As a Writer

Ever so often, I meet people who ask me what I do for a living. You should see the way their eyebrows go up whenever I say I'm a freelance writer. I can almost hear the thoughts that are being processed by their respective brains. ' Oh, so you don't have a real job. You're just a writer.' Now I know why such great writers like Jane Austen and almost everybody we are told to write like these days, were often scorned publicly when they said they were writers. I once thought that saying I was a poet would get me an ounce of respect. And what a mistake that was. ' A poet? So you sit and dream all day?' I was once asked. I honestly wanted to punch the great personality who asked me that. However I would like to set the record straight once and for all. I'm honestly fed up of justifying my stand as a freelance writer, why I chose to become one and everything else that follows. So here goes.

- A freelance writer is not someone who failed to get a 9-5 job. Instead it is someone who chose to make writing a profession- the hard way.

- Yes, I could have worked at a day job but prefer working in my pyjamas and cooking at the same time.

- What I earn isn't called pocket money. It's called a salary.

- Yes, there's plenty of competition. In fact, my competitors aren't confined to one country. I compete with writers on a global scale.

- Yes, writing is really a profession. And just because I'm my own boss doesn't mean that it isn't a full time job , so to speak.

- And no. Being a freelance writer doesn't mean I'm on a permanent holiday. It simply means that just like you I too have deadlines and cranky clients, perks and lots of over time as well.

The biggest drawback I would point out of a freelance writer's life is that you can never say where your next assignment is going to come from. Or WHEN. There were times when I would become really depressed at the lack of work. And then from somewhere would come around 5 different projects all at once, sweeping me in a flurry of work. There are other times when my brain refuses to dream or conjure up the kind of creativity a client expects from me. And there are others when my head wants to write but doesn't know what to. However, I've learnt to ride the wave, if I can say that. I realized that not having many projects at once wasn't such a bad thing after all. I usually don't have much time for writing poetry these days, which always plagues me with guilt because it was through poetry that I experienced the first joys of writing. I have a dozen ideas swarming in my head, and the best time to put them down is when I don't have other people's projects to work on. I also want to explore writing a few more stories for kids. Having one of my own means that I dream of becoming a better story teller for him as he grows older. And best of all, not having much work also means that I get to write this blog of mine. Which was started because somebody told me I was funny; another pal pepped me up by telling me I always had funny things to write about; so on and so forth. Honestly, I just wanted my little space on the web to spill out my thoughts and make sense of them as well as keep this outlet alive and kicking. Till next time..cheers