Let's Try Something New, Shall We?

It's been awhile since I've posted about my job. That's mostly because I haven't had a consistent paycheck since December, when my last gig ended. Fortunately, my husband was able to find a salaried job just weeks before mine ended, so I've been able to relish this time-off without having to put applications in at Walgreens or Kroger.

During this break—the first I've had since the summer I graduated college, seven years ago—I've been able to spend it packing up our home and then unpacking it again, baking up weekly loaves of homemade bread, reading, and, mostly, relaxing

But now, I am finally feeling recharged to get back to work, to dip my toes back into the pool of paychecks and productivity. The catch? Given my husband's changing work schedule, we've decided that a traditional job probably will not work for us. So instead, I'm going to give a go to freelance writing and editing.

For over three years, I worked as in-house editor and writer at a fun design magazine. Then, for about two years, I transitioned into a role as a publicist, writing press releases for new books and pitching story ideas to magazines.

So you would think I would have already made the leap to freelancing, given all that. But there's another aspect that is something of uncharted waters for me. Aside from a couple of job interviews, I've never had to "pitch" myself and definitely not on a monthly or weekly basis. I've never had to look for clients. I've never had to figure out what I ought to charge for individual pieces of work. So I've been hesitant to try out the whole freelancing thing, despite my writing portfolio and experience.

People always say that if you want a job, you have to first go out and apply for it; God doesn't just have someone knock on your door and say, "Here's a job!"

But you know what? That's exactly how this all came about for me: One day, I opened an email that said, "Here's a writing job we'd like you to do!" And that's when the light bulb went off and I realized that this was where I was being led, at least for this season, to put my talents to work.

I started a to-do list of how to start this journey, things to do and folks to contact. I don't expect to make a full-time gig of it, but I would like to be able to cultivate enough work to supplement my husband's income and keep my working at my trade while still tending to things around our little homestead.

I'm eager to see where this leads; it just feels right.

(And if you know of anyone who is looking to hire someone to do some freelance writing or editing for them, please get in touch!)

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