The amount of research, Googling, review-reading, etc. that I have done in the last several days makes my brain hurt when I think about it. But since it was spread over a few days, interspersed with shows (including one where we had to turn people away at the door...more on that later!) and other craziness, my brain didn't quite explode.So what, exactly, am I researching?
Well, as you all know I want to be a writer. (Shocking...I know!)
The eventual goal is to write novels full-time, but I fully recognize that unless I turn out to be the new JK Rowling, it could take several years and several novels before I make enough off of royalties to support myself by just writing books. But that doesn't mean I don't want to start making a living writing now.
And so I turn to the next logical thing -- freelance writing.
I've done a lot of researching over the last couple of days. Looked at lots of things on freelancing, copywriting, accelerated programs that will get you six-figures in no time at all, blah blah blah. And the conclusion I've come to is the conclusion I kind of already knew...it's gonna take a lot of hard work, dedication, and patience.
The hard work and dedication thing I'm pretty good at. The patience thing, not so much, but I guess Jesus wants me to work on that, so okay.
It might be a pipe dream, but my current goal is to be freelancing (and tutoring) full-time by the end of this calendar year. That, in theory, gives me 11 months to bust my butt and start getting freelancing gigs. I also hope to tutor English because I did it in college and really loved it, and you can make a lot of money doing that in this area. There's also one other English/teaching related thing that's a slight possibility, but that's very much up in the air at the moment.
Anyway...
I contemplated not blogging about this for many reasons. What if I jinxed it? What if things that seemed likely fell through and then I'd be all sad and stuff? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that yes, this is going to take dedication and hard work, but it also takes networking. And you, my wonderful blogging friends, are a wonderful network.
So basically, I'm wondering if any of you are freelancers (or know freelancers) and can give any tips on where to start looking for freelance gigs/how to get them.
And for those of you who aren't freelancers...please keep me accountable.
I've had this bad habit in the last couple of years of declaring that I'm going to do something. I'm going to start this or do this great idea. And I'm really excited about it for a bit, but then life gets busy, I get distracted, and whatever it was that I was super excited about two months ago gets pushed to the side. That's how you end up 10 years into your post-graduate life wondering why you're still in the same job you were at 10 years ago and I don't want that to happen to me.
So, please, hold me accountable. Send me an email and ask how the research is going. Tweet at me and ask if I've had any luck finding jobs. Facebook me if you have an idea where I can start looking. Anything to keep me from just giving up on this.
Right now I'm excited. I've got a beautiful new planner and lots of pens where I've started writing ideas, circling them in different colors, crossing out ideas that won't work and checking things off my to-do list. But it's really easy for that excitement to die away if I don't have something to keep it going.
What are ways you find to stay motivated about achieving your goals?
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The post That "Freelancing" Thing appeared first on Shades of Shayes.
