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Mike Sowden's avatar

This is wonderfully, commendably honest. Thank you for it, Anna.

And also, it's about the thing that is so rarely talked about: how money issues make us feel. Because THAT stuff is where it gets raw.

I'd personally add to the list: shame. For at least the first 5 years after my switch to f/t writing & p/t freelancing, I was so embarrassed about how little money I was making that I found it impossible to (a) talk about and (b) pin any fragment of self-worth onto. That cycle (or spiral) was so hard to shake off - partly because of pride not allowing me to be sympathetic or patient with myself & my efforts to build up income.

But at one point I had the very good fortune to sit down with a bunch of professional but non-famous actors, and they straightened out something inside of me. Actors experience the same boom & bust cycles as writers, but it seems like there's less guilt & shame there when things do south? At least with the ones I was chatting to. They were unabashed by hitting hard times, because they had a bazillion case studies of famous actors waiting tables for years to call upon.

So maybe (maybe?) that's a side of freelancing that could do with a bit more publicity. The folk who are working a day-job to finance it, or where it's the primary job but it's not yet paying the bills and that's totally OK because it's actually what a hell of a lot of us - maybe *most* of us - do?

Maybe it'll help us stop completely blaming ourselves, when we're not hitting everything out of the park and when the odds are temporarily stacked against us. Maybe we could feel better about the harder times. Reckon that might be a healthy, useful thing?

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Sarah Hurst's avatar

I have been a freelance journalist on and off throughout my 30-year career as well as doing other things. Currently freelance journalism pays less than it ever did before. For example, I was paid $50 last year by the National Review for a huge feature on coronavirus in Russia. I am just about to start a job in international trade, having to give up most of my journalism. Who is going to cover important stories?

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