The Freelance Life
by HeatherB

I was recently asked by someone relatively new to my blog who I work for since she thought I had some sort of writing/editing job somewhere. Which is comparable to the number of times I have been asked whether or not I freelance write for a living. My response is always the same; full body laughter.

Freelancing as a full time job has never been something I've remotely thought of. While I sometimes fantasize of a life of sitting around in my pajamas while my laptop burns a hole through my thighs, I would never go so far as to say sign me up, with enthusiasm. It's a discussion I have had repeatedly over the years which is why I now bring it to this forum. My argument has been and remains that I love, love, love my job. Yes, I deal with wholly difficult people but who doesn't? Then again if I was a full time freelancer, I would get to work all alone. Which is ideal for a misanthrope like myself.

Then there is the safety net of knowing that no matter what I will be getting a paycheck next Friday. I will have money for retirement and Blue Cross will come to my aid when I'm having a panic attack because of said job. Then there's knowing that if I need a sick day or vacation then I get the day off and chances are no one will bother me. There isn't that pressure, as Paula pointed out a few weeks ago, to try to get it all done because every single thing is up to me.

I've found myself among a bevy of really talented writers who have made the leap from corporate America or a desk job either by choice or because they just had it in them, either way, they've jumped and have gone to have the difficulties that such a major career choice brings. And during regular conversations I wonder how in the world they do it. This is often after I've complained or needed consoling while trying to meet various writing deadlines and working 50+ hours a week. That said, I wouldn't change this arrangement for anything in the world because I love what I do  and I love that I get to write when I feel like writing. But there isn't the pressure there to continue search and seek out writing opportunities as if my livelihood depended on it. 

There are of course two sides to every coin and grass is greener syndrome. But what I wonder now and what I've always wondered since making the acquaintance of various writers is how exactly people cope? What makes you decide to go on the road less traveled? One that doesn't necessarily have security (but does any job?) yet makes you sublimely happy? 

Kristin Luna recently converted to the full time freelance life in San Francisco as a successful travel writer. Moose of Moose in the Kitchen has been a freelance writer and then cubicle drone/freelance writer and now back to freelance 24/7. And Sarah Brown quit her job last year to become a fulltime writer.

 

Heather Barmore really wishes she had the talent to freelance full time instead she puts all of her creative energy towards No Pasa Nada.  

Submitted by HeatherB (view blog) on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 01:46

Comments

 

Employed at home

I don't have the guts to become a freelancer either.  I have yet to even make money through my blog.  I have a book seeking publication, which thrills me to my toes, but I'm sadly aware that first book isn't going to give me the choice to leave my job either.  I work from home, and I'm frankly fascinated when I hear another writer say, "I love my job."  I wonder if you're a more positive person than I.  :)  Even working from home in a job that now involves basically just writing all day, I still don't love it because I'm afraid it takes away from my writing energy for the stuff I want to pursue.  I do like being an employee though.  That steady income would be very difficult to give up.

 

Serenity Bohon, also writing at Serenity Now, http://www.serenitybohon.blogspot.com

Submitted by serenityb on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 07:19
 

(sigh)

I would love, love, love to freelance full-time.  I'm trying to figure out a way to cut back at least to part-time in corporate America, but unfortunately, as progressive as it thinks it is, it's not really full of those opportunities yet. 

 

Surrender, Dorothy - When I was your age, we just let them ride in the back window.

Rita Arens is a contributing editor for BlogHer -- Mommy & Family.

Submitted by Rita Arens on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 07:35
 

*double sigh*

Well said, Rita. Corporate America thinks it's so progressive, but when it comes down to it, much like women's rights, while we've come a long way we still have a long journey left ahead.

I'd love to cut back to part-time corporate grind and freelance part-time as well, but the opportunity just doesn't exist for me.  And I am entirely too chicken to quit entirely and freelance full-time. I like knowing that my paycheck is on it's way, no matter what!

