The printed proof of my novel Nothing’s Ever Lost is in the mail as I write this. It should get here on Wednesday (5 days from now).
At the same time, I’m doing a dramatic reveal of my book cover over on my Instagram page (@nothingseverlost – go follow. It’s fun).
Both of those things are pretty much out of my hands at this point. I’ve placed the order for the proof. I’ve scheduled all of the cover reveal posts, now I’m just waiting.
Except that in addition to being an independent author, I’m also an independent business owner. I can’t just sit around and do nothing while I wait for book stuff to happen. I have a business to run.
I know a lot of people are curious about what a freelance writer actually does. If you follow any writers on Instagram or other social media, you might think we spend all of our time going on adventures, using our laptops on the beach, and generally not doing much that resembles actual work.
But we do work. At least, I do. And I’d like to give you a behind the scenes look at what that actually means:
Pretty much every morning, I take the dog for a walk. The length of our walk depends on the weather and how I’m feeling that day. Today was a long one 6500+ steps according to my Fitbit. I was listening to a Mel Robbins book for most of that time.
When we got home, I called a friend and went to the grocery store. I should have gone right to work, but I was stuck on one element of an ebook I’m working on and needed to procrastinate a bit. Talking to my friend helped me refine the project in my mind. (There are drawbacks to not having coworkers to bounce ideas off of.)
Home from the grocery store, I brought my laptop out to the kitchen table. I have a desk, but I don’t always use it. There’s something freeing about having a big table to spread out all your notes on. I managed to add about 1100 words to the ebook.
Then I switched to a retail client I’m writing product descriptions for. I’ve had to space this project out because it involves tasting and describing many products. If I try to do too many one after the other, I stop tasting the differences.
After that, it was back to the whitepaper for a bit until I got bored (code for stuck) and decided to come write this blog instead. Later on I have a phone call with a new potential client. I’ll need to answer some emails too. After that, I might make cookies.
And that’s it, a day in the life of a freelance writer.
What else would you like to know about the freelance life? Any questions I can answer? Drop them in the comments.