WOW! Women On Writing Blog: freelance life

What I Should Know By Now About the Freelance Life

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Everything.

Yeah, that’s what I should know, but I continue to find myself in the same old predicaments. Having worked as an editor for four different magazines, there are a few hard and fast rules I should have picked up on by now, but every now and then I find myself with temporary amnesia. It’s been a rough week.

Lesson number one is that you can never really trust an advertiser to write an article that they will not use to self promote. We try to have plenty of special advertising sections in our publications so that we can keep everyone happy and give them the opportunities to provide their own copy or have a piece written about them. This month, I asked an advertiser to help write a health article, and we asked specifically that they not discuss their practice or their treatments. (I did this because of the above-mentioned trimmed budget for writers). The piece that was turned in was entirely self-promotional, and I found out at the last minute that a competitor had agreed to sponsor the page. Two sales reps were then upset. I had no idea who was sponsoring what, so this created an issue I had to fix, meaning I had to rewrite the health article myself and run the trimmed-down advertorial piece in another section. This all happened Friday morning before I even had my coffee. I’ve learned my lesson—advertorial stays advertorial and editorial stays editorial.

Lesson number two is that I should always batch work when I can. You would think as a freelance writer and editor I would have learned this by now. Did I also mention I decided to start up a podcast during COVID-19? The first week our shelter-in-place orders came out, I spent too much time wringing my hands, trying to figure out how my husband and I were both going to work in the same house with the kids here doing remote learning. In my defense, I didn’t even know if the magazines were going to be produced for May until the last minute.

But I know about the concept of batch working. I’ve read every productivity article there is about how to do it. I found myself editing and uploading a podcast episode Thursday night at 9 p.m. after putting in a full day at work, and I’m writing the copy I’m in charge of for one of the magazines today. Yes, there were some sections I didn’t want to pull together because I was afraid they would be cut, but there are things like the editor’s letter that I could have written in advance. It’s always the same length and I know when it’s due. But did I batch podcast scripts, blog posts for my website, articles, etc. ahead of time in the past two weeks when I had down time? No. I swear I’m learning my lesson this time.

What are some lessons you’ve learned as a writer? Please tell me I’m not the only disorganized mess around here! (I really think I’m just missing my alone time in the house to be honest).

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and editor who also hosts a podcast called Missing in the Carolinas. Visit her website at FinishedPages.com.

5 comments batching work, freelance life, productivity, Renee Roberson

A WAHM Guide to Not Being Productive During Summer

Saturday, June 24, 2017

A post shared by rlroberson (@rlroberson) on Apr 26, 2017 at 9:21am PDT

I say it every single year. Won’t you join me? “This summer I am going to be SO productive with my writing! I’m going to make reprint sales. I’m going to finally make progress on my manuscript!”

Yeah.

So how’s your summer going so far as we approach the end of June? Right now mine is pretty much par for the course. I thought that having kids who are finally older (middle school age, gasp!) would make things easier. Was I ever wrong. Here’s a little overview on how my June went for me.

The day after school let out—my mom arrived for a weeklong visit. She lives halfway across the country, so this was a treat. I’m not exactly sure why I arranged for her to arrive the day after what is always the busiest week at my kids’ school, but the plane ticket was purchased, and we had to go with it. Of course, the day she was scheduled to fly in also happened to be the ONLY day I could schedule an interview with a local vet for an article I was working on. I explained to him my time crunch, and we got everything settled. I rushed back home with an hour to spare to grab the kids. Of course my mom’s flight happened to be early so we weren’t there when she got off the plane. We weren’t there when she collected her baggage. Sad to say, she met us in the front of the airport and jumped in the car as I pulled up in the terminal, leaving me feeling like the worst daughter in the world.

I had also planned for us to take a road trip to the beach for two days during her visit, and reserved a condo with great views of the ocean and Wi-Fi, or so I assumed. Never assume. I couldn’t figure out how to connect to Wi-Fi and had to end up calling the owner. She was older and doesn’t realize the joys of internet connection and said she didn’t know the password, and she would try to call the property manager and find out. I tried not to stress because I had planned on doing a little work while there. One of the benefits of freelancing is that you can work from anywhere, right? Not if you don’t have Wi-Fi! I had to end up using a hotspot from my phone that used my data, which worked, but left me limited with what I could do. I never heard back from the owner or property manager.

A few days after Grandma left, my son went away to Boy Scout Camp for the very first time. I was a nervous wreck, but I still had to work and figure out how to entertain my daughter. Two days of that week, she had to volunteer at the library so I simply took my computer and worked blissfully uninterrupted. Luckily she is 14, and can pretty much entertain herself when she’s not at a friend’s house, facetiming random classmates or at a violin lesson. This week, my son is back and was exhausted for the first few days. Then the questions started. “What are we doing today?”

You may remember that I also do pet sitting/dog walking for supplemental income. This has been the busiest week I’ve ever had with two overlapping pet sitting jobs, which I’ve tried to weave in along with assignments and driving the kids where they need to be. My daughter had to be picked up from volunteering every day this week, so I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the car. Two nights I ago I realized I don’t have anything for my son to do when my daughter goes to music camp next month, and in desperation I signed him up for a basketball camp sponsored by our local NBA team. He was pumped, and then the next day I got the opportunity to go on a travel press trip to a water park the EXACT week of both of their camps. I slyly asked him if he wanted to go to a waterpark instead of basketball camp, and he said no. I turned down the trip. Next week we are tagging along on a business trip of my husband's and I will have my computer with me. At least I know the hotel has Wi-Fi.

You see where I’m going with this. The erratic schedule of summer is actually worse than the erratic schedule of the school year—at least in our house. So far I’ve been able to keep my head above the water with my paying assignments, but the manuscript remains untouched.

So how’s your summer going?

Renee Roberson is a freelance writer and editor who writes for lifestyle and parenting magazines and is still trying to figure out the balance between motherhood and writing.