Hi, I'm Linda and I write nonfiction. I was going to do a proper introduction, but I decided instead of introducing me, I'd introduce you a bit to the life of a freelancer. I started freelancing in 1999, but I gave it up in 2003 for a regular paycheck. You see, I have a family, and they like to eat, and they keep growing and that ends up with them eating more. And, frankly, it is fine to live paycheck to paycheck when payday is every Friday. It's quite another matter when payday is whenever the check shows up in the mail.
Can you tell that I am currently waiting on three checks to arrive?
It's the end of the month at the end of a summer where I have spent a lot of time waiting for checks to arrive. Yesterday, my husband urged me to apply for a 40-hour job that offers good benefits, but it actually pays less than I made the last time I worked full-time. I make more money doing what I am doing now, but he really misses regular paychecks with benefits. I didn't take the suggestion very well.
And in case you are wondering, I'm writing and deleting a lot here too.
My husband is supportive, but this has been a long summer, and for a huge part of it (four weeks) I was away at a writing workshop. Within the next week I will be signing about four contracts that will bring in regular income through the end of the year. If I apply for the job he mentioned and were actually hired, I wouldn't be able to complete the four contracts and another one that I've already signed with a different company. I'm not sure what he thinks, but I think he suspects I could just fit the 40-hour job in with everything else I'm doing. I don't know. We haven't actually talked about it since, as I said, I reacted badly to the suggestion.
And I'm not opposed to working full-time, but I'd like it to be a job I want because I like the job, not just something for the benefits. Or better yet, I'd like a book deal. That'd work, right?
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Waiting on a check, again
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4 comments:
I had a very similar conversation with my mother. She's all for me going back into a job that pays *something* so that I can cover the regular bills - she doesn't care that I'd do better in three years, after this degree - all she says matters is paying for stuff and saving up.
And yeah, I agree, paying for stuff is fairly important. Saving is nice, but there's always something you can't budget for, IMO.
And yep, I'm waiting for paychecks too this week. It sucks, doesn't it?
"I reacted badly"... is that kind of like in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where the guy chooses the wrong cup to drink from and the old knight says "he chose... poorly".
I feel your pain. I think that husbands tend to forget all the things we do when we write at home. They so rarely see the end product. To them, the end product is the paycheck.
Did you really post that at 4:40 am by the way???
Yes, the reacted badly kind of was exactly like that. And I wasn't up at 4:40 a.m. I posted around 7:30 a.m.
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