I never really considered going into freelancing as an edgy or alternative choice. I didn't consider what it meant on the market, that more and more young people are choosing it, or why they're doing it. As I wrote in a recent post, I was 19 and needed money. That was about the long and short of my consideration at the time.
For me, freelancing seemed a good option as I didn't have (nor do I have) professional qualifications in the form of a diploma, university degree etc. And while now, I would be fairly confident given my experience, portfolio and skill to apply to a regular corporate job in writing without one, I couldn't have done so at 19.
Besides, I didn't want to. I didn't want to have my freedom ripped from me. I'm a writer. That's the only thing I've ever wanted to be, the only plan I've ever had, and anything that threatens to take away from my writing time was not an option. Still isn't.
This week, the Ladies of Hive asked about freelancing versus traditional employment.
Explore how each option (Freelancing vs. Traditional Employment) impacts work–life balance, considering factors such as time management, personal freedom, and the demands of clients vs employers.
And I thought I'd throw in my two cents' worth.
Freedom of Time and Space
For me, having the time to write and focus on my fiction and my blogging on the side was paramount. For me, it has never been a side gig, but the main thing. The rest, the money-makes, the hustles and the lies are the side. Writing (for myself) has always been priority number one.
And writing's tricky, because I only need a couple hours a day to actually write, but there's all this extra time that writers (and any creative people) need to be able to write well. Time to dream and gaze out the window and watch people and drink coffee and read and watch random things that populate brains with new ideas. Writing is a full-time job in its way, so for me, retaining a lot of free time was a must.
While technically, I could work eight hours, then still have two hours to write my own things, my brains would be fried. My energy spent. Wouldn't work.
As I grew older, I realized another important benefit of my freelancing life -- freedom of space. I could work for clients and get new clients anywhere I went. Which allowed me to write from home or from a small seaside apartment somewhere in Spain. Or from a studio in Prague. Traveling feeds my feeling of being free. And my freedom feeds my creativity. It's all connected.
I could never do these things working a traditional 9-to-5, not even with the loose work-from-home schedules that many companies now use.
One thing I could never stomach about corporate or traditional employment was the waste of time. I'm a very fast writer. Writing for clients never took me more than a couple hours of work a day. Tops. But the traditional hourly rates that most companies employ would need me to sit at a desk another 5-6 hours. Doing what? Playing Solitaire? Shooting the breeze with coworkers? Wasting precious time? It's not for me. I'd have no problem working in a company if they let me go when my work for the day was done. But as things are...
Choosing My Clients
Is very empowering, as it allows me to sort through people I consider rude or untrustworthy. I've mostly had excellent experiences with my clients. Always very respectful interactions, not because they were naturally inclined to be so, but because I made it a point of pride not to interact with jerks.
This client business is scary, though, as you need to be on good behavior. You need to be accessible, which doesn't come naturally to an introverted person like me. You have to be nice, likable, grab their attention and promise them the moon. Most of them won't actually ask you to deliver it. It works out alright.
What's stable?
We have this idea in our society that freelancing is tricky because it's not stable. And that's true. None of the work I've had has been stable, all of it has been based either on client need or on my own ability to deliver, which has meant that pay can vary wildly.
You could get no clients. Or have bad experiences. Or be unable to work. My sort of life lacks a certain rigor, a structure that can be helpful to the working man.
It's unstable.
But then, what's stable? Where's the guarantee in choosing a traditional employment? It might mean stable pay and hours for this year, for the next three maybe, but I'm very doubtful about our long-term prospects.
As a writer, I entertain no delusions about the future of copywriting and standard, mainstream blogging. The sort that was my bread and butter for years. It won't last. AI is too good at it. The only writing that continues to pay and (I think) will continue to be lucrative, at least for the foreseeable future, is individual writing. Opinion pieces. Personal experiences. Creative writing, of course. And if my LinkedIn newsletters are to be trusted, traditional companies aren't hiring in those departments.
So it's up to us, writers, to carve out our own path.
I know people who are currently studying in university, or master's, or doctorates in writing professions. I look at them and think you're deluded. By the time they're out of school, there'll be no room for humans in the sort of job they're studying for. The future is unprecedented by definition and right now, unpredictable.
Considering the transitions and changes we've seen in the past 10 years alone, relying on traditional employment as your sole or main source of income sounds like lunacy to me.
So it's the freelancing world for me, still. It's partly the freedom. The loose hours. Most of all, it's the fact that it's keeping me on my toes in this game, not letting me grow fat or lenient on the promise of a stable tomorrow.
