A Day in the Life of a Freelancer

Just before the new year I was talking to a friend who knows I’m a freelance writer. She asked me why I couldn’t hang out with her for 4 hours in the middle of a Thursday. When I told her I had too much work to do, she looked at me blankly and then said, “wait, you work? Where do you work now?”

I almost died! It’s not like I just started freelancing a couple weeks ago. I’ve been doing it since before I knew her. But it got me thinking… nobody really knows what I do. And since I can be at the gym at 2pm on any random afternoon, they assume I don’t work.

Then yesterday was AgentsDay on Twitter. All day various literary agents tweeted what they were doing to prove their job is so much more than reading query letters and manuscripts. While I’m not going to tweet my day I’m going to outline my Thursday here:

6:00am – alarm sounds. Immediately check my e-mails, read the top stories from the New York Times, then start getting ready to face the day.

7:30am – fire up my computer. Check one of the work account email addresses Post new am stories to a website and prepare a morning alert set to go live in an hour.

8:00am – eat breakfast while reading the local newspaper (including the comics, just for kicks)

8:15am – back at my computer. Tweet. Read through the e-mails from the 4 other accounts I have to manage for various freelancing gigs. Respond to the public relations execs about upcoming stories.

9:00am – take pictures for the ModlyChic fashion blog, load them to the computer, push them through photoshop, write a blog post for the pics and then tweet the blog entry.

9:20am - log onto facebook. Read wall posts, messages, and others status. Comment accordingly. Tweet.

9:30am – check work e-mails again. Respond to emails. Skim though a dozen publications for news items. Tweet. Check PR Newswire for releases I didn’t receive. Make notes about the articles I’ll need to write up. Begin penning some. Tweet.

10:15am – read through bookmarked blogs, leave comments when necessary. Tweet. Begin penning blog entries for Tiger Print. Tweet. Change mind and pen Write Beyond Cubicle entry instead.

10:30am – skim through Google alerts. Note/bookmark relevant stories. Tweet the interesting pieces. Delete from inbox.

10:45am - check work e-mail again. Send out e-mail questions to sources for various articles. Tweet. Delete old e-mails from my work account, as it is already overcapacity for the day. Return PR rep phone call.

11:00am – begin writing stories that must go live at noon. Tweet. Research companies for background, crop photos, load to the system. Respond to e-mails

12:00pm – Push stories live on the site. Tweet. Take a deep breath.

12:05pm – read through emails from all accounts again, respond as needed. Check facebook. Read through others tweets. Check the statistics on my tweets.

12:20pm - return phone calls to sources.

12:40pm – stretch legs. Grab something for lunch, bring it back to desk.

12:50pm – look at the top stories on Google News and the New York Times.

1:00pm – research for fashion blogs. Skimming retailers websites, fashion blogs, fashion publications. Tweet. Take notes via Evernote. E-mail fellow bloggers about coordinating efforts. Tweet.

1:30pm – log onto YouTube to see what’s new. Tweet. (waste some time creepin.) Refill empty water bottle.

2:00pm – conference call with one gig. Tweet.

2:30pm – check work e-mails again, while on conference call still. Send reminder e-mails to PR reps who are due to send me important information by the end of the day. Tweet.

2:45pm – continue working on Tiger Print posts. Send e-mails to fellow contributors to hash-out ideas. Tweet. Look though Google alerts again. Read. Post. Save. Delete. Tweet.

3:00pm – finish Tiger Print posts. Send to editor. Tweet.

3:30pm – check all email accounts again. Respond when needed.

4:00pm – ready to pull out my eyes. Head to the gym. Call sister from the car. Talk to her in the parking lot. Tweet. Foursquare my location. Run. Sweat – a lot. Lift weights. Stretch. Bike.

6:00pm – home. Check e-mails. Shower. Prep dinner.

6:30pm – dinner, dishes.

7:30pm - Check e-mails. Tweet. Clean office, a little.

8:00pm – begin compiling notes for article that needs to be written before bed tonight.

8:30pm – visit with the roommates. Laugh, lots.

9:30pm – back to computer. Check e-mails again. Skim google alerts. Check facebook. Tweet.

9:45pm – Begin writing article(s) that must be live by 5am.

10:15pm – put article on the site, set to go live at 5am. Check e-mails one last time. Creep on twitter.

10:30pm – if still awake, try penning a few words on my next young adult novel attempt.

11:00pm – hopefully dead asleep, usually still creepin on the internet, writing, tweeting, etc…