A life of a freelance

The life of a freelance seems to be a mystery to most of the people. In short it is a flexible, fabulous and tiring lifestyle. Working as a freelance writer and photographer involves lots of coffee, thinking, typing, editing, taking photos, going through hundreds of them, sending them to the customer, interviewing people, going to the places (press conferences, pr-offices, events etc), rushing back to write about it, traveling, testing products, taking notes, sending emails, waiting for the replies, editing, re-writing and re-writing. I mentioned editing and re-writing twice, because that is the minimum you do them per article. Freelancing is staying awake and writing until 4 am. It is a (well deserved) bubble bath on a lazy Tuesday afternoon.

I wish I looked as cool as Carrie when typing. (Photo by SATC)

The main positive thing about it is the freedom, the most challenging is the responsibility that every self-employed person faces: you have to sell, sell, sell, take care of your contacts, come up with new bright ideas, have no sick-days nor holidays. Sure you can travel and you can hide under the duvet, but you will still think about the work and stress about the deadlines. It is a glamorous lifestyle and yes, occasionally there is champagne involved (at the events), but mainly it is just hard work. You have to make sure you have money to pay the rent and buy the food during the low seasons as well. This business is seasonal: I can take wedding photos only when there are weddings and in Finland that is from June to August. In July most of the magazines are on holidays and they have double issues in the summer, so no point contacting them then. When you have work it comes first: you don't count your working hours and you cancel dinners to make sure your piece is on editor's desk by the deadline. Most of the time you don't know when and where your next money will come from but then again there is no better feeling than getting your idea through and start doing the research. The very best part of the jobt is when you see your text in the magazine or online. It is a creative job and you will meet new people all the time. So for better and for worse, for richer or for poorer ;), I do love my job.

This is me, working at 1 am.