Submitted by Diana on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 08:17
 

How it works for me

I quit my job as a non-profit program manager in October 2006 due to burn out issues, and didn't I haven't had another regular job since. There is only one way that this works for me, and that is my partner. He works in finance and earns enough money to cover our current lifestyle, save for retirement, and offer me health insurance. I do policy consulting, teaching, and writing to bring in a paltry income that I could never survive on in NYC. My biggest regret is that I am not getting matching funds for retirement, and that I essentially live off my hubby, which freaks out the feminist in me.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

Submitted by Suzanne Reisman on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 07:51
 

Not for me

I'm an instructional designer/technical writer, which has great freelance/independent contractor potential, but l am way too chicken to take that leap. I really like having health insurance, paid vacation, and a place to go to work. (When I work from home I end up having a very clean house. I don't do any work, though.) Not only that, I am very bad at marketing myself, so I would never have any work.  

The Blog: Red Nose The Book: Girl Clown

Submitted by maryrwise on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 07:55
 

Query letters

The same friend I referenced in this piece also made the point that there's the whole query letter hell and marketing of oneself that goes into freelancing. I remember another friend - either Kristin or Moose - telling me that she used to go to work and then come home and write query letters and that cycle just continued and continued. Yeah, I would suck at that. Let's just say in more ways than one I have been lucky in both writing and my real job.  

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Submitted by HeatherB on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 14:00
 

I freelance full time. Would not have it ANY
other way.

Lemme got a few critical details out of the way first. 

1. My health insurance is both crappy and expensive! Hooray! And I have no dental coverage.
2. My retirement plan consists of my seeing if I have enough money at the end of the year to hurl at my IRA or my Roth. Surely there's a better way!
3. I am the primary breadwinner at our house.
4. We have no kids.

Okay, stage set. A few years back I took a job at a tech start up thinking that they paid well, had potential, could make me some nice $$$ and okay, stability. I HATED IT. HATED IT. HATED IT. I didn't hate the work or the people. I hated going to work every day, I hated feeling like I had to be in the office even when things were glacially slow, I hated the fights for extra vacation time, the office politics, I can go on and on about the things I hated.Like a clairvoyant rat leaving a sinking ship before it went down, I bailed a little over a year before the company failed. During my time as an employee, I learned a sh*tload about business and decided that without extreme circumstances, I would never take a full time job again. I'm open to the idea that those extreme circumstances could involve really falling in love with a company I work for.

I found being in an office every day so constitutionally depressing that I just could not keep going. It makes it sounds like I've worked in some Office-Space-esque environment,but that's just not the case. I have made some of my best friends here in Seattle at work. But I felt a sense of soul crushing dread every minute I spent commutning, I felt a righteous indignation whenever faced with power politics, and well, I just hated GOING to work every day.

I work my behind off as a freelancer. And I experience stretches of terrifying worklessness - projects don't start on time, the savings dwindle, my mate suggests that we'd be more economically secure in his part of the world... but I love being a freelancer. And I don't think it's that I took some leap towards happiness, it's that I fled the crushing unhappiness of the day job grind. 

If I found an employer that would allow me to work at home as often as possible and was open to the idea of regular leave time that would allow me to travel, I'd be all over it - you think I don't want insurance and a nice 401k? But employers are still resistant.

You can meet your deadlines, show up in person for weekly meetings, deliver quality work, and be met with suspicion merely for your lack of physical presence. This seems to be a top down thing - I did some work for a Large Software Company and my direct manager cared not one whit about my location, but her boss? Sorry, workers MUST BE ONSITE. When corporate policies allow more unconventional workers to contribute, I'll be the first in line.Until then, and uncrushed soul wins out over a crushed wallet. 

 

 

Nerd's Eye View

Submitted by Pam on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 10:25
 

Ahhh there's the difference

I think I've only once mentioned before what I do for a living but it's a job where essentially I can make up my own schedule about 7 months out of the year. It leaves me enough 'free' time to use half the day to work and the other half to sit in a hotel room or a coffee shop while in some other city to write. So I get most of my writing done not from my own home but in airports or in restaurants in Union Station. I am very, very lucky to have an employer who gives me roughly 5 weeks of vacation a year in addition to lord knows how many sick days, two personal days and two "floating holidays" and to make up for the multiple weekends I have to work, I can get a "comp day". Obviously not everyone has that but I think that's what makes it easier for me to have two jobs. 

Come to think of it with my past job I was miserable towards the end and at one point so miserable that I had to stop writing because the misery was so overwhelming.That was the one time I ever really contemplated becoming a freelance writer. Though now that I have a job that requires way more work I also have way more writing opportunities. It's crazy how that works. 

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance

Submitted by HeatherB on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 13:58
 

Cliff Jumping

I too, used to work at a nonprofit and got waaay burnt out so I quit.  It has been the best thing that I have ever done for myself.  I am so much happier now.

To support my daughter and I, I am doing some organizational design consulting and write policies and procedures as well.  I love being on my own, but it's only been three months.  Once you get over the fear portion of it, really wonderful things start to happen.  I get to write more, which is something that I have never done before and get immense joy out of.  I plan to transition to doing it full time in the near future.

Women are resourceful and resilient. I got a kid to feed and a mortgage to pay, so that keeps me motivated to be successful too!

Whether it's part-time or full-time, it's so important to carve out a little piece of happiness right now.  :-)

Giyen

http://www.baconismyenemy.com

Submitted by baconism on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 14:22
 

I Took The Plunge and Wouldn't Have it Any
Other Way

No wonder you love your job - smiles!  I took the plunge in January and love it, minus my steady paycheck.  BUT, I'm much happier.  I have the best husband with a great income and insurance so that definitely makes it easier, ...but I still have some income to account for.  I freelance part-time, just published a book and fell in love with blogging.  I love the flexibility of working for myself, especially since I have a 7 and 5 year old. 

Submitted by Wifey on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 14:35
 

I would love to freelance

I would love to freelance full-time; it's a goal for down the road, though not necessarily because I hate my job.  I do a lot of freelance now, but it's hard to balance with the whole full-time-job thing ... still, I love it, and when it works, there's nothing more satisfying.  However ... when a check is late, or I haven't gotten a new assignment in awhile, I certainly appreciate my job and it's steady direct-deposit twice a month.

Submitted by cucinanicolina on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 15:41
 

It's wonderful, but not easy

I began freelance writing at home after the travel magazine I was edited was suddenly folded by the publisher. The timing was right. My son was in preschool and the magazine job had been less flexible (and involved more travel) than I'd hoped. Luckily, my experience at the magazine (plus my previous experience as a features writer for a newspaper) gave me the editorial contacts I needed to get started as a freelancer at home. Still, the income was considerably less -- and I couldn't have done it without the support of my gainfully employed and very supportive husband. In the early years of freelancing, the payoff was being able to stay home with my son while he was small.

I've been writing from home for almost 17 years, and even though I could go back to an office now, I wouldn't. I'm used to organizing my own schedule, and I love the creative freedom of writing for a few hours, then heading out to the garden to pull weeds. I supplement my writing income teaching writing classes -- which I also love. All said and done, I counsel my students to be realistic about the writing life -- don't romanticize it -- and to have a backup plan.

 

Cindy's Home Office: www.laferle.com

 

Submitted by Cindy La Ferle on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 19:55
 

Office to Freelance to Office

I had been freelance writing on the side for years here in NYC as I continued my urban planning career, which I was pretty happy with. Eventually though, the regular j-o-b started to wear on me and I was clearly craving the writing time and enjoying doing all that stuff. Soooo, with my husband's full support, I made the leap into freelance writing fulltime. I had a blast. I had my husband's insurance and with the various contacts I'd made over the years, i was able to start making money almost immediately. After a couple months, I was offered a staff position by one of the publications I was freelancing for. Totally unexpected! I decided to take the position and that's what I'm doing now. It's been about seven months and everything's cool. I keep a database of contacts and my little spreadsheet has grown quite a bit since I started working there. Anywho, all that said, it's totally possible that I would freelance fulltime again sometime in the future while I work on my first novel.

Submitted by Love_Is_Dope on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 07:31