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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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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This is a follow-up to Freelancing: the first ten years.
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
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
This is where I explain leaving my job to resume full-time freelance writing and editing after a break of a dozen years. Last week I wrote about being told how ‘brave’ I was (a chilling phrase), how I’d had a mixed bag of it last time as a freelance, and ended with the question, ‘What has changed to make this any sort of a good decision?’ Well now… Continue reading
At the beginning of the month I resigned from my safe and generally sound publishing job. From 27 September I’ll be a freelance writer and editor, self-employed and of no fixed salary. The response from colleagues has been characteristically generous and well-wishing, but on the whole I’d rather not have been congratulated quite so much for bravely choosing an exciting future. Continue reading
Paul Fishman 