Are You Cut Out for Freelance Writing?
The article “Are You Cut Out for Freelance Writing?” has been moved to Writing Forward’s sister site, Scribizzy, where you’ll find tips and information for doing business online.
Here’s an excerpt:
Freelance writers live in their own special universe. It’s a universe full of words, clients, and bottom lines. Many people dive into this universe headfirst and find out fast that it’s sink or swim. Doesn’t it sound tempting? Setting your own hours, having control over your income, making business decisions, trying to find clients, and establishing yourself as a worthwhile contender in the galactic enterprise that is your one-person business.
Make no mistake, freelancing is a business. Visions of lounging on the sands of your own private island quickly evaporate into late nights spent staring groggy-eyed into a computer screen that has become the center of your world. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and the light is success. Before you reach the light, before you even step into the tunnel, you have to ask yourself, are you cut out for freelance writing?
Melissa, LA traffic is nothing compared to NY but in NY you can walk, take a cab (but hang on for dear life) or ride the subway. Although NJ is maddening and it can take you 1 1/2hours to drive 20 mins.
Ellen, yes there is a bright side, no traffic or smog and today I feel better there’s sun. I guess I was really spoiled by SoCal.
Karen Swims last blog post..Are you Free?
@Karen, Oh, LA yes, nightmare traffic down there. Ugh. I remember going through it to get to Disneyland when I was a kid — sheer torture.
My journal life; hmm, okay terrible title, but moving on. I think I was in 5th grade when somehow I came to possess one of those red 5 year diaries with the lock and key. In that I wrote memorable stuff like the weather and petty school bus arguments and the like. Between 6th and 7th grade we took a road trip from southwest Penna to southern TX and my grandmother gave me a standard wirebound notebook and said she wanted to hear all about it so I should write down what happened everyday (this was a 3 week trip). I have no idea what became of it as we moved a couple of years later and lots of stuff “disappeared.”
The red diary resurfaced around my senior year and was mostly blank so I re-dated the later blanks and used them to vent occasionally over the next three years. That has also disappeared which is irksome for personal reasons.
I used to make notations in the children’s baby books over the years which is a kind of journal in its own right. But then I started writing things on calendars and saving the calendars as a record of my/our life.
I got the idea in 1999 that journaling across the change of the century might be an interesting process so I bought one and found an empty one I had bought at a stationer’s going out of business sale decades before. A few entries were made here or there but nothing consistent. In early 2001 I hit an identity crisis that proved to be resistant to resolution and I pulled out the suspended journal and started writing. It started out like a drunkard’s path and for a while got pretty messy trying to resolve half-remembered events and conversations that had been haunting me for decades, and that my faith-based advisors dictated must be resisted as the high road, but until I wrote them all down and sorted out most of the order and the various degrees of responsibility they refused to rest.
I still keep journals for several reasons. One, it’s writing with pen and paper. Two, I get stuff out of the way that I don’t want bleeding into my blog. I think transparency in blogging is good but I think there are boundaries to that. Three, I become aware when I am majoring on minor stuff and it’s harder to ignore that there needs to be a shift. Four, it functions as an accountability device when I am working on a behavior change.
I also have more than one kind of journal. I used to keep and update periodically a “goals journal” but it has sort of been overtaken by events and it’s basically full so I would need a new one if I took it up again. I have a “silent retreat” journal that only is used for silent retreats which I haven’t done since Dec 2006. I like that those are in one place because silent retreating is an acquired skill and the growth from year to year, which can be seen since they are together, is amazing.
As far as journaling media goes I like hardcover, twin-wired with sort-of wide lines, and with at least 150 pages but 190 are preferred. I don’t like prompts. Most of the ones I have are by Markings and generally cost between $4 and $10. My silent retreat journal is a clothbound hardcover with an elastic band and though bound it opens flat.
Debs last blog post..Fourth of July blast in the past
@Melissa
We Canadians get pretty frantic about summer, because the warm weather only lasts so many weeks.
Early June is still cool, it hasn’t completely warmed up yet. But by late August, it’s starting to cool off again, and the leaves are already changing. Beaches empty out and cottages shut down after Labor Day.
Summer is my time to play. I spend as much time as possible outdoors (and if it’s a nice sunny day and I’m farting around inside, I actually feel anxiety!). I need to GET OUT. Hike, swim, fish, cycle…whatever.
I pretty much put away my watercolor paints in May, and don’t usually take them out again till October when it’s dark outside after work.
Housework suffers too, and so does a lot of “indoor projects”, including writing.
Oh well. You gotta make hay while the sun shines, so to speak.
Friars last blog post..Travels with the Bear: On the Island
@Melissa and Karen – Well, being a Midwestern person who has only been to CA I can’t judge NY. I would like to go. Hell, I would like to go everywhere.
@Deb – I’m kinda sentimental about pen and paper, also. It seems like it is all turning into something antiquated.
Have fun playing outside, Melissa. I will be gone for a bit, too.
Ellen
Ellen Wilsons last blog post..Getting Rid of Junk and Adding Some
@Deb (gscottage), I’d love to hear more about the silent retreat journals since I’ve never heard of them before. It sounds like you’re very passionate and committed to journaling, which is a good thing of course!
@Friar, I agree! Even though I live in California, I’m up north so it does get pretty cold in the winter. I don’t think I could withstand living in a place that gets snow. Brr, I don’t like freezing!
@Ellen, LA traffic is a total nightmare. SF is nothing in comparison although it’s not fun during commute hours! Hope you had a great weekend