The Joys of Freelancing

 When you tell people you are a freelance writer, you usually get one of two responses. 

"Oh, yeah, I do that sometimes." These people call themselves freelancers (and they are), but they don't freelance for a living. It's a side gig that they either haven't put the effort into building or they just use it in their spare time. 

Then, there is the starry-eyed response as if freelancing is a dreamy job. There are a lot of people who self-publish, and I imagine they do have that starry-eyed job of writing what they want, when they want. They might not have money, but they certainly are pursuing their dreams. That is not me.

I have writing dreams, but I also have a family to feed. That means I don't get to always write what I want to write or edit what I want to edit. (Don't get me wrong, I refuse any jobs that I find ethically wrong and jobs that I find morally wrong--although some savvy employers have managed to pull the wool over my eyes a few times.) 

The starry-eyed responders don't realize that when I am editing someone else's story--it can be quite rough. Once or twice it was borderline unreadable. I also get those Master's theses on the (to me) rather unexciting topics of computer data analysis or teaching theory. I get to write reports comparing international banking practices, or talking about high-end, international real estate sectors. 

Don't get me wrong: I get to write about interesting things, too. (My favorite was Zombie Skin Care.) But, if you want to make money, you have to do things that aren't necessarily appealing to you.