Don't die for a deadline

I was driving to work this week when I spotted this sign emblazoned on an overhead bridge for drivers to see as they whizz down the freeway. Had to laugh.

      

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

As a freelance writer I often feel like I'm killing myself over a deadline. When you are a freelancer, you often fall into the trap of saying "Yes" to everything because you convince yourself you have to make hay while the sun shines. You never know when the next commission is going to come in.

Despite this, I'm happy to say that most of my freelancer friends and I always seem to get work. The concept of a writer starving in a garret is just a myth - at least when it comes to freelance journalism.

I think that one of the reasons for this is that freelancers who network and give each others work (such as overflow when you are busy) are richly rewarded. What goes around, comes around as they say. My friends and I used to know a freelancer - let's call him Tom - who would never tell us what he was working on because he was afraid that we would steal his contacts. Oh pulleeese.

I truly believe there is plenty of freelance work around. And if you aren't available to do a job, your client is grateful if you can pass on the name of another freelance writer to help them out. My network of freelance friends and I swap contacts, tips and leads all the time. And we all get lots of work as a result. Last I heard, Tom was struggling to get enough commissions in the door and had to take a part-time job to pay the rent.

So if you want to freelance, remember: as Jon Bon Jovi (and the voiceover in the opening scene of the movie About a Boy) once said "No man is an island". Share your ideas and contacts and it will come back to you threefold.

Comments

[Martin]

I saw that banner on the freeway. It almost made me have an accident. Trust the RTA.