The year in freelancing: 2024

Work-wise this has been a choppy but interesting year. Some of my longest-standing, most regular and best clients have had major internal shake-ups or external jolts, with knock-on effects for outriders like me, but I’ve also worked on some excellent jobs. Change and uncertainty are like pepper for a freelance; a nice pinch is good seasoning, but you can have too much.

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The whole caboodle: my new Substack

Click to subscribe. Credit: Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash.

Is the whole caboodle serious? One comes here and talks a pack of bosh, and perhaps some sense as well, but I should think very little of a man who didn’t keep something in the background of his life that was more serious than all this talking—something more serious, whether it was religion or only drink.1

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Freelancing: home alone

This is a follow-up to Freelancing: the first ten years.

Working (largely) alone

A freelance is like a reasonably intelligent dog that requires food, exercise, mental stimulation and some sense of having a part to play in the game of life. How much of each of those things, and what form they come in, is a matter of individual temperament. Some can be left alone in the house all day; others start chewing the table legs and peeing on the floor after an hour. Continue reading

Freelancing: the first ten years

When I told colleagues in 2014 that I was quitting my job to become a freelance writer/editor most wished me well, many told me I was brave and quite a few asked me questions. The most popular were:

Can you make a living?

Can you bear the solitude?

These still interest people most, along with the supposed bravery, which often translates as Can you stand the anxiety? Continue reading

A short lexicon for Twitter users. Part 1

A man sits at his desk with a devil on one shoulder and a cherub on the other, considering what to tweet. Credit: Wellcome Library, London (CC BY 4.0).

Some words and phrases that could come in handy when using Twitter, especially political/opinionated Twitter. Continue reading

Difficulties with words. Part 2

'Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.' Samuel Johnson.
‘Dictionaries are like watches: the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.’ Samuel Johnson.

Here’s some more vexatious, misunderstood and underused words and phrases. Continue reading