Freelance Writing

Freelance writers have the luxury of working from home, free from the burdens of bosses, coworkers, commutes and office hours. Such freedom, however, leaves the writer responsible for his own inspiration and work regimen; there’s no boss to handle the overhead, and no colleagues with whom to console. Consequently, the flexible schedules often entail hectic workloads, with completed articles returned for immediate revisions in the midst of looming deadlines for current assignments.

Since the workloads are inconsistent, so is the pay. Therefore, a big paycheck must be spent with responsible budgeting foresight, for it might just be the only paycheck of an otherwise meager season in the marketplace. Furthermore, since the assignments come in fits and starts, freelancers have to exercise the discipline of turning down some wonderful projects when the stack gets high, for such assignments might be impossible amidst an already tightly filled docket; a tough call for writers who’ve lived through their share of work droughts (1).


Most freelance writers need to open themselves to a breadth of topicality, for steady work in specialist areas is a rarity in this field. By the same token, freelancers need to have a plentiful list of potential story ideas from which they can pitch to various publications, for only a handful of those ideas will meet the specific demands of a given publication at any time. Therefore, budding freelancers are encouraged to write down any thoughts that comes to mind on the topics which do ‘not’ generally interest them, in order to broaden their overall range of ideas. It is also wise for the freelancer to double-down on their sources, whereby elements of research for one assignment can be funneled into other pieces looming in the cupboard (2).

Freelance writers are basically entrepreneurs who sell themselves for a living. But unlike proprietors of small businesses, the customer base will tend to develop not locally, but from afar. Many initial clients of a freelancer will be based in other cities, sometimes in other parts of the world. Writing geared towards city or regional publications can make for lucrative resell items to other, non-competing markets, so long as the piece itself isn’t topically specific to the initial locale, or the stipulated property of the initial publication upon payment (3).

Unless a freelancer writes for hobby as much as livelihood, an idea for an article should remain a mere idea until a pitch on that idea is accepted by a publication. Often times, the topical and aesthetic aspects of a given article will need to be tailored to the guidelines of a certain publication, and thus an article written without forehand knowledge of those specific guidelines might just render the article, no matter how brilliant and topically appropriate, unusable by the very publication most hospitable to such a topic (4).

Those who earn upwards of six-figures annually in the field of freelance writing tend to develop relations with the publications that will ultimately make regular use of their work. Additionally, such high-earning freelancers will author books and parlay their writing credentials into teaching posts and consultation gigs (4).


Fleecy


References

1. Ragland, Margit. Get A Freelance Life.

2. http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com

3. http://www.thewmfreelanceconnection.com/2010/04/how-to-earn-well-writing-reported.html

4. http://www.yudkin.com/flfaq.htm