Welcome back!

Last Friday, I did what everyone dreads this time of year. I sat down with the tax guy to review my tax obligation for 2008. In previous years, I daringly filed my own taxes using one of the leading tax software programs.  But this year with the interesting financial moves I made and having actually sold a book, I decided to hire a professional.  I had no idea how this was going to turn out.

Months ago in preparation for tax time, one thing I knew for sure. Since I was embarking on this freelance/self-employed journey, now was the time to claim and create all the legitimate business deductions I could. No waiting for things to improve before buying equipment and supplies for my writing business. No waiting to pay for and plan any writing research trips. This was going to be the best time to invest in my business and invest in myself.

So I took the classes, bought the books, invested in the websites, domain names, hosting etc that would improve my business and my writing. I even replaced my desktop and brought a laptop to use during travel. (OK, I did unintentionally fry the motherboard on my previous desktop before I purchased another…minor detail, right? Those darn memory cards and confusing memory card bays! Besides, my desktop was over seven years old.)

After it was all said and done, it looks like the tax man is going to owe me. WHEW…No matter how much I overpay durnig the year, I always fear the outcome of tax time. I’ve heard the story of overpaying taxes is like giving the government an interest-free loan, but its hard to change the mindset that if you owe Uncle Sam on April 15th, somehow you did something wrong.

Why does our culture make us and environment cause us feel this way? I’m sure many entrepreneurs don’t think of it that way at all. Heck, if you owe Uncle Sam on April 15th, maybe you are just paying back an interest-free loan?

This article started out about the tax responsibilities of freelancers and turned into a cultural analysis of our view on paying taxes. I think there’s a lesson in that alone…

Courtesy of Reurinkjan

I’ve discussed before the concept of how everything is a trade-off. I’ve been temping for the last two months in addition to completing freelance assignments. Many of my “co-workers” have inquired as to whether I wanted to get hired on as a permanent employee. Of course, in this economy anyone who doesn’t have a thriving business or who isn’t independently wealthy must want to get in some place on a permanent basis. But how permanent is it? How secure or dependable is it?

Many of my “co-workers” have spent the last few months worried that they may receive the proverbial pink slip. Needless to say, they were suspicious that I , the temp, waltzed right in while they were all fearing that they’ll be walked out.

And yes, knowing there are freedoms as a temp and in some cases too much freedom, I go from week to week wondering if my assignment has come to an “end”. However, it has been freeing too. No begging for vacation time or sick time–I just let the temp agency know. When an assignment begins to get stale, I can take a break and be assigned to a new one.

That same freedom comes with freelancing. There’s hard work in landing those clients no matter what your service is, but once you’ve landed them and you work well together there a kind of bliss that occurs. The desire not to be bound by any one employer or client some call it freelance or independent contracting. That may be what I do, but what I am is a professional nomad. I come and go as I please with only the basic responsibilities.

I never thought I would be crave that freedom again knowing the anxiety of not being sure when the next dollar would come, but as I have been clocking in to the temp job day in and day out for the last ten weeks, I find a severe case of professional wander lust brewing in my soul.

As you may know, I wear many hats. I’m a freelance writer, a multicultural fiction author, a multicultural commentator on books, movies and current events. I have also worked in finance and online higher education.

I’ve recently decided that the umbrella that covers all these labels is literary entrepreneur. Sometimes as a freelancer or an entrepreneur, you have to incorporate what is traditional or mundane to continue pursing what you love. I’ve been strictly freelancing for the last seven months but it is time to rebalance my many labels and re-introduce the traditional employee into the mix. I’m still defining how that will work so that it doesn’t overwhelm the great strides I’ve gained in my brewing fiction, blog and freelance careers.  

Before I decided that temporary work might be more to my liking and less invasive to my freelance, blogging and fiction careers, I was completing an online application for a customer service call center position that specialized in risk management and fraud. I thought the job might be interesting because of the variety of people I would encounter and the responsibilities wouldn’t take over my other endeavors. Anyway, I got to the end of the online application and read a warning to read the final page before electronically signing and sending the application.

I read it. Basically, if I continued with my application I would be acknowledging that anything I “invented” during or after my scheduled work hours regardless of whether it was for the specific purpose of the company or developed alone or in conjunction with others could be deemed the property of the company. The disclaimer even went as far as to claim potential ownership for any invention that I might bring to life for a “reasonable time” after the termination of my employment (regardless of the nature of my termination).

While my writing is probably not geared toward the benefit of this particular company, I couldn’t take the chance that a book or short story I may write in the future that incorporates fraud prevention or a call center as the setting or occupation for a character in a story could deem work and its profits the property of this company.  It might be an additional why many writers use pseudonyms or rarely delve into stories involving specific details of their day job.

It was a surprise only in that I recently read an article from 3 Chix, three seasoned female freelancers who write a newsletter and provide freelance training material to support beginning freelancers, warning their readers about a very similar possibility. They warned that your writing could be company property if performed during work hours or developed on company equipment. This employment application took covered a much broader perspective.

