Monday, October 20, 2008

Raining Again, Nearly Pouring

I just cannot get used to the ebb and flow nature of my work. I have been sitting around for weeks catching up on television programs and over-planning my lessons for the classes I teach because I haven't had any freelance assignments. This isn't entirely true. I had one small assignment, but I procrastinated on it because the dread reality was that if I finished that, I would REALLY have nothing to do.

The new book I've been raving about (this one. Buy it now if you are a writer!) says I need to do everything possible in my first two years as a freelancer to ensure I will never have ebb and flows again. None of this idling/hair-pulling alternate life styles. I need to have steady work. My goal should be a full plate of priorities, with projects in the hole and the chance to turn clients down. Not just every-other month, but all the time. A career, if you will.

I am not there yet. To get there, I spent the month of October thus far networking my face off. I read and re-read my new book, following most of the advice to the letter. So obviously, these missions bore fruit not in nicely spaced spurts but all at once. Bam! Here's your work. Do it or starve!

I am not complaining about having work. I feel so productive when I get going at 7am and work until 5. I feel energized by the 6 different clients, the full inbox, the chance to go buy pasta sauce and eat it (and then write it off as a business expense). But why did they have to come all at once?

This conundrum is complicated by my poor little project I procrastinated. I'm not going to sleep much this week, between Extreme Makeover volunteering and a suddenly full work schedule. It's probably ok, though, because I have this sinking feeling I'll spend a lot of time in December networking/moping again. Plenty of time to sleep then, when it will be colder and darker anyhow.

5 comments:

PeaceLoveMath said...

I'm so impressed and interested to hear about your life being a real live freelance writer! Did you eat the sauce with a spoon, or put it over some pasta? If you needed to pair it with pasta, do you then also write off the pasta as a business expense, or just the sauce? Fascinating! Was the sauce good?? Do you have to write good things about it either way since that's the company employing you?

PeaceLoveMath said...

I re-read that after I posted and it sounds sarcastic. It's not! I'm serious!!

Katy said...

hmmmm now that you mention it i guess i can write off the pasta! (woo! ninety-seven cents!)

i am writing about the sauce for a tourism magazine that, by nature, puts a positive spin on everything. i often find i have positive things to say about everything. there was only ever one incident where i felt like a slimy fake writer when i wrote a positive review because i was being paid to, not because it was a positive experience.

Blondie said...

Hey Katy -

An idea for continuing your networking for business down the road. Check out your local chamber of commerce or other organizations that provide business card exchanges, etc.

I'm part of an org that does this now and we have a lot of freelancers that join to network. There is usually a sliding rate scale for business people to join, depending on their size, etc.

Rugby related - I was sad that my team and your team couldn't have both played at Midwests. I was hoping Pittsburgh would make it, so i could bring you some tasty Wisconsin cheese and find out how your garden is doing. :)

Blondie said...

I know, your league is tough. I was watching scores all season from over there. I wish we were in your league, I feel like it would be great games all the time. But that's a haul for us.

Not to pick on our other league teams, but games are kind of iffy. Our game against Detroit at Midwests was 20 minutes of good even battling, then fitness got us. Our newer players, who don't remember D-1, were kind of allowed to sail through league and then we finally get a great game competitor and newbies weren't ready and a step off.

It was a good lesson though. We're going to fill out schedule with a hybrid of good d-2s and d-1s. We were just happy to have a positive season this fall anyway.

Next year!! I'll bring the cheese. :)