We’ve all seen them, those carefully worded posts on LinkedIn: Got a bit of unexpected time in my schedule... Can fit in a couple of small projects right now... Have an unexpected slot available... And if you speak freelancer you’ll immediately do the mental translation: Why don’t I have any work right now? What if nobody ever commissions me again? Somebody please brief me quick... And so we click to like the post, offering our fellow freelancer the very limited extra exposure our liking will give them, whilst feeling simultaneously sympathetic and relieved to see a post that we could just as easily have written ourselves.
But then there are those other just as carefully worded posts: Can’t believe I’m so booked up... Not available until the end of this year already... Get in quick if you want one of my very last slots.... What really? We don’t want to believe our fellow freelancers might be (whisper it) lying, but we might just not click the like icon this time, probably because we’ll be too busy spiralling into a panic about how anyone can possibly be so booked up and wondering what on Earth they’re so busy working on. The freelance emotional state can be a fragile one: elation at a new commission one minute, nail-biting despair and self-doubt at not having any projects in the diary at all the next.
So, what if your diary is looking less than full for the next few weeks? Should you worry about not being booked up for months in advance, or is that what the flexibility of freelancing is all about? After a truly terrible year before it, the past one has been pretty good for me for volume of work – but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had days and weeks completely empty of projects, and whole months that have been sparse to say the least. And the truth is I’m never really what I would call booked up, because I’m never really commissioned that far in advance. Whilst nothing beats that serotonin surge when an email with potential work appears in my inbox, it can often sink when I check the suggested deadline: Any chance you can do it for tomorrow? Will the end of this week be ok? We’d need it on Tuesday – yes, the one just after the bank holiday weekend…
The short deadlines familiar to most freelancers may not be good for the nerves, but it does mean I generally know straight away if I’m available for a project – and I don’t have that fear of accepting something that’s due weeks in advance, then wishing I hadn’t when something else crops up, like the chance to get away for a few days (rarely, but I can dream), or a child returning unexpectedly to the nest (occasionally, and lovely when they do), or being contacted for a project that is much more interesting/pays a lot better/might lead to other work (happens very occasionally).
So if I’m never really booked up, I guess I never really have a sudden gap in my schedule either – gaps, yes but sudden, no. Which brings me on to the last couple of weeks.… Anyone else finding things are still a little slow with Easter falling hot on the heels of the book fairs? If I hadn’t got that rush project that was due in the day after the bank holiday I don’t know where I’d be; probably writing a carefully worded post on LinkedIn...