7 Truths About Freelancing From Home

Deb Ng over at Freelance Writing Jobs has a cute post on freelance writers that made me grin. It's the Top 10 Ways to Tell You’re a Freelance Writer. While I was laughing, I started thinking about some of the things I hear when I tell people that I write for a living. What to tell them or what I have said, too.

“Oh, wow! I read a lot.”
This one is always good for a smile. You explain nothing, they're just impressed that you can string words together.




“It must be nice to stay home all day and not have to work.”
Uh. Excuse me? While I don't willingly wake up at 4 A.M. to get work done like some freelancers I know of, that doesn't mean I don't work. I spend quite a bit of my day-each and every day- working on something or another. From about 9 A.M. to 11 P.M., how many people that 'work' have those hours?



“Neat! What kind of book have you written?”
I'm working on two supernatural novels. One is Horror and the other is Horror Romance. I've also sent a manuscript to an agent for a toddler board book. Annnnd....there's a book on pregnancy in the works. Yep, my interests run the gambit. But, no nothing has been published yet.



“Oh. So you've been in magazines?”
Technically, yes. For a year I was a columnist, then contributing editor to an online magazine. There's been a few articles in a local parenting magazine here in New York and in Louisiana. No, I haven't been in O, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, or the Weekly World News.



“If you don't have any books written and you're not in those magazines, what DO you write?”
You can watch the people begin to float away mentally when you try to describe blogging, web content, SEO, and how to write for the web. I swear, if you ever really want to start the Zombie Apocalypse, broadcast a blogging SEO seminar across every radio station and every television channel.



“Why aren't you rich?”
Here's the part of trying to explain that it doesn't matter how good you are, if no one replies to your email, you're out of a job. Or article. Sometimes people don't pay up. It is hard for people outside of this career to understand that we work globally in many cases and it can be impossible to collect payment from skips.



“Why don't you get a real job?”
Because I love being with my kids. Hanging out and having coffee with my husband while I pore over job posting. I love the creativity, the glowing emails from clients, the long nights, and yes-even the rejections.


And guess what? I have a REAL job.

Nesting, Decorating, and Blogging.

I am really in the nesting and holiday decorating mood. So much so that I spent forever trying to find the perfect holiday theme for this blog. I hope you like it as much as I do. It’s fun and different. I found this on Jackboot, very nice themes and instructions.

I’m a little spooked out. A parody of The View is on Saturday Night Live. Not sure which is worse, the parody or the actual show. Yeeeugh.

Aaaanyway…I have been trying to catch up on all of my blogs tonight. This week has been nothing but crazy contractions, cramps, and just total pregnancy weirdness. Couldn’t think straight the entire week. Everytime I sat down another cramp hit. I swear a few times I thought this kid was going to come during Thanksgiving cooking. It is like labor just keeps stopping and starting. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was what was happening.

With my first, I went into labor and it stopped a few times. Took a full week for it to kick in right. That was the only labor that I had which went ‘properly’. With my next two, one broke her water by kicking hard and then her sister nothing but a lot of pitocin could get her out. She was a week overdue! Then lil Robbie was an emergency C-section. This pregnancy is feeling quite a bit like the first.

I did get the kitchen close to how I want it, though. For ages I have used the windowsill over the sink as a catchall for kid medicine and other doo-dads I use a lot. Kept wishing that I just had a line of candles across it, but never really did anything to remedy it. Rob brought home a bag of jarred candles on Thanksgiving for me, so I finally had enough to go across. I never realized it would be so relaxing at night to sit here at the table and blog by candlelight. It really is peaceful, especially after a day of the kids being nutters.

The living room is nice, too. We still need to get a tee. We’re are probably going with an artificial. I don’t want to get another real one to end up tossing out. Such a waste and no places around here have plantable ones. The artificial will last for years, our last one was a hand-me-down from Rob’s mom. She only used it once! We stored it in their place and when we moved, his dad threw it out by mistake. At least prices are reasonable this year for them.

The kids are really in the Christmas groove. As soon as I started putting up the snowflakes, they went nuts. Terisa keeps asking if she can have her presents! We have to explain every day that it isn’t Christmas yet, her birthday comes first. Then we end up talking about that for a while, to which she moves the convo to her new brother who comes /after/ her birthday. Man, our December is full.

Oh and something cool happened a few days ago. Deb Ng from Freelance Writing Jobs wrote and asked for my address. I won their Dunkin Donuts Coffee basket! I love winning stuff, doesn’t happen too often and with the month I have had, this was such a nice surprise. I can’t wait to try the flavors! Hey, what is better for a blogger with a blog, Not Enough Coffee?
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