What has a year of freelancing taught me?

*insert rollercoaster emoji*

Photo by Nathan da Silva on Unsplash

One of the strangest parts of getting older is realising that time passes so quickly in part because a lot of your life is more settled than in your youth. I don’t mean settled in terms of you being ‘settled down’, but there is a more settled sense to your life in your 30s onwards, compared to your childhood, teens and twenties, when everything feels like it’s in flux.

It’s easier to mark the time in those early days, and it feels like it’s all stretching out in front of you anyway, a long, long road with a lovely destination waiting for you.

Once I got into my late thirties, though, I found that life sped up, and in the past couple of years - partly due to Covid, partly due to losing two parents in quick succession in 2022 - I’ve really felt the years speeding past me. Sometimes it’s like I’m a passenger on a train, trying to get from carriage to carriage to reach the driver and beg them to slow down. I have so much I still want to do! I’ll shout at the driver when I reach their cabin. Just hang on for a minute!

The only way I can ever seem to hold back time for a moment is to write down what I’ve learnt, done or felt during a particular period of time. 1 April 2024 marked my first full year of freelancing after leaving The Journal. Though the year has felt particularly short, in looking back I can see I learned a huge amount about myself and my work, but also that I am still learning new things everyday.

I’ve achieved quite a bit too, even though on a day-to-day basis I still feel like I’m a worm just scrabbling about in the soil. (Why yes, I do have a very positive outlook on life…!). Here are some of my learnings from the past year of freelancing - I hope they might be of use to you too, even if you’re not in the wild world of self-employment.

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It’s a rollercoaster

As a freelancer, some days I’ve been on a high after a great commission or work request, feeling like all of my life decisions have led to *this moment* and that everything is now going to be great going forward.

The very next day I might be sitting at my desk thinking ‘will I ever get commissioned again?’ or frantically refreshing my banking app.

After the initial honeymoon period in summer 2023, as I got more settled into self-employment I had to learn - and am still learning - that some weeks will be really busy, some won’t be, and the money will (as two of my close friends and I reassure each other) ‘flow in and flow out’. There is no typical week, so I have to use the quieter ones to concentrate on my personal writing, and lean into the busy ones.

This is, of course, difficult to do. I’m really used to working in a newsroom, and these are busy places. You get used to the fun side of breaking news and being ‘on’ constantly. Now that I’ve moved away from that, I’m still figuring out how to get used to not having to work the same amount of hours every week, and understanding this is balanced by things like having to work bank holidays.

Related to this: The rollercoaster life is what I chose

It’s hard to stay satisfied and not be anxious when you’re in this sort of job, and yet I remind myself that I chose it because for now I love that sense of freedom. I don’t know what new jobs are around the corner, and I’ve got to do brilliant things over the past 12 months because I am free to, and have a good sense of what I want to do.

The thing that causes difficulty also brings delight… So I sit on the rollercoaster and try to be at one with it. It’s never easy, but for now I’m actively choosing it.

Turning to other freelancers for support helps

If it wasn’t for other freelancers, chiefly my sisters and my friend Lauren, I’d have been clueless about what to expect with self-employment, and how to deal with certain situations.

At various times I’ve asked them all questions about elements of freelance working, payment, finances and pitching. Chatting to my hair stylist Kathy about how she manages self-employment is great too - when you chat to other freelancers there’s an ‘understanding’ you have that can help you buoy each other up.

Photo by CARTIST on Unsplash

Finances are never not a worry

I already touched on this above, but the financial aspect of freelancing can be a steep learning curve.

I was freelance 13 years ago for a year or two, where I learned one big lesson: always lock away your taxes from each commission. I also learned that having as many income streams as possible helps (especially when, like right now, I don’t have any regular weekly columns). So from the beginning I’ve done lots of other types of work too: content writing, radio slots, workshops, teaching, moderating, etc.

But with regard to the journalism side, I had presumed that since the late 2000s freelance journalism rates (what you get paid per article/radio slot) had risen along with the cost of living, etc. Reader, in most cases they have not. So this is why, if you’ve ever wondered, freelance writers typically have multiple jobs. It simply isn’t feasible to live full-time off freelance article writing/radio slots in Ireland, or if you do you are very, very busy and I absolutely take my hat off to you. Articles and radio slots take a lot of time and effort, which I know editors appreciate and hope readers do too.

I feel like I’m breaking some sort of code when I say all this, but I think it’s important to note. If you look at the media’s trajectory over the past decade and the pressures newspapers, online publications, radio stations and magazines are under, I’m sure you can imagine there are various factors behind this. I work with great editors, and editors have a budget that’s not set by them, so this is an industry rather than an individual editor thing. I think it’s important to know if you want to start freelancing.

It might not be forever

I don’t know how long I’ll be doing this exact permutation of freelancing, for a variety of reasons. I’m staying open to change and figuring out what’s the best mix for me.

I’m plugging away on a novel and other types of writing, which is obviously something I would like to be doing more of for my ‘actual paid job’ in the future. But I know that I just have to put the work in and see where it goes.

The idea I have in my head of my ‘ideal’ job does still have me being self-employed, and writing in some capacity for my main income stream, but I know that our interests evolve as we get older. When I was in my twenties I thought I’d be working in radio, when I was in my early thirties I couldn’t imagine not being in a newsroom. Who knows what I’ll be doing well into my forties and fifties? That all said, since my teens I’ve just wanted to be a writer, and you can’t fight your instincts.

You can do it

For a long time I thought I wouldn’t be able to freelance… and here I am. If there’s a leap you’d like to take, you might really surprise yourself when you take it.

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I’m teaching a non-fiction workshop!

From 15 - 17 July I’m tutoring a three-day non-fiction workshop at West Cork Literary Festival: Finding Writing Inspiration in the Everyday. Here’s more info:

This three-day workshop is for beginner and emerging writers who want to write nonfiction pieces, whether for submission (like radio essays and personal essays) or self-publishing online (blogs and newsletters). To write, we need ideas and inspiration. In this workshop, we will look at how to find writing inspiration in your everyday life and experiences; discover how ‘noticing’ is the key to sparking inspiration; will read examples from writers who mine from their everyday life; use writing prompts to write together in class; and learn the basic building blocks for writing a well-structured non-fiction piece.

And here’s how to book. I can’t wait to teach this!

I’m also doing an appearance at the festival to talk about my book Social Capital on 18 July, details here.

The entire festival is crammed full of fantastic events, so hopefully I’ll see some of you there.