For some, becoming a fulltime freelance writer is a glamorous-sounding goal, with visions of glorious days of doing nothing but writing. Ah, and the luxury of working at home!

However, as I mentioned in last week’s strip, the joys of no boss looking over your shoulder and being able to set your own hours come with a price.

Before quitting your job and embracing the world of fulltime freelance writer, ask yourself the following:

1. Do you have self-discipline? It’s great having no one checking up on you, but that means you need to resist the lure of distractions and opportunities to procrastinate. Not everyone can do this. To make a living, freelancers need to know how to use their time efficiently.

2. Do you have self-marketing and research skills? Very few beginning freelance writers can count on work landing in their lap regularly. You need to be able to convince editors to buy your writing or find clients yourself, depending on the type of writing you’re doing. Unless you’re lucky enough to find some regular paying gigs, you’ll be spending a substantial part of your time looking for work.

3. Does your spouse or partner support your goal? Without that support, things are going to be a LOT tougher.

4. Do you need financial security? If you’re supporting yourself, you’ll feel more pressure to find enough work to pay the bills on time. Writing is not a financially secure career for most freelancers. Publications can shut down without warning, editors move to other magazines or leave the business. About.com has a helpful article about creating a business plan for your writing career, whether or not you plan to freelance full-time.

There are a lot more factors that should go into your decision, of course, but the questions above should help get you started. I’ll be addressing some of these topics in more detail in future Will Write For Chocolate columns.

Some useful online sources of information:

Writing-World.com: Moira Allen’s great online resource of information for freelance writers, beginning and advanced.

The Freelance Writing FAQ: frequently asked questions about freelance writing, answered by Marcia Yudkin.

How to Become a Successful Freelance Writer: by Bob Brooke.

How To Become a Professional Writer: from eHow.

Any other useful advice or useful resources for hopeful freelance writers? Please post your suggestions in the comments area.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Blog/news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.