I Like to Work!

I finished my first official project as a freelancer yesterday. It was a 500-word marketing article for an association magazine. I was a little nervous before I started it, though I'm not sure why. It's not like I haven't been doing this writing thing for a while. I guess it's just that, if you're on staff for someone and you write something they don't like, they just ask you to redo it. It doesn't usually make them want to fire you unless you do it repeatedly.

Since my client had only seen my sample work, I felt like I was working on approval. I was also writing about an industry that was fairly new to me.

I would have to say it went very well, though. Once I started writing the article, I was really getting into it. After being miserable at my job for the last two years, I finally remembered what it was like to enjoy work.

No job is perfect, of course, but if I can get this freelance business to take off, I think it would make me quite happy. There will still be issues that come up that are unique to freelancing, but it's so nice to be able to get my work done without having to worry about things other than the actual work at hand. (If I want to eat at my desk, I can eat at my desk, and I don't have to be afraid I'll get in trouble for coming in with wet hair or get sent home for a wrinkled shirt. Seriously.)

I ended up getting through the article fairly quickly, working efficiently. I sent the draft article to my client and he reviewed it and suggested a couple of easy additions. After sending an e-mail to the association that would be printing it for clarification on a few things and receiving a reply, I did one more easy round of editing. The client approved the article and I sent it to my contact at the association. The project was finished!

I felt so good about the project that I wanted to start another one immediately, but unfortunately, that will be delayed until my client can get me a little more information. Until then, I'll be pounding the virtual pavement for more work and figuring out how to make an invoice so I can bill my client for my first job.