What do you take away from the Christmas period?

There’s no doubt that Christmas is one of my favourite times of year and as much as I have a lot of fun over Christmas, I always manage to take something away from it that can benefit my writing career.

Looking back at the last few Christmases and how I’ve changed my writing habits afterwards, the following points are just three things I’ve learnt from Christmas that have helped my freelance writing career.

1.  You need some time with others

Working as a freelance writer can be extremely solitary and something I’ve realised particularly over the last 12 months is that no matter how much you enjoy working alone, you need some time interacting with others.

This interaction isn’t just to help you develop as a writer, but it’s – as extreme as this may sound – for your own personal sanity, as working alone 24/7 can start to have an impact on your personal well-being and how you generally act around other people.

You don’t have to go to networking meetings or speak to each and every one of your clients face-to-face, but by working from a coffee shop or phoning a colleague every now and again, it will, in my experience, see you develop and be more productive as a writer.

2.  You need some you time

On the contrary to point one, there’s no doubt that everyone needs some time alone.

Some people need more than others and I openly admit that I could quite happily hide away for a few days at a time without talking to anyone, whereas my Better Half gets a bit antsy if she goes a few hours without talking to another person, but I truly believe we all need some time to ourselves.

Whether it’s to gather our thoughts, focus intently on a piece of work or just to relax, alone time is just as important as time with others.

3.  Don’t take things too seriously

At Christmas, we always tend to play a few games, getting the entire family involved and a few years ago, my brother’s girlfriend didn’t want to get involved when we were playing an interactive computer game.

I think it was her first Christmas with us where all of my family had been together and so understandably, it might have been a little daunting and she may very well have been a bit worried of making a fool out of herself (although that was part of the fun!).

The problem was, by taking herself a little too seriously and not getting involved with the game, she essentially removed herself from the ‘group’ and seemed to spend the rest of the evening not getting involved at all, no matter how much we tried to get her to play along.

By applying the same principle to freelance writing and getting too concerned whether you’re, for instance, using exactly the right word or putting a comma in a place where it doesn’t really make any difference if there’s one there or not, you can completely remove the enjoyment factor from writing.

I’m not saying that you have to be overly relaxed with your writing, but at the end of the day, you’re never going to get it right first time, every time and you’d have to be working with an absolute nightmare of a client for them to expect it perfect on the first draft.

I really, really love Christmas and everything about it and hope that each and every one of you has had a wonderful Christmas this year and I wish you all of the very best for 2012

Image:  jmtimages (Flickr)

Is it too early for a Christmas tree image?!

One of the most attractive aspects of being a freelance writer for me has always been the ability to work as and when I want to.

I have realised over the last few months that I work longer hours compared to when working in an office, but I still have the option to choose when I work.

I’ve always loved Christmas.  I’m in my mid-twenties now and I still get as excited as I did when I was seven or eight years old.

Due to this – and the fact it’s one of only a handful of times throughout the year where I get to spend a lot of time with various friends and family, rather than just a fleeting visit or a quick conversation – I always ensure that I have the full Christmas period off.

Sure, I tend to jump on my e-mails once or twice, but I organize all of my work beforehand so that I deliver before I take a break for Christmas, whether the deadline is the 24th December or the 1st January.

This does often mean that December is a busy month – not in terms of average workload, but because I’m trying to finish a month’s worth of work in two or three weeks – but I personally wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s the same with vacations.  Whenever I head away for a week in the sun or even a long weekend city break, I very rarely do any form of work while I’m away, including checking my e-mails – I’d much rather work a few early mornings and late nights before I go to get ahead.

When I’ve spoken to other freelance writers – and other freelancers in general – I’ve realised that this isn’t always the case and many freelancers prefer to do a little each day, rather than have a full week or two off after a mad few weeks beforehand.

At first, I was quite surprised by this, but I have come to realise that apart from  the fact we’re not all the same, working little and often can have its benefits when compared to working a lot and then taking a long break.

You don’t have to reorganize your calendar massively; there’s no need to have long days doing nothing but working and you’re free to enjoy your time equally, whether it’s between Christmas and New Year or on the lead up to the holidays.

As a freelance writer, what do you prefer?  I don’t know what I’d do without that long Christmas break and for me, I can’t see it working any other way.

