Welcome to Writer Rants–where every Friday a writer just lets loose on whatever the heck is bugging her this week. Enjoy.
One of the advantages of the freelance lifestyle is that you set your own schedule. But, on your worst days, that can be the downside as well. While most freelance writing days are productive, on others, you consider yourself ahead of the game if you don’t go skimming too close to the deadline on the stuff that’s due right now. Where does all the time go? On a worst case scenario day:
8:00 am: The alarm goes off to wake you for your daughter’s International Baccalaureate orientation camp. You hit the snooze button too many times to be able to brew coffee and also get your kid to school on time. You look over last night’s work to-do list on the way out the door. Four blog posts, only one of which requires serious research. This looks doable.
Additionally, you make a mental note to remember how to spell “baccalaureate,” as this word is not yet in your spell check.
9:00 am: You return from dropping daughter off. You’re walking toward the coffee maker, but, a different child steps between it and you to say she needs a ride to the DMV to take her learner’s permit test. After a 20 minute conversation that diverts into three other directions (hey, mom, we’re almost out of milk!), you successfully delegate this task to the household adult who has the day off. You head back to the computer and sit down to work. It’s 9:25 by this time.
9:30 am: The phone rings. No, dear brother-in-law, you don’t know why his brother is not answering his phone. You had a great idea for an original angle for this blog post you’ve just started, but it’s gone now.
10:00 am: You decide to peek at Facebook for a minute. The next time you look at the clock, it’s 11:25 and you’ve been watching kitten videos for an hour and a half.
Noon: You’re sitting in the parking lot waiting for your kid’s camp to get out and a text message comes in. Why sure, you’ll be happy to rewrite an entire article because the client forgot to mention that the website information was out of date. No, you’re not too busy.
1:30 pm: You wander by the refrigerator. There’s no food in it, just ingredients to make food. Raw green beans, a few slices of cheese and a sleeve of saltines is a balanced meal, isn’t it? You’re not sure where you put your coffee.
2:30 pm: While researching home storage solutions for a client, you realize that your closets are an unholy mess. You earn $30 on the blog post, but spend $150 and two hours shopping for closet organizers.
4:30 pm: You finally discover your cup of coffee in the laundry room. It’s long since gone cold.
Lara S is a content writer and blogger. She’s written professionally since 1998 and specializes in creating reader-friendly posts for complex industries like healthcare, law, and insurance. On the weekends, you’re likely to find her out on her sailboat or ensconced in bed with a book.
