If you want to be a freelance writer, you better be willing to keep up. Deadlines, projects, emails, research, client phone calls, invoices — and that’s all before staying current on the latest trends and updates.
As a freelance technology writer, and a freelance financial writer, there are a LOT of things to stay on top of. Tech, of course, moves at a blistering pace with new product, features, and new companies constantly rolling out. I have to keep moving or I’ll get run over.
One of the most important skills is being able to filter out the noise. Not every HOT NEW THING will make it longer than a few months (anyone remember Periscope?), and even more will get changed, absorbed, or never find an audience at all.
In finance, it can be a bit easier. Sure, it still comes pretty fast, but you generally have an idea of whether it will stick. New tax laws, for example, will be around for at least one year, and usually until the next election (and even then only if all three branches go to one party since every other configuration is just gridlock these days).
My notebook page of Things to Look Into is getting filled up. (Who am I kidding? I’ve got half of a dozen pages filled already.) The good news is that the delay can be useful in sorting. If I haven’t even heard of the great new thing since I wrote it down weeks ago, then maybe it doesn’t have much traction.
Either way, with apologies to Red, get busy doing, or get busy going out of business.