Image:  FreeFoto

Season’s Greetings. Thanks for reading GetPaidToWriteOnline.com

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Someone said to me recently: ‘Freelance writing is not like other jobs; you never really get away.’ She was referring to the fact that I work at home, and it’s always easy to think about the jobs that are waiting for me – or to work instead of doing something social. But her comment also made me think about planning for the Christmas holidays – and other holidays – for freelance professionals. For those of us not in the US, the whole of the Dec 24th to Jan 1st period is a holiday, so being able to join in the fun takes some planning.

Challenges For Freelance Writers

As freelancers, if we don’t work, we don’t earn. Not for us the luxury of knowing we’ll get a paycheck or a Christmas bonus. Instead, if we want to buy presents and enjoy the holidays, we’ve got to do a lot of work – and can sometimes end up taking on too much. I know that’s happened to me in the past. I spent most of last Christmas working – and I vowed that I wouldn’t do that again.

As work at home parents, there are also challenges relating to the school holidays. When our little darlings are at home, much as we love them, we get less work done. Less work means less money and less spending power, which is bad news for everyone.

Achieving Balance In The Writing Life

So how do you balance the demands of parenting, writing and enjoying the festive season with the rest of your family? Here are a few things to try.

First of all, if you don’t already have one, invest in a laptop. This means you can travel to any festive family occasion and still sneak off for an hour to do a little work. Failing that, arrange to grab some computer time anwhere you go. If you have work to do, this will allow you to keep up with it and still enjoy the holidays.

Talk to your clients to find out what their writing needs will be. Some of them may not want to bother uploading content during the holidays, which may let you off the hook. If they do want content, see if you can split it so that you do a bit extra just before the holidays and postpone the rest till after the holidays. Most people expect you to have some down time at this time of year, so make the most of it.

Budgeting Writing Time And Money

Set a cut off date for finishing your outstanding work. Mine is December 21st for new work. If it can’t be delivered by that date, then that’s it till after Boxing Day (December 26th). I plan to spend a couple of days doing the regular weekly writing and blogging tasks ahead of time so that I can take a full week off.

If it matters, let people know that you will be unavailable. For me, this consists of telling people who send me work regularly when I’m working over the Christmas period. I will also put a Christmas vacation responder to let others know that responses to email will be slightly delayed.

Of course, there’s an even easier way to handle holiday time, and that’s to budget for it. When you are setting your earnings targets for the year, assume that there are some times when you won’t be working. That will help you to get a more accurate picture of what your take home should be. If you manage this successfully, it won’t matter too much if you take a week off from time to time.

Finally, don’t get stressed about it. I decided that it was important to make time for my friends and family instead of being attached to my laptop with an invisible – and very short – leash. Sometimes that means that I’m a few dollars short of my target, but I’m happier because of it. Remember to keep things balanced and you’ll have fun during the holidays. You might even find that you’re more successful.

If you haven’t written your Christmas articles yet, then it’s probably too late, at least if you’re writing for print. Print publications work far in advance, so if you’re writing for them, you should start planning your Christmas articles in the middle of the year and should deliver them by September to October. Yes, there are exceptions, but what I’m getting at is the importance of planning ahead as a freelance writer.

We all know what the big occasions are. They include New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, 4th July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mother’s Day is another biggie. These are all occasions to write seasonal content and sell it to websites and magazines.

However, there’s a trick. You have to do it early. That’s because magazines and other publications want that content there before the big day. Printing constraints and the desire for a long shelf life mean that a monthly magazine will probably be printed six weeks before the cover date, and the content will be decided at least a month before that.

Websites may operate in a similar way, because they are targeting search engine traffic. If you’re going to search for Mother’s Day flowers, what are the chances that you’ll be doing that on the day itself? Slim to none. Instead, you’ll be searching a couple of weeks before – and that’s your target for online publication.

So what do you do? One answer is to keep a file containing seasonal ideas that you can pitch whenever an opportunity comes up. Look in old magazines and see what they covered last year – there may be a new twist or a way of updating it. If you plan ahead, it might feel strange to write Christmas articles in July, but at least you’ll hear the jingle of coins as well as bells when the holiday season finally rolls around.