Real Words

photo link - The image, which I was happy to find easily through an online search related to juggling books and balancing writing, is the work of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. My topic doesn’t relate to the one he was using the image to portray; his topics are indigenous, socio-political works. Definitely worth checking out - see the site and blog.

Being a freelance writer means always looking for new work. The ebb and flow is exactly that - swells of work that threaten to overwhelm and drown you and then stretches of drought that are a welcome reprieve until they go on too long. In the midst of those swells, the writer always has to work to regain footing and balance out all of the projects which are going on. The downtimes serve to assist with this because they can be used for planning, organization, and catching up on the little things.

I’ve worked hard in the last few years to garner myself some steady jobs. These are jobs that I am committed to doing well and consistently because I enjoy them and think they’re good jobs. However, I also do them well and consistently because the benefits of steady work from clients who pay when they are supposed to are innumerable. These steady jobs have allowed me to be a little bit pickier about which additional projects I take on, which has made it easier to maintain the balance of a steady work life.

However, there are always those old ebbs and flows. I’d predicted that the end of the year was going to be slow. I try to keep December fairly stress-free in terms of work so that I can enjoy the holidays and trips with friends and family. I also try to use the end of the year to assess what’s been happening in the months before and to make plans and goals for the year ahead. That was what I thought the end of this year was going to look like. Alas, this is not the case.

I’ve been fortunate enough to get some great writing opportunities that will carry me through the end of the year. I’m happy about this. But it also means that I have far more work than I’d planned on. I’ll have to resume that shuffling dance of re-working a new schedule for myself and figuring out what hours I can reasonably plan on being at the office. And I’ll have to take a look at whether there are certain commitments that I’m just not reasonably going to be able to keep up. We’ll see.

But you know what I realized today? I realized that I love the ebb and flow. Sure, it makes me a little nutty sometimes. But it’s what keeps me fresh. It keeps the work from getting stale. New jobs bring excitment and enthusiasm for topics that have gone unexplored for too long. Changes in hours free up different days to explore different aspects of the city that I live in. Balancing writing jobs is part of what a writer’s life is all about. And I happen to love the life of being a writer.

[Tags] writing, writer, balance, projects, time management, freelance, jobs [/Tags]