So, if you are a writer who uses traditional employment to supplement your literary passion be very careful of the employee agreements you are agreeing to. If not, what you write and/or what you earn may become the property of your traditional employer.

 As a freelance writer, you are constantly marketing yourself. As a traditional worker, you tend to market your abilities only when it’s time for a new cubicle with a better view, or if you’re high enough on the corporate climbing wall, a more opulent office, a bigger bonus and a fatter paycheck. A freelance writer has no such luxury since one never knows when one client exits and when one will enter. Sure, there are contracts and possibilities for more work if the job at hand is done well. However, in being a freelance writer, one has to be open to many different types of odd jobs. You may be writing product reviews, or product descriptions, business articles or company profiles, in addition to the more traditional business plans, press releases and sales copy.

             Many freelance writers don’t care what the project is as long as there is writing involved and good pay for the mental exertion.

             Freelance veterans all have their opinions of how to get started, how much to have in the dry spell fund, and what projects are worth the time.

             Before you ever embark on such an endeavor it is important to know the type of freelancer you’ll be. Do you care what the project is? Or are you willing to do it all for a price in order to pay the bills? There’s no right or wrong answer here as each freelancer is open to construct their writing business their way. Sometimes, you may find yourself taking on a project you’d rather pass on until a more appealing or lucrative one comes along. Other times you’ll discover a writing venue you never considered. All in all be open to the possibilities and the challenges and freelance writing could be more than you ever hoped for.

When it comes to writing, mastering grammar, punctuation and spelling matters little if you have yet to settle on a topic. While these details are important, writing is a series of processes, some creative and others analytical. A bottomless reservoir of ideas and topics is the life-blood of any writer. Many writing gurus address writer’s block in terms of not knowing what to say about a topic or how to word it, but what do you when you don’t know what that topic is?

Writing for profit requires low-cost tools to build that writing topic arsenal; otherwise, you cut into your profits. Ideas are often floating around free, waiting for you to recognize their story-worth. The following are three free resources for your next story or article topic:

First, the Internet is an obvious choice, but there are endless stories and ideas begging to written from your perspective. Take a current event article and explore it from another perspective. Does it have implications not yet explored from a gender-specific point-of-view? Maybe race or ethnicity plays a role. Is it class-based? You get the idea.

Now, from creative viewpoint, can you exaggerate some aspect of the story for fictional purposes? Change the location or the outcome or broaden the scope and tell the story of the bystander or family member closest to the action.

Next, television much like the Internet, you can glean ideas from network news stories, but think broader. Documentary shows and drama series are a great source of ideas. We’ve all heard Law & Order’s slogan “ripped from the headlines”. You don’t want to copy storylines, but you often only get 30 or 60-minute snippets of historical facts from general documentaries. This provides a great opportunity to select a topic or idea and expand on it. Often docudramas provide enough truth and entertainment to make for a compelling springboard for your own writing whether it is based on fiction or fact.

With the rise in crime-solving and forensic shows on television, it can be difficult to determine what is authentic and what is ‘made for TV’. Those of the documentary variety are excellent resources in making those fictional crime scenes more plausible. Not writing a suspense thriller? Just the same, documentaries and sitcoms can teach you about comedic timing and dialogue in addition to providing fodder for story topics.

Finally, the people you encounter during the course of your day provide an enormous amount of material for your writing topic list. Collect valuable content just by observing your co-workers and strangers you witness on the street. Just remember to adapt what you see in more general terms when using creative license with the stories obtain from people you know. No need to make yourself susceptible to a libel or slander suit.

Remember, people love to talk about themselves and their experiences. As a result, there’s no need to subject everyone you meet to an inquisition. Learn to ask probing questions during the course of your regular dealings with people. This becomes especially useful at social events. Becoming a listener and asking questions will not only make you a popular guest but it will also land you many tasty writing morsels for you build from. Be careful though, you don’t want anyone coming after you later for a slice of the writer’s money pie. This is where adapting the stories you hear becomes very important. These tidbits should only be the starting point or a source of brainstorming for your works.

These are just three of the many no-cost ways to generate writing topics. Internet news surfing leads you to topics you may never think of on your own. When searching for writing topic content, the television has become useful again. Just be sure to watch with a purpose. Finally, the people around us are walking stories and experiences waiting to be told. Finding stories in these everyday activities will put you in the mindset for an endless flow of writing material. Whether you are Internet surfing, watching TV or chatting with friends and observing strangers, putting these activities to good use will explode your writing potential.

OK, I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, wandering around the computer department at Best Buy.

I was confronted with two rows of desktops and row after row and table after table of laptops. I guess they don’t call them laptops anymore. I have one but it hasn’t worked in four years and its older than the electronic dinosaur I just fried.

Anyway, I walked up and down the aisles aimlessly tapping mice and punching buttons. ‘When did these things get so complicated’. Of course, every blasted machine had Vista proudly displayed. I had XP and was completely content with it for your information. I felt myself becoming more annoyed as not a single salesman approached me. Maybe dressed in Capri jeans and a t-shirt didn’t scream, “I’m about to plunk down a grand in this store, you may want to help me. ” I’ll move on. Once I walked down one particular aisle for the third time and spotted a cute little tower that was smaller than the others, a salesman finally approached.

