No More Freelancing

Ok, I did it. In my last post, I talked about being hesitant to even say aloud what I KNEW I needed to do to give myself a fighting chance at finishing my novel. I wrote the first half of the equation in my last post about time management, admitting I was scared to say, for fear of accountability, what else I knew I needed to do. But, I've been doing it for two weeks, and I'm not dead.

OK, I'm being dramatic, but it did feel like such a hard thing to do: stop freelancing for magazines. I remember, two days after I made the commitment, I spent an hour searching out new magazines and having ideas! And that's exactly what has to stop if I'm going to finish the novel! The nap time novelist and nap time freelancer can't both succeed well right now. I told myself, "It's only temporary." I hope to be done with the novel draft by summer's end, and then, I tell myself, I can do some freelancing again. (Caveat: I'm already committed to one freelance assignment, so I do have to do that, but then I'm done....)

So far I haven't felt too bad about not freelancing. But then, with the slow way the business rolls, I'm still getting paychecks and seeing periodicals come out with my articles. In a few months, that will stop, and I'll reap no benefits, and I will miss them. I still get ideas all the time for articles. But I am disciplining myself to write them down and ignore them for 6 months. Or whatever's necessary.

The benefits of this change is the freedom to really keep the novel's plot and characters in my head space, instead of crowding them out for other assignments. I've found I accomplish much more with them because of this change, confirming this is what I needed to do. I'd been riding the fence between these two applications of writing ever since I started writing again in February 2010. I've been praying, weighing the pros and cons, and stubbornly trying to do both this whole time. I never would have thought back then it'd take me so long to just pick one to focus on.

Here's to finishing my novel! I'm feeling good about my goal. I've been writing nothing but the novel for 2 weeks now. It's good. It's really good.


A sample of my online freelance articles:



Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?

Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It

Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile