If You Didn’t Need To Freelance Write

image from courseworkwritings.com

What else would you be doing? The question really goes to the foundation of your writing psyche. There are certainly a lot of others ways to express your creative self. I mean, you could cruise down the road a novelist takes. You could just keep personal journals or a blog. For that matter you could do something other than writing.

So, why do you freelance write? Is it because you’re *this* close to making your first million writing articles for other people? Do you have dreams of getting on with the Huffington Puffington Post? Maybe Time or Esquire? Lots of questions, I know. But, sometimes it’s important to ask those questions. A little reality check now and then helps to keep us honest.

Some folks freelance write on a part time basis. They have a good paying day job and freelance writing keeps them in the field. Others freelance full time, either for love of the work or because they have landed enough clients to pay the bills. If you are happy in your situation, it really doesn’t matter which camp you’re in.

If the world was your oyster, if you could do anything you really wanted, would you continue to freelance write? If money was no object and you had all the wealth you would ever need, would you freelance write? I think that answer is probably different for each of us and there is no wrong answer. Thinking about it in those terms however can sometimes shed a little light on how we operate on a day to day basis. If you’ve never thought about freelance writing in those terms then perhaps those questions are a cause for pause.

For me, if money was not a worry, I think I would be a freelance writer “full time.” I mean, I would accept clients at my leisure and not really feel much in the way of pressure. You all know how that works, right? If you don’t really need the money, it’s guaranteed to roll in.

Coming back to reality, think about what your freelance writing would be like if you were to carry the “don’t need the money” attitude to your freelance business. Would you handle things differently? I probably would. I’m sure I would feel like a lot of the pressure has been taken off. And when the pressure is off, I think it’s a lot easier to focus on the writing.

I guess I’m thinking a lot about the best way to handle being a freelance writer. I want to write, I want to make a living, I don’t really want to do anything else. I’ll keep working on it and try to keep the mindset of not really needing to do it.

If I can do that then the pressure is off.