A Day in the Life of a Freelance Writer

I get so many questions about my job. Some hesitant questions from friends and family who wonder how exactly I fund my excessive Sandro clothing collection to eager emails from blog readers and writers who want to know just how scary it was to take the leap into freelance writing life. So, I thought it would be fun to write a post about what a day as a freelance writer actually looks like. What it’s really like to run your own business and more specifically how I find new clients to hire me and how much writing I actually do in relation to drinking prosecco in fancy places. Is it 90% lounging around watching Netflix in your trackies and 10% typing? Oh, how I wish it was. Every day is different so what’s written in this post is a general outline and shouldn’t be taken as gospel.

So, let’s get to it. Here’s what a general day entails. Most days I write between 3000-5000 words when working on one project or another but usually only five or six hours out of my day will be billable. The rest will be admin jobs, searching for work and self promotion.  Usually there will be an outing of some kind. A cup of tea with my Mum, a nail appointment, a gym session and always a dog walk. This week I have a facial booked in which is actually a review for the blog so technically still work and a hair appointment because working from home doesn’t mean 8 week old roots are ok. I usually have lunch at my desk most days. Every Monday I make a list of the work I have to do and divide it up equally between the days so that I can see where I can fit it any appointments if I need to.

6.30-7am- I get up between 6.30-7am every day. It really depends what time my dog wakes up because like me, he needs to eat as soon as his eyes open and he is hell bent on being fed so I never need to set an alarm, I just wait for him to signal that it’s the morning. Today it was a weird gipping sound but usually it’s just a wet nose on my arm.

I am naturally a morning person and I find I am most productive between 6-9am. It’s 8.12am and I’m writing this post. The first thing I do on a morning is make a cup of green tea. I simply can’t function without it. This three hour period is usually filled with checking my blog emails, scheduling tweets and facebook posts for my blog, catching up on Twitter and Instagram and assessing my to do list. If I have a post to write for my personal blog, I’ll do this now. Oh and at least 500 whatsapps decoding the latest episode of Celebs Go Dating. By 9am I am sat at my desk with a prioritised to do list and have a good idea of what my day is going to look like. The last thing I do before actually writing words that I get paid for is to check and chase up any outstanding payments and email people kindly asking them to pay me so I can actually afford to eat this month.

9am-At this time I’ll usually open People Per Hour and catch up on any new messages and scroll through the latest writing jobs listed. If a few take my fancy, I’ll take the time to send bespoke proposals to each one before checking Twitter for any writing opportunites. This is the only bidding site I use and while websites like this get a bad rep, this one is where I’ve found some of my highest paid jobs.

9.30 – 1 From 9.30 until around 1pm I’ll focus on client work unless the dog is being high maintenance. If he isn’t napping contentedly, we have to go for a run so I can work in peace.  This could be a blog post, web content, product descriptions or even a speech. Today I’m working on wedding related blog posts for a client as well as product descriptions for a fashion brand and I have products to photograph for a sponsored post on my personal blog before lunch.

1pm- LUNCH. The most exciting part of any freelancer’s day. It’s usually sandwich related followed by a Kit Kat. Kit Kats are without a doubt integral to surviving a deadline day. Or any day for that matter.

4-6pm Late afternoon is when I dedicate time to the tasks that I’m not actually getting paid for. Today for example I’ve written an unpaid piece for About Time Magazine and drafted a piece for the Huffington Post.

6.30pm – If I have a gym session booked in I’ll finish work at 6pm. If not, I can end up working until 7 or 8pm.

So, there’s a little breakdown of my day. I hope you all enjoyed it!