And suddenly, I am flush with money and work.
This is the way I’ve often found it in the freelance writing game. I can go for a whole month with no gigs, starting to worry about scrounging for the pennies, and then BAMMO (just like Batman), I have almost too much work to negotiate.
It’s feast or famine around my neck of the woods more often than not, and presently I find myself feasting.
But it won’t last. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to declare that I will, at least this time, learn a few things (“Sure sure, Ralph,” I hear you say as you pay my head knowingly).
Here are my Top 5 Lessons To Learn About Writing Work When You Have Lots Of Work
Table of Contents
1.) Save money.
This is one you’d think I’d learn time and again, but alas, I get a few coins a’janglng, and they either fly out of my finger to pay past bills, or I treat myself to my usual round of coke and escorts (ok, that’s a joke). But I do have a propensity for spending too much money on books, toys (and no, not even the vibrating kind), and records. I have to remember to save some money as I make some money, so I have some money for those times I’m not making all that much money.
2.) Keep looking for work.
Even inundated, trying to find my footing (and time to write) under a tsunami of work, I need to keep my eyes and ears open for more of it. None of us should become complacent when we get a little breathing room, suddenly become lazy thinking that we don’t need to keep looking as intensely as we always have for jobs, or slack off keeping in touch with an old client who may have the promise of work down the line. Sure, you need to pay attention to the job at hand (which will lead me to my third point in a second), but we always need to keep our minds on getting more.
3.) To that work at hand?
Work it hard as you do all other work but remember, to schedule it around everything you are already doing. This is my biggest weakness; I have a terrible mind (not a ‘beautiful one’ at all) for scheduling, keeping to calendars, prioritizing. But if a mountain comes suddenly sliding into you, you probably are going to have to find a way to start climbing it. Which leads to…
4.) Don’t forget the work you already have.
This isn’t so easy to do, especially if the work you already might be doing is something you’ve been at for a long time, or it pays you less than the new work coming in (which so often happens as older work might be stuff you priced out way back before you had grown your reputation and skills to where they are now). But this older work needs to be considered and kept to as much as the new.
5.) Keep on the new employer for more/new work/building your relationship.
Whoever has come to lay some new stuff in your lap, or whomever you have courted to get it, they are going to need to be stroked a little, at least at the beginning First and foremost, you do this by doing a great job…which, you should be doing all the time anyway. But for a first-time client, I go a little above and beyond, keep the communication fluid and consistent, so they can get me pretty much get me as they want me (at least in the beginning), and stroke the client as much as I can without having to throw-up in my mouth too often.
All too soon, I’ll be in the ditch again, scrambling and worrying about work. For now, though, with a bit of a surplus of it, I need to keep my head and maybe learn a few valuable lessons, so there isn’t such a deep difference between the busy times and the quiet.
The question is: will I take these five tips to heart? Your guess is as good as mine.
