Maybe it was the idea of working from home. Or the ability to pursue projects that interest you. Whatever the reason, most of us remember when and why we decided to freelance (even if we lose sight of it from time to time). Here’s my story…
The summer I was 17, my mother announced that it was time for me to get a summer job.
“I really want to devote the summer to writing,” I told her. “I’ll finally have time for creative projects instead of all those AP English assignments.”
“That’s not a job,” she told me. “You need to learn the value of work and money.”
“I’ll freelance,” I countered, though at the time I wasn’t sure what that meant.
Now, less than a decade later, I’m actually doing it! (And yes, I did find a job that summer, which inspired a one-woman play called Revenge of the Burger Babe. The manuscript disappeared when my parents bought a new computer but my distaste for raw beef lives on.) Sure, that conversation awakened my renegade side, but mostly my future freelance career grew out of a desire to have a creative outlet and earn extra money when I was slaving away in entry-level hell. I eventually burned out on working in an office, so that was a factor, too.
Your turn! What inspired you to freelance? Was it the flexibility? A dislike of office culture? A love for your creative projects? Or something else?
Is being laid off a good reason?
I started off as a recent college grad in desperate need of $$$ that was more than 6 years ago now. I still work full time, but I love the freelance assignments I take because it's so different from my 9-5 writing work, and it's great extra money. The fact that I work best when super busy might have something to do with it. I did make a effort to take time to be bored this summer, which turned out to be a really good choice.
Honestly, I think what did it was getting my degree, because I went back and finished my degree when my youngest was in Kindergarten, and going to college while she was in school was very flexible. I liked being able to pick her up at 3:30, etc. I think college spoiled me. When I finished, and took full time editorial positions, I couldn't stand working when someone else told me to work.
So, there it is. I'm just spoiled.
I always wanted to give it a try, but didn't know the first thing about how to do it. I was lucky to meet a full-time freelancer who helped get me started. That was about three years ago. Now, I wonder what took me so long. You're lucky you figured it out when you did, Susan. Wish I had!
It looks like my experience was similar to yours, Susan. Writing was always something I did on the side, to some level, but I went full-time freelance when I realized my full-time publishing job wasn't giving me the creative outlet I craved. I just felt that I had to give it a try.
I simply find more satisfaction (and less money, let's be honest) in having more control over what I work on. Is that inspiration? Sounds more like pragmatism to me.
I've always been a writer – just who I am. I used to make books when I was 5. My mom still has them. I was the editor of my high school paper and co-editor of the literary magazine. I should have known then. I ended up in law school and practiced law but hated it. When my second child was born, I left and started writing. It all happened organically somehow, but it was a struggle to get it going and wait for the income to slowly build.
After returning to get an MFA in writing (I've always loved to write) when my children were in high school, I was left with "now what?" I was so used to having the flexibility of being at home that freelance writing fit nicely into my life, allowing myself to do what I loved. I wish I had figured it out all those years ago (lucky you, Susan!) but I am happy with my choice.
I've actually been freelance my whole writing career. When I got out of college, I got a job as an editorial assistant at a medical publishing company. The hours were flexible, running into the evening and it was freelance. I didn't even know freelancing was an option, but I took to it and even expanded my business to consumer magazine and book writing! Today, I can't imagine working full-time in an office (and, horrors, having to go to regular meetings!).
I had a strong desire to start a business, and also wanted to give writing a try as a career. Combining the two has worked out well!
I've been interested in writing since childhood, but I bowed ti the pressures of life and worked at a corporation for 5 years. I was miserable and felt my creativity was being slowly killed. So I decided to jump in feet first. I quit my job and have been writing ever since.
It's just something I have to do.
I agree with others–I've always loved writing. After college, I decided against law school and instead started freelancing.
I had been writing here and there for awhile, but I decided to freelance when my Mom developed dementia and I needed to work part time on a flexible schedule. After she passed away, I decided I just didn't want to give up that flexibility and I enjoyed working on my own. And I liked feeling more in control of my own time and my own career.
I just wanted to start writing again after working for a couple of years in an industry where there wasn't much creativity. I started writing for free because it was fun and it prompted me to go back to grad school for magazine journalism. Now i am the managing editor of a magazine and I now only freelance when it's something i'm really interested in.
Mostly the idea of working at my own pace in my own house wearing whatever I wanted and doing the work at the time I liked best. Sitting down to get the job down while working at home has never been an issue for me and I've loved freelancing for many years. Just recently I've had a client that requires I go in house part of the time…and it's actually been nice to connect with other people. But they've also been so generous about working around my schedule…which makes it really great.
I've been a writer my whole life, even as a kid it was clear this was my calling.
After college, I worked for 10 years in various staff writer / editor positions. The longer I worked for someone else, the more they expected … yet the pay didn't go up accordingly.
I had several writer mentors who had made the jump to freelance, and they regular whispered that I should quit my job, that I'd be happier, that I'd make more money, that it'd be way more interesting.
So, after one particularly icky conversation with my boss (the third one I'd had in 11 months), I called my Darling Husband on my long drive home and said, "We're working on an exit plan."
His reply? "It's about @#$@# time."
I've been freelancing full time ever since. That was exactly 10 years ago this month.
I have always loved to read and writing just seemed to follow. Although I have written stories since I was in my teens, I never dreamed of actually letting anyone read my writing until a friend convinced me to enter a story in a writing contest. I didn't win, but I discovered that I love seeing my name in print and have been writing ever since.
My story is a bit different. Freelance writing is my third career. My first (not too steady) was theater, my second political consulting. When I tired of that (in my FIFTIES) I took stock of my life and decided that in everything I had done, I had enjoyed writing the most, so I should learn how to be a freelance writer–and here I am, well past retirement age, still going.
What inspired me to freelance? These days, I'd like to say "insanity."
All joking aside, I don't do well in a corporate 9-to-5 position. While there are exceptions to that rule, I have yet to find a position that I really love. I enjoy working from home — or perhaps I should say working from coffee shops — though I have to admit that it's nice having somebody do all the marketing for you, like what you have in a 9-5er.
I think it was when I realized you could get $1/word. I ran around the house shouting, "'The!' Give me a dollar!!" I didn't know then that it would be as hard as it is but I am very happy to have this not-9-to-5 job and be able to pick my kids up from school and then go back to work once they are in bed for the night!
After I quit my first job out of college (after one year) to move across country to get married, I started freelancing. I wasn't inspired to do it; it just happened that way because there were still a few stories I wanted to write for the construction magazine I had been editing. That's when I got my first taste of it. When I moved back to Phoenix some time later, I was inspired to freelance after thinking I needed a real job. I had taken a job working in membership at the Screen Actors Guild, but it wasn't what I really wanted to do. So I quit to freelance, and that's how I really got started–in 1997.
I re-discovered writing while going through a life-changing event in midlife, literally writing myself through the crisis. Afterward, I needed to go to work. The company where I part-timed, offered me a position in the Human Resources
Department writing their company publications. In 2001, when my life changed again and I moved to Arizona, I began researching freelance writing. Looking back, I should have researched less and jumped in sooner.
The last five years, I've written for local and regional publications in Arizona plus a couple of national publications. Currently, I'm focusing more on internet writing plus publishing a travel blog. I find the online writing world to be fast-paced, fun and addicting. I love my job.