How To Juggle Freelance Writing and Novel Writing

For many of us, it simply isn’t feasible to only work on our creative writing, and expect to earn a living solely from that. Of course, it’s wonderful if you can, but even authors who are reasonably successful often have other jobs to ensure that they can make ends meet.

Freelance writing is a popular career choice for many authors and creative writers. It’s still in their field of expertise and allows them to keep on writing, despite it perhaps not always being about topics they are passionate about!

However, as with any freelance role, juggling the time spent working and the time spent concentrating on other passions and pleasures can be tricky. There are a huge number of benefits to being a freelance writer, but of course, working hard, ensuring a constant flow of money is coming in and making sure you hit deadlines and please editors means sometimes your creative work can get pushed onto the back burner.

So how do you ensure that you can successfully a juggle freelance writing career while keeping up with your novel writing at the same time?

Here are some useful tips:

Make time for each

This might sound obvious, but what you really need is a strict writing schedule. Have allotted times for each and always be prepared to stop what you are doing and switch when the time is up. If you aren’t strict with yourself it will be easy to spend far more time on one or another - which will either hurt your pockets or hurt your novel - neither of which would be ideal!

Work out how much money you need

Work out how much you need to do the things you want to do and feel comfortable with your income, then try to secure the freelance work you need to achieve that. Once you have, use the rest of the time to write your novel. If your novel writing is important to you you don’t need to push yourself to the limit with your freelance work, no matter how much money you might earn.

Figure out how you work best

Understanding how you work is key to juggling freelance writing and novel writing. For some authors, the idea of writing in the evenings is too difficult. They are tired and drained and don’t feel creative. For others, sitting down with a glass of wine at the end of the day as dusk falls is ideal. Most freelance writers however, find that getting their ‘work’ out of the way first helps, as then they are able to concentrate on their creative writing with a free mind and not have the pressure of deadlines looking over them.

Never miss deadlines

Talking of deadlines, it’s important not to miss them! Remember, your freelance writing is your bread and butter so you need to work hard and build up a good reputation. If you do then you’ll start to find you can be more selective about the work you take on and demand more money for the work you do. Doing so will give you more time to concentrate on your creative writing too!

Write in separate environments

To help get you brain in the right frame of mind have different working environments for novel writing and freelance writing. This way you’ll help yourself naturally understand when it’s time to focus on one or another.

Juggling a freelance and novel writing careers can be tricky, however, if you are able to get the balance right this can be the ideal way to earn a living! Do you have any tips? Share them with us here!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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