knew serious, straightforward business-speak was not going to work for this client, and that I needed to incorporate some playful, silly bits into their voice.

2. Develop a character

When you’re working with a larger company, it’s more likely that instead of capturing your client’s personal voice, you’ll need to write on behalf of a unique and independent brand. While asking the aforementioned interview-style questions of your contact person may still be a good idea, another powerful tactic is to develop a character for the writing voice. To do this, imagine the brand is a person (or cartoon, or animal, or whatever seems appropriate for the company’s personality; they may already have something you can work with).

Now ask yourself: what is this character like? Is it a male or female? What age? What nationality? What are his/her likes and dislikes, traits and quirks, habits, and hobbies? Once you’ve got a good grasp on the details of this persona, you can ask yourself the most important question: how would this character speak?

Then, write.

Real-life example: I once wrote for a B2B brand that wanted its messaging to seem as if it were coming from a “feel your pain” perspective, as if the brand really “got” their customers and prospects, and was familiar with the challenges they faced.

To accomplish this, I created a character who had held the same sort of professional role — senior-level marketing — as the people the brand was targeting but was now working for my client. When I wrote with this character’s voice, I was able to use examples and terminology that illustrated how the brand could truly empathize with the day-to-day life of its target market.

3. Read existing material

This is a very “duh” tip, but it’s worth addressing because it’s more effective than you might think. Ask your client if the material they’ve already got out there — on their website, blog, or social media channels — is in the tone and style they want to continue using.

If so, read through as many pieces as necessary to pick up the voice with which you should write. You should read until you feel so comfortable with the language and pace that you’re confident you can easily mimic the voice. I like to do this right before I start working on an assignment, to pump myself up and get my “head in the game,” as dorky as that sounds.

Real-life example: This isn’t from a client, but it’s a good illustration of the power of the approach nonetheless. When I first read Shakespeare in high school, the style was so foreign to me, I had a difficult time getting past the language to follow the story. The more I read, though, the more I got used to it, and I eventually became so engrossed in what was happening between Romeo and Juliet that I didn’t even blink an eye at the “weird” words anymore. Not only that, but I also realized after an hour or so of reading, I’d start thinking in Old English! I had totally adopted the voice.

Bonus: Modify the voice for the medium

Even the most unique and defined voice needs to flex with the norms, expectations, and audience of varying communication channels. In one day, the same business may tweet an informal comment on industry matters, publish a new compelling ad and release exciting company news. Each of these messages would necessarily read quite differently from the other.

Stick to your client’s voice — but don’t forget to adjust it accordingly.

How do you manage different voices for different clients?

Nothing brings on the urge to throw your laptop out the window like hammering out an assignment — often rushing or working odd hours to meet a tight deadline — sending an invoice, following up on the invoice, following up again on the invoice…and getting nothing. Media outlets are notoriously bad.

Why is this okay? Why do these organizations feel justified in delaying (or completely ignoring the obligation of) payment? Wouldn’t it be great if there were some big list out there of all the repeat offenders — the media that seem to always drag their feet on processing invoices?

And wouldn’t it be nice to know which outlets other freelancers are currently having trouble with, so you’d know not to work for them?

Fellow writers, this now exists.

Enter: Pay Me Please

The site is appropriately named Pay Me Please. It all started when Iona Craig, a freelance journalist based in Sana’a, Yemen, tweeted in frustration over an unacceptable fourteen outstanding payments from various BBC outlets. The founders of Beacon — a recently-launched platform built to support freelance journalists, of which Craig was already a part — saw the tweet, consulted the writer and offered to help.

“Iona’s been really successful and has written some amazing stories for her readers on Beacon, but in talking with her, we learned that non-payment from other media outlets is a constant frustration in freelance life. So we worked together to launch Pay Me Please to help,” explained Dan Fletcher, Beacon co-founder.

The concept is simple: a public list of unpaid assignments, submitted by freelance writers, with a mission “…to help freelancers get paid, raise awareness of the problem, name and shame outlets who are failing to pay journalists and thereby create a tool for journalists to refer to before they agree to work for a publisher or broadcaster,” said Craig.

The entries include the offending media outlet, the author’s name, a description of the work, the total owed and the number of days payment is late. Freelancers can submit new non-payment issues to the list by clicking the “Add a Job” button at the bottom of the page and filling out a quick form.

“The response has been extremely positive,” Craig said. “To the point that some who’ve been owed money for months just sent the media outlet the link to the Pay Me Please page, threatening to add them to the list, and that was enough to get them paid, which is great news.”

More tips for getting paid

In addition to checking the Pay Me Please page, the journalist recommends that writers considering accepting an assignment from an unfamiliar organization make sure they negotiate a price before beginning work and reach out to other journalists who’ve written for the outlet to find out what the going rate is. “That way you know if they’re trying to pull a fast one on you because you’re either new to the game or aren’t aware of how much they usually offer,” Craig said.

What do you think? Would you contribute to this site if you hadn’t gotten paid? Or would you worry the finger-pointing could come back to bite you?