I spent the last few weeks doing a lot of 'soul searching'. As angsty as that sounds, its accurate.
And there's been a lot of conversation, on various lists I'm on, about knowing yourself - about being sure of who you are - and Carolyn's post about freelancing got me thinking some more.
As I said in the comments on Carolyn's wonderful post, I got into freelancing - especially ghostwriting - for the wrong reason. Well - the right reason for my family - but the wrong one for me.
Getting into ghostwriting for money - short term - isn't actually a bad thing. I only - ever - meant it (and coding) as a short term stopgap till I started making more money from writing. But, because I've spent the last three years ghostwriting, coding...I've had very little time for fiction writing.
And then I started at Uni!
So this week, I took on two new members of staff (both students) and am going to slowly pull back from working on non fiction, unless they are my own books. Hopefully, I'll be able to support both of my 'staff members' by offering work that's more in line with what they'd like to do with thier degrees, and later careers.
But, in four weeks, I'm hoping that my life will go back to coding - which, again I'm planning on training my two VA's - and fiction writing. I can work when I'm needed, without destroying my new routine - I can ghostwrite the stuff I'm best at, and pass over stuff that my team is better at - and still support everything I need to do in the next few years.
This works - and it's the right reason for me to freelance. I'm a facilitator - hence, my new blog - 10 freelance fingers - I'm going to talk blogging, freelancing, writing, jobs, legalities - everything. I got into freelancing for money - I should have gotten into it to support others - and that's why I'm working on changing that now.
I know, deep down, that though we sometimes 'need' money - it's more important to support others in thier time of need. And that's what I'm going to do - once I get the staff I'm letting take over from me trained :).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Know thyself...
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2 comments:
To beat the sailing analogy to death, course adjustments are common, necessary and practical. Sometimes they're small, like when we get hit with a gust of wind, and sometimes they're major, like when we realize we're WAAAY off. To me, it sounds like you're just making one of those small adjustments to keep you on track. Happy sailing. :)
Though I'm new to writing for a living, I'm seeing that reviewing one's priorities seems to be part of the job! Sounds like you're moving in the right direction. I'm going to check out your freelance site right now! Thanks.
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