3 Things I’ve Learnt From Christmas That Have Helped My Freelance Writing Career

By Dan Smith

There’s no doubt that Christmas is one of my favourite times of year and as much as I have a lot of fun over Christmas, I always manage to take something away from it that can benefit my writing career.

Looking back at the last few Christmases and how I’ve changed my writing habits afterwards, the following points are just three things I’ve learnt from Christmas that have helped my freelance writing career.

1. You need some time with others

Working as a freelance writer can be extremely solitary and something I’ve realised particularly over the last 12 months is that no matter how much you enjoy working alone, you need some time interacting with others.

This interaction isn’t just to help you develop as a writer, but it’s — as extreme as this may sound — for your own personal sanity, as working alone 24/7 can start to have an impact on your personal well-being and how you generally act around other people.

You don’t have to go to networking meetings or speak to each and every one of your clients face-to-face, but by working from a coffee shop or phoning a colleague every now and again, it will, in my experience, see you develop and be more productive as a writer.

2. You need some you time

On the contrary to point one, there’s no doubt that everyone needs some time alone.

Some people need more than others and I openly admit that I could quite happily hide away for a few days at a time without talking to anyone, whereas my Better Half gets a bit antsy if she goes a few hours without talking to another person, but I truly believe we all need some time to ourselves.

Whether it’s to gather our thoughts, focus intently on a piece of work or just to relax, alone time is just as important as time with others.

3. Don’t take things too seriously

At Christmas, we always tend to play a few games, getting the entire family involved and a few years ago, my brother’s girlfriend didn’t want to get involved when we were playing an interactive computer game.

I think it was her first Christmas with us where all of my family had been together and so understandably, it might have been a little daunting and she may very well have been a bit worried of making a fool out of herself (although that was part of the fun!).

The problem was, by taking herself a little too seriously and not getting involved with the game, she essentially removed herself from the ‘group’ and seemed to spend the rest of the evening not getting involved at all, no matter how much we tried to get her to play along.

By applying the same principle to freelance writing and getting too concerned whether you’re, for instance, using exactly the right word or putting a comma in a place where it doesn’t really make any difference if there’s one there or not, you can completely remove the enjoyment factor from writing.

I’m not saying that you have to be overly relaxed with your writing, but at the end of the day, you’re never going to get it right first time, every time and you’d have to be working with an absolute nightmare of a client for them to expect it perfect on the first draft.

I really, really love Christmas and everything about it and hope that each and every one of you has had a wonderful Christmas this year and I wish you all of the very best for 2012 :)

Image: jmtimages (Flickr)