Apr 13, 2011
The Unknown Benefits of the Freelance Life
While setting up the projector for my writing course at a local community center last fall, a high school student was cleaning up an art project she’d been leading with a group of children. Seeing “Ed Cyzewski: Freelance Writer” at the bottom of my slide, she asked, “What’s a freelance writer?”
While one of her co-workers attempted to give a traditional answer, I replied, “It’s a nice way of saying you’re unemployed but work occasionally.”
I was joking, but also a little serious.
I try not to play the poor old me card here on the blog. Believe me, my small group hears enough about that. However, when I began trying this freelance thing out in August 2009, I had no idea what I was in for. It was like launching a brand new business where I needed to build long lists of clients and contacts.
It has taken longer than I’d expected to get established. I thought I was starting off in good shape back in 2009, but things only started to click in the fall of 2010. At this point now, I can actually use the word “busy” on occasion, while still looking for new editing, web site copy, and magazine article work.
I feel very blessed right now.
We hear a lot about the struggles of freelancers and also about the guilty pleasures of freelancers—though I’m not one for spending the entire day in my bathrobe and slippers. Freelancing is either bad for me because work can be irregular, or it can be great because I make my own schedule and can work anywhere I want.
However, there’s another side to this. Freelancing can be good for our friends and family. I can work anywhere, and therefore I can pick up my “operation” and relocate to the side of a friend in need. I’d honestly never thought about this aspect of independent freelance work, but it’s truly exciting.
I’ve been so focused on what’s good or bad for me in this career move to write full time, that I’d forgotten how persevering through the past year and a half also benefits my friends and family. I’m grateful for these moments when I’m reminded that this really isn’t all about me.
Your example of vision and courage is an encouragement to more people than you know, Ed. I appreciate the occasional update on your work as a freelancer–and I’d love to hear at length how you went about starting from nothing and progressing to . . . something!