Freelance Writing During the Holidays
November 26, 2008 by Deborah Ng
Filed under Freelance Writing Tips
The holiday season is an interesting time for many freelance writers. For some, it’s a seasonal work-fest as they take on jobs other freelancers turned down in favor of spending extra time shopping or with family. For others it’s stressful as they try to meet their deadlines.
Freelance writing during the holidays was often difficult for me as my son was home plus I always went to away for a few days to spend some time with my sisters and brothers. I traveled with my laptop a lot! I tried to find solutions for keeping my son occupied but that only meant writing around a bunch of screaming kids, refereeing arguments, spending more time on craft projects than work, staying up late or rising at the crack of dawn to complete assignments, and driving back and forth to playdates, birthday parties and other events. To me, it was usually worth it to miss out on the pay in favor of a lighter workload.
How do you freelance during the holidays? Do you step it up to take advantage of the extra work or do you slow it down in favor of holiday things?
This is my first year to freelance during the Holidays. I’m not getting much done this week, but it will be different during Christmas. Not celebrating Christmas for the past several years has given me ample opportunities to make a few extra dollars at whatever job I was doing.
Early in my freelance days, when I didn’t think I could turn down work, a small ad agency assigned me a rush job that my contact said had to be completed over the Labor Day holiday. I worked on it most of that weekend and went to deliver the completed job early on Tuesday — only to find a closed office. Later, I learned that my contact was vacationing in Maine. That eye-opener set a new rule for me–take off every holiday just as clients do. The work keeps coming in anyway.
I used to work over the holiday period and at times found the usual work load had increased during that time too!
It wasn’t much fun staying up late on Christmas Eve or having to return to work several days before everyone else. Now, I am quite happy to have a proper rest over the festive period.