One Thing I’ve Learned about Freelance Writing in the Last Month

It can be summed up quite simply:

Freelancing is hard.

Very hard.

With that being said, I have learned quite a bit about the process over the past three and a half weeks.

There is no end to the potential jobs, positions, and opportunities for freelancers. There is an enormous amount of websites to help you through the process of freelancing, and a great deal of free resources at that, which is great.

But to be honest, trying to start freelance work rather feels like standing on the center platform in one of Tokyo’s main train stations, except the trains aren’t slowing down for me to embark, but go zooming by, trailing nylon grip handles behind them, expecting me to grab onto them and clamber on the train while it’s still moving. But I can’t even see which line the trains zooming by are on, and when I realize that one train might be the one I want to go on… well, it’s already out of the station. It seems as though I’m the only one who is not accustomed to this new method of transportation, since there are many other people on the trains already and appear to be going places, all the while I stand still.

Well. That’s the way my month’s been, in a nutshell.

One good thing about this month has been the invaluable lesson of not giving up, even when I so very want to. Rejection and discouragement are, let’s face it, quite common companions throughout life. It’s hard to keep leaping for nylon grip handles, especially when I’ve missed so many before. But I have to. And you have to, whether as a freelancer or a mother or a father or a stock broker. I guess I’m a slow learner, but I am learning something this month; something akin to the idea that success is a whole lot of failure with a lot of perseverance mixed in. And maybe, just maybe, we might get a little success sprinkled on at the end.

Postscript: I know I said I’d post three blogs today, which I have; but, WordPress’ clock is not synced with my local time, so it looks like I didn’t keep my word (anyone know how to change that? I’ve scoured all over for the time settings). I assure you however, all three posts came in the same day—for me, at least.