Could You Stop Freelance Writing?

April 20, 2011

It’s Sunday afternoon. We had friends stay over last night and they left a few hours ago. It’s glorious outside.

I’ve mowed the lawn, put our new barbecue together (although if my partner is reading this, I helped put the new barbecue together), finished reading the last few chapters of my book and I’m now getting in an hour or two’s work before we head out for a roast dinner at my parents.

With the sun shining and being able to walk around in shorts and t-shirt without feeling cold — finally — it’s days like this that I really love being a freelance writer, as I can effectively enjoy the day and fit in work around everything else.

Lately, however, I’ve been spinning a lot of plates. Things have been a lot busier than normal and although it’s great in one way — I’ve got a lot of proposals and opportunities currently with clients and companies that I’m waiting to hear confirmation on — it’s that uncertainty of what’s coming and not being able to plan too far in advance should one of these proposals or opportunities come up that’s giving me a bit of a headache.

And at the height of this headache-y week or two, I wondered what it would be like if I wasn’t freelance writing.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be self-employed and run my own business and for the last five years at least, that’s what I’ve been trying to do.

I started off teaching myself HTML and CSS, moved onto SEO and that led me to freelance writing, which after trying a number of other ventures and opportunities, most of which were interesting and appealing but which I didn’t feel 100% comfortable, it seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

It has meant long hours and I’ve juggled a full time freelance writing career alongside a full time salaried job for most of it and although I’ve sometimes sat on weekends thinking that I could just do one or the other and be able to reduce my working week by 37 hours, I’ve stuck with both and financially, it’s proved to to be the best thing to do.

Over these last few weeks, having had a few different proposals out there and some full time job offers, I’ve wondered whether freelance writing is actually what I want to do.

I could take one of the full time positions and be able to have my weekends free. I’ll be able to go on holiday without having to work extra hours leading up to it so that I deliver on my freelance projects.

I’ll be able to actually be ill and recover in bed rather than prop myself up and surrounded by hot water, lemon, tablets and tissues, try and get through some work.

And in terms of organising holidays, days out and time off with friends and family, it would be a whole lot easier.

But I just don’t think I could do it.

I’m still in a full time role now alongside my freelance work, but I don’t particularly like the role and I’m only there — for the most part — for the financial stability. I earn more from my freelance work than I do in that position, but things are just a whole lot more straightforward when you’re applying for, for instance, mortgages if you’re employed by a company.

One of the opportunities that’s looking promising is a part time salaried role which would work out perfect, as it would give me the best of both worlds.

As much as I sometimes wish I didn’t have a deadline to meet or that I had my evenings free to play guitar or even just head online in a non-working way, I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing, even if it’s just for my personal benefit.