Synagogues and Sweatshops

I often spend whole days in my pyjamas. I get up when I want. I never have a boss looking over my shoulder, I sometimes type whilst eating ice-cream and I've just finished watching a great Brazilian movie as part of my 'research'.

In theory, the life of a freelance journalist sounds perfect. Sometimes it is. But more often than not, it's an exhausting treadmill of selling yourself and your skills to editors who don't have the time, the resources, the energy or the interest to write back, never mind commission something. And we never leave the office. If you're lucky, there's usually work of some kind to be done seven days a week, and it's always sitting there in your laptop, watching you as you sleep (in).

Sure we get up when we want, but you'll find us tapping away, squinting at a computer screen at two in the morning, writing a 500-word article on the hilliest Hawaiian golf courses for peanuts (which may or may not arrive in the bank account ten weeks later...)

I'm not going to write a blog post complaining about the profession that I've chosen for myself (for the time being) - it allows me to live where I want, within reason, and I do sometimes get to write about fascinating subjects I'm genuinely interested in. But I wanted to offer a glimpse into the reality of working freelance, for anyone out there thinking of giving it a go.

I sent out 20 query emails to editors in the past three days, which, given the universal pitch to response ratio, means that I'll probably get one yes and possibly a 'maybe'. The yes might be a well-paid piece on sweatshops in Cuba, due tomorrow morning with quotes, contacts and photos (cue 2am squinting session), or it might be a 100-word filler on synagogues in Bosnia which pays 10 cents per word and is needed sometime in June.

The variety is what keeps most of us interested. Freelance journalists, if they're smart, will pitch ideas that we're either knowledgeable about or interested in and so the past few months has seen me writing up commissions on '24 Hours in Dublin', Argentinean Tango, The art of Jiu-Jitsu, and how to camp out on the great wall of China. Ten times as many ideas have been lost in the jungle that is an editor's inbox, but those can always be recycled and sent out again when the work slows down.

For me, as with most freelancers, the actual writing is the fun part. It's getting it and getting down to it that presents the real test of character. Any kind of 'working from home' job demands a particularly motivated, disciplined personality which means that the majority of freelance writers spend more time thinking about writing, planning to write, making excuses about not writing and feeling guilty for the lack of writing going on than any actual writing.

You can tell when I have an important deadline because the apartment is spotlessly clean, clothes (plus bed linen, bathroom towels and curtains)are all washed and ironed, dinner is made for the next three days and the bookshelf has been rearranged in alphabetical order. I am currently drawing up a petition to have procrastination entered as an Olympic sport (it's the only sporting gold I'm ever likely to win).

But I've accepted that my freelance starsign is 'last-minute under pressure'. I work better at the eleventh hour than if I prepare a week in advance. I often see friends and go to the park during the day and work into the night when everyone else is sleeping. I'll occasionally have to get dressed and go to an editor's office for a meeting, but more often than not I'm left to my own devices - which for me can be more of a challenge than setting an alarm for 7am and taking a bus to the office, where the camaraderie and the coffee machine chat make for welcome relief from the workload.

I'm happy to be doing this for now. But I know that I couldn't do it forever. The recession means that there is more work out there for freelance journalists, as newspapers and magazines can't afford to keep full-time staff, but it also means that pay has plummeted, as there is now a huge pool of us available for work. Sadly, the craft is suffering - less and less value is placed on skill, consistency and solid research, and more emphasis is on cheap labour provided by inexperienced amateurs. Travel guides paying 3 cents a word are going to end up with content written by people who (rightfully?) don't feel it's worth their while to check facts or actually go and see the place they're writing about.

The key, I've found, is to live somewhere where the internet connection and the ice-cream is good, its warm enough to live in pyjamas, and 3 cents goes a long way.

Hasta Luego!

P.S. Some of my procrastination is productive - as in this modest little website I made recently which gathers recent clippings together and makes query emailing faster - justifiable time-wasting, that's what its all about!