Beginning My Freelance Writing Career

A couple of weeks ago I left my job as an ESL teacher and decided to start work as a full-time freelance writer. This was a big step for me, but I have always wanted to be a writer so this was really following my dream. I know that you probably hear many people tell you that they want to be a writer; people are always telling me this. The difference is that not only have I wanted to be a writer, but I have written a lot over the years. There are days when I write as much as 10,000 words and this was before I became full-time; to be fair a lot of this is unreadable crap, but I put the effort in every day. Two years ago I even managed to have my first book published, and next year there is another book due for release. So my decision to become a freelance writer wasn't such a step into the unknown.

I had already begun working as a freelance writer before quitting my job so the move has been fairly flawless. I hadn't expected to happen so soon though. My plan was to wait for another six months before taking the plunge, but I realized that now was as good a time as ever; you can't keep on putting your life off indefinitely.

It hasn't all been plain sailing. On my first day as a freelancer somebody attacked my writing quite savagely, and it really took the shine off my beginning. The worst thing was that I could see that what the person had written was correct. I had produced an article that was well below standard and there were just too many mistakes for it to be allowed go without comment. Still, I have quickly learnt that the only way to deal with this criticism is to learn from it. I want to keep on improving as a writer, and compliments are nice but they don't teach you anything.

I also realized something really important; my writing is not me. I don't have to take it personally if people don't like what I write. This can be a real problem for writers as we can see what we write as being somehow part of us, but it isn't. Some days we write better than other days, and we should just see the whole thing as being a product. I heard somebody compare writing to making cakes; some people will like your cakes and some people will hate them and on some days your cakes will be inedible. No need to take it personally; you just have to be professional and try and make the best cakes you can.

Another thing that I quickly learnt about freelance writing is that it is really time consuming. At the moment I'm working at least twelve hours a day seven days a week. Last week I had stomach flu, but had to keep on writing. When you are working for yourself you have to produce to eat. Still, I am sure that it will get better and to be honest this is the most fulfilled I have ever been in my life. I love going to work in the morning, and I forget to leave at night.