Two weeks of sitting on my hands and swallowing copious amounts of fear and bile have come to an end. Having left my television news job, I find myself in the dubious position of being free to write for myself, but with no one offering to pay me for my efforts. Thankfully the freelance market is alive and well, and I have elected to throw my hat in the ring.
Considering how I have never been good at taking orders, I am not sorry to find myself a true writer for hire. I now have the power to choose who and what I write about. The inconvenient inverse: my potential clients can accept or reject my offer to write for them at will, but I am still taking my shot at freelance writing. Ironically, I have been calling myself a writer for hire these past few months to simplify explaining my responsibilities as a television news producer. I am not a producer anymore, but I am most certainly a writer, and with any kind of luck I will be soon be making my living at the tip of my pen.
I have said a dozen times in the last year that I would never see myself unemployed, from an official standpoint anyone. I have had a job of some form or another, with a boss, time card, and W-2 since I was 17. 7 years of working for the man, and now I am my own boss.
What a terrifying position to be in, and here I thought choosing the right classes in college was a tough decision.
In any event, I am headed into uncharted waters, for me anyway. More than a few great writers started out as journalists or correspondents, Winston Churchill, Jack London, and Charles Dickens among them. Take a wild guess at who some of my favorite authors are.
One thing I have already learned as a freelance writer, choosing the right job can be as critical as using the best word in a sentence. For example, I applied for a freelance writing job about politics and debating, something I should be familiar with given my history in television news. The whole thing sounded straightforward until I noticed payment comes in the form of INR, or Indian Rupees. The job was for an Indian news service, as best I can figure anyway. Imagine my surprise, but a lesson learned on my first day I will not be forgetting.
What a sensation, being self employed and looking for work at the same time. A glorious juxtaposition, but one that can result in huge piles of bills if I do not find a source of income soon. To that end, I have decided to take a full time job wherever I can find one, whether that will be in a hardware store or a pizza delivery place. One decisive advantage those jobs have over being a producer: I have no contract to break. That by itself, coupled with the feeling that my words are no longer coupled to the pleasure of investors on my program, makes writing a bit more gratifying. Writing in the broad daylight is also a plus, although I must admit some of my best work came down the line in the dead of night. Still. a late night bedtime is a welcome change to a man used to trying to snag a few hours sleep every mid-afternoon.
This is the first step on a pathway that even experienced travelers will admit does not have plain markings to guide the way, but from all I gather those with initiative and true grit stand a fair chance of making a good mark on the veritable fields of paper waiting for new ink. Anyone with advice on how to find work that pays, and assignments that gratify, please let me know what you find. My hours are my own these days, so if you have something good, hit me up. If I am asleep, I’ll be forgiving if what you have to tell me ends in a good lead, or even a thread to something good somewhere else.
This is the second entry at Freedom’s Kindling, Checkpoint Infinity. Here’s praying a few sparks of hope can become a blaze of results.
Freedom's Kindling 