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Stress Out Freelance Writers – This One’s For You
Marsha Maung
Aug 8th, 2009Someone just sent me a song by Katrina and the Waves, Walking on Sunshine (Thanks, Vern) and this is what it felt like.
Glooooooom. Gloooom. Gloooooooooom.
Then.
SUNSHINE!!! It’s time to feel good! Oh, yeah! It’s time to feel good!! Let’s say it again, It’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to feel good! Hhhooooooo Yeahhh!
For photo credit, please go here.That was crazy, wasn’t it? But that’s honesty for you, if you’re asking for it. You see, being a writer can zap the energy out of you. Some people say that there’s really no stress to sitting there churning out words, stringing sentences together and make a little bit of effort in trying to make sense.
Here’s a list of things that contributes to the life of a freelance writer:-
- You’re sitting there….just sitting there with your fingers going at it at top speed because you have a deadline.
- The kids (or a dog/cat/hamster/bird/guinea pig if you’re kid-less) are screaming in the background because they’re HUNGRY
- Your clients are messaging you asking for the finished article
- Another potential customer emails you for a quote. You’re happy but when you peek at your schedule…..man, how are you EVER going to fit it in? Next year, maybe.
- You forgot you were boiling something in the kitchen and thank the Lord nothing exploded
- You’re writing about exploring a jungle now, next up is divorce, next up making a boat, next up fixing a window and then next up how to clean your water filter.
- You have absorb and learn everything at top speed because if you don’t, you won’t have time to bring the kids’ Nintendo WII remote control to be fixed
- At five you have to send the kids to their tuition class but the client wants the article by five-thirty MAX.
- A local client calls you for a meeting when he/she could have sent everything to you by email or explain it over the phone….simply because you use the same country code.
- Another client emails you about a tenth revision because he/she left something out during the ninth review
There is more but it’ll scare a lot of aspiring freelance writers who are mothers or pet owners.
So, this is for all you freelance writers who are in the same boat as me….here are some stress busters. Visit my website to listen to this song ‘Walking on Sunshine’ if you want a pick-me-upper. (I'm working on uploading this, hang on)
Take deep breaths – breathing is important. Remember that because sometimes, believe me, we forget to breath.
ESR system – use your thumb and dig hard into the top of your eye socket, NOT YOUR EYEBALLS, just above your eyeballs, please. Apparently, it’s connected to your stomach. There’s the distance there….stomach…..eyeballs. Oh, whatever. But it works.
Visualize – by far, this is the best! I often imagine that I am walking hand-in-hand with Robert Pattinson and he feeds me his ice-cream and later he feeds me something else. :-)
Drink some water – I once thought of this as BULLSHIT! What? Water. Gulp. And then viola!!! SUNSHINE!
Be nice to yourself – I go with a nice book, a hot bath and then slather on a whole tubful of lotion everywhere on my skin. I smell like a bottle of body lotion but as long as it feels good, to hell with what everyone else thinks, right?
Support – Even if it’s three in the morning, call a friend. Better yet, call an enemy. Seriously, they mind but if they’re good enough friends, they’ll continue to your friend a few hours later.
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REPUBLICATION RIGHTS! IMPORTANT!!
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance web copywriter with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
REPUBLICATION RIGHTS! IMPORTANT!!
Listen up! I am a very nice person, if you think this article is neat and you'd like to publish it in your website, all's cool with me but with one condition. Only one and from the bottom of my heart, I wish that you would, in all sincerity, allow me my one single wish....to place the following codes into the your website at the END OF THE ARTICLE. It's not going to disrupt much, so please do it?
Either paste the above ABOUT THE AUTHOR stuff into your website (with links included) or copy the following codes into your website. That's it! Thank you! *muax*
<b>Marsha Maung</b> is a Malaysian-based <a href="http://www.marshamaung.com" target="_blank">freelance writer</a> with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her <a href="http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com" target="_blank">blog</a> for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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