Do You See Yourself As A Freelance Writer In 5 Years?

By Dan Smith

We all have aspirations and goals. We all have things we want to achieve and places we want to be at certain points in our lives. These obviously change from person to person — often hugely so — but nevertheless, every single one of us has some focus for future progress.

What I want to ask you today is whether, as part of your aspirations and future plan, you still see yourself as writing on a freelance basis?

I’m sure this won’t apply to everyone, but when I decided I wanted to start freelance writing properly (as in, more than the occasional piece and on a much more regular basis), my initial thoughts were that I could easily do this forever. Particularly when I began getting a steady stream of work in, I had visions of myself sitting at home producing copy for a range of different clients for decades to come.

Whilst there’s no doubt that’s still a very appealing future, it’s not one that I still see myself doing.

Over the last few years, my aims and goals have changed. Some massively so, others just slightly. For example, I still want to keep writing, but I’ve been fortunate enough to become involved in some fantastic projects and with some great organisations that although are linked to content creation, offer a considerably different career. And I like that.

I like to feel that I’m always being challenged. I don’t like feeling as though I’m just keeping the plates spinning. I want to be out there, making a difference, whether that’s helping a client’s small blog or an entire organisation to succeed.

There’s no doubt that freelance writing on its own could do that in some respects. However, I’ve had my eyes opened in recent years to various positions which, for example, combine the use of content with user-engagement techniques to develop fantastic online development strategies.

I guess there are two questions that I want to ask you today. With the first being as above — do you see yourself as a freelance writer in five years? — the second is would you consider change?

Like I said, at the time of starting to write on a freelance basis, I could see myself writing as a career for the indefinite future. But as I’m sure many of you will have come to realise, being a freelance writer is one of those positions that allows you to sample a whole host of different careers. From actual organisations you work with to different opportunities that take you away from purely writing, the more you work, network and engage with others, the more you get to sample.

And for me, the different things I’ve sampled to date have made me realise that the knowledge and experience I’ve gained so far as a writer could allow me to help others in a more beneficial way.

It’s always good to have goals, but I personally feel that you don’t always have to meet them. Your thoughts and views on everything in your professional life can change and I think it’s important to understand that these can affect your goals — and that’s nothing to be afraid or ashamed of. Just because you don’t meet a goal doesn’t have to mean anything and it only becomes a problem if you don’t replace that goal with something else.

I’m absolutely certain that some of the writers who visit this blog regularly will go on to have outstanding careers as freelance writers. However, every now and again I just want you to take the time to think that, as fantastic as a career path as it may be, it could be beneficial to look at what else you could do. Freelance writing allows you to build a huge portfolio of skills and it would be a shame if you didn’t realise the actual potential you had to fulfil what is very likely to be a vast array of different roles.