4 Painful Sacrifices You Have To Make to Be a Freelance Writer

You may miss some of the perks that a job provides…like meetings.

 

by Matthew Loomis

So, you want to be a freelance writer, huh?

Before you go and give your two-week notice, there are a few things you need to know up front before typing that resignation letter.

Yes, its great being your own boss, and many perks come along with freelancing from home, like Bermuda shorts in February…a carless  morning commute from your bed to the bathroom…catching an episode of Dr. Phil while you’re “on a break”…but freelance writing is not all peaches and cream.

Nothing is perfect. Freelance writing involves letting go of a few things you might enjoy now if you are a staff writer. From my experience, I discovered there are four important sacrifices that inevitably occur when you switch from job writer to freelance writer. These are four things you will have to give up, like it or not.

Please take the time for some thoughtful consideration as to whether or not you can realistically make these adjustments in your daily working life. You may want to lay in a hammock and sip hot cocoa while reading this.

Sacrifice #1. No Juicy Gossip.  No Idle Chit-Chat.

I know it sounds painful, but unless you have a water cooler at home and an unlocked front door that allows the neighbors, salesmen, and mail carriers to drop by and give you the latest scuttlebutt, the level of gossip, rumors and small talk in your life will greatly diminish.

No more inside scoops delivered in hushed voices on important topics like how Shirley in HR just hired her brother. Or details on why Dwayne didn’t get the promotion.

It’s true. You will even have to give up hearing the latest rumors on the big layoffs coming down the pike.

Are you sure you can live without that? You need to be honest with yourself.

It’s no picnic working for yourself. I mean, you have to actually learn how to enjoy serenity and long stretches of quiet contemplation, where your creativity has time to sink its cleats into the subject matter and take off like an Olympic sprinter, instead of constantly slipping on those tantalizing interruptions, er, conversations that get thrown into your office workday, providing frequent breaks in your train-of-thought.

It’s something to think about…you need to see both sides here.

When you work from home, there’s no busybody dropping  by your desk to inform you about Tony’s embarrassing power point presentation. It’s just you getting busy with work and checking off that to-do list.

Sounds weird, doesn’t it? Like a whole different universe.

Working from home…it’s just…you….and your…work…and more…productivity. (It’s tough to even type those words.)

Freelance writing is not for the faint of heart. It might take you weeks, even months, to adjust to the golden silence.

Anyhow, I don’t mean to keep blabbing about this, like the guy who sits next to you at work and thinks you can’t wait to hear every detail of what he did over the weekend…

Just keep in mind that it takes some effort to pack up your fishing gear and leave the crystal blue stream of idle chatter. When you are freelance writing on your back porch in flip-flops, there won’t be any momentary breaks to water that creeping gossip “grapevine” you are so accustomed to having close by–like an office decoration.

If you can’t handle that, you should strongly consider keeping your job.

Sacrifice #2. You Have to Buy Your Own Snacks

This is pretty brutal.

As a self-reliant freelance writer, you will no longer have the luxury of strolling down to the company break room to pick up a free bagel provided by one of your employer’s vendors every Tuesday.

No more slices of delicious three-day-old rhubarb pie that someone left on the break room table with the “Enjoy!” sticky note on the plastic cover.

Also, your days of mooching off the free coffee will be history. But the good news here is that you won’t have to throw a quarter into the styrofoam cup every four months to relieve the guilt.

And no more “borrowing” other people’s half and half from the frig. You will be forced to start buying your own creamers.

Oh, and let’s not forget the big bowl of candy someone in your department is always keeping stocked with Jolly Ranchers and Werther’s Originals…sorry, dude. You’ll need to add those to your grocery list once you go freelance.

This can be a difficult adjustment for some freelance writers. Ask your doctor if being responsible for your own snacks is right for you.

Sacrifice #3. You Have to Use Your Own Bathroom 

That’s right. Keeping your bathroom clean and well stocked with toilet paper will now be your responsibility. This adds more pressure to your workday.

You probably don’t have a urinal at your home, so if you are a male, this will create extra cleaning work for you.

Just another challenging and unavoidable part of being a freelance writer.

While at your job, it’s nice to sometimes find every single bathroom stall occupied in your department bathroom, so you have a great excuse to stroll over to that other bathroom all the way over on the other side of the building. Nice, plausible reason to take a walk at work without raising any eyebrows.

Poor, pitiful freelancers have quick and easy access to their home restrooms, so when they want to take a walk, they have to trek around their neighborhoods, or the park, walking trails, or beautiful forests, at anytime during the day.

Are you sure that’s what you want?

Sacrifice #4. You Don’t Get to Go to Very Many Meetings

As a writer, I’m sure this really bums you out.

What writer doesn’t love sitting in a conference room listening to 9 people talk in circles? There is nothing more inspiring to a writer. I can’t think of a better way to get the creative juices flowing.

Most writers absolutely love scheduling their afternoon around meetings on things like new project management software, changes in their healthcare plan, and best of all–the emergency meeting where you get told that all the writing you’ve been working on for the past three weeks is getting changed or not used at all.

That is pure heaven to writers. The more meetings, the merrier.

But that’s all taken away from you when you work for yourself. Most of your meetings will be with yourself. You get a meeting here and there with others. Mostly virtual meetings. Online meetings. Phone meetings. Power lunches. Meetings that aren’t near as much fun as the inspiring pow wows that a job provides.

So, I would not rush into freelance writing if meetings are dear to you. Just shooting you straight, bro.

Think Long and Hard Before You Decide 

Becoming a freelance copywriter is a life altering experience.

I hope that all of the excruciating pain and suffering I have experienced as a result of these four sacrifices will help others to make the right decision.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to clean the bathroom and put a rhubarb pie in the oven.