It was definitely a cute computer. Just like me, it took up very little space. This is a very scientific way to buy a computer, let me tell you. Joe, (yes that was his name), the salesman asked if I needed any help. I explained my dilemma and told him that I was a freelance writer so that he’d know what characteristics the computer should have and he would understand how important it was for me to have a computer now rather than later. I pounded him with questions like,

Where’s the floppy drive?
How come there’s only one CD drive?
Oh, I can run CDs and DVDs from the same drive?
What’s that media bay for?
Is this wireless enabled?
Will this computer last till the next industry upgrade?
What do you mean, I have to buy the MS Office software separately?
Based on what I’ve told you of my computer needs, what models do you suggest?
(I’m not sure why asked that last question, because I already knew I was going to buy the cute little HP space saver : ) )

After he answered all my questions and managed to hold the laughter at bay, I selected the cute little computer that had caught my eye earlier.

He retrieved my future electronic best friend from the overhead shelf and walked me to the Geek Squad to checkout.

We met Abdul (yes, that was his name), who was preparing my old hard drive for transfer. After more paperwork and sales pitches for software, antivirus, maintenance agreements and back-up disks, I was out the door with a receipt to pickup my computer the next day. I felt it better to let them work their magic so when I finally got it home, I could just plug and play as it were.

With a promise that I would be able to pickup my right arm the next morning, I spent the rest of the evening on pins and needles because as a new freelancer, I am always working. Gotta drum up that business you know. So with a high speed Internet connect but no computer, I was pretty much in the soup, as my favorite British humorist would say.

Now I had no excuse not to work on my second novel from my portable word processor. Stay tuned for the big event, the homecoming of my new partner in crime…the HP little baby (Abdul’s little nickname for my computer)

Yes, it happened to me. My Sony Vaio which was more than six years old finally bit the dust. I have to admit, it had some help. You see, it was running real slow. I mean REAL slow and IE kept crashing. After having it reconfigured a few months ago, I was more than a little fed up. I am by no means a patient person.

So I figured I would add some RAM, since I was constantly using all 512 MB of RAM, the full capacity my Sony Vaio had. I had input memory before. Yup, I successfully added memory to my faithful Packard Bell back in the day. How hard could adding more memory be?

What’s that cliche? Famous last words? Absolutely!

There’s no getting to this climax fast but I’ll do my best.

I found my computer spec sheet and took it to Best Buy. After a few minutes mulling around the computer department a nice man finally came up and asked if he could assist. Exasperated and clueless, I was already standing in front of the memory wall. I handed him my spec sheet and asked which memory card I needed. He handed me a package I had just set down only moments before he walked up.

I took it home and began my task. It took a some time to figure out how to get the cover off. Once I had popped off the side of the tower case, I now had to figure out how to insert the memory card. There were some slots within easy reach but of course they were not the right size. Finally, I realized I had to remove this big silver box before I could reach the memory card slots. I would later find out that big silver box housed my 80GB hard drive. (Yes, 80GB, don’t laugh. I said it was over 6 years old!)

There were only two slots and both were being occupied. It took another minute or two or three before I realized that I had to remove one of the existing memory cards before inserting the new 512KB memory card I had just purchased. Instead of doubling my memory from 512 to 1024, I was only going to be increasing it by 256K. I was little annoyed to say the least. Figuring there was only one way to put the memory card in, I popped it in, closed the case and plugged it in. I turned it on only to recognize a electrical burning smell and a high pitched beep emanating from the computer. I’m no computer geek, but even I knew that couldn’t be good.

I pulled the power cord out of the back of the computer and reopened the case. I flipped the memory card around and closed it back up. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. When I plugged it back in, there was no smell but that annoying high pitched beep persisted.

On the verge of upset I did what ever self-respecting woman does. I called my mother. She use to work at a hospital computer help desk for over twenty years before she had her stroke. She’s about 90% better, but the stress of returning to work was not a good idea. In describing my dilemma I managed to keep a dry face, but she agreed that I probably fried the mother board. After listening for ten minutes while she talked about the events of her day, I finally hung up and went back to Best Buy with my fried Sony Vaio in tow.

I walked up to the Geeks Squad representative and described the symptoms.

” Beep? uh huh. Oh, smell? That’s not good” He said
Of course that wasn’t good! He suggested that since my unit was so old (in computer years) it would be best to just replace it. Then he went on to tell me that the data from my hard drive could still be transferred to the new computer. I could have kissed him on the spot!

I went out to my car and drove it to the curb. Feeling my luck about to change, I had the hip hop music blaring. I got out of the car and met him at the trunk of my car. I motioned to the passenger seat and met him on the car’s passenger side. He laughed when I opened the door. You see, the computer was laying on its side like an open-faced sandwich with it’s guts on display for all to see.

“Ah, a Sony Vaio” he said. With a flick of his fingers he had extracted my hard drive from the tower’s mutilated core. I parked the car and then met him inside.

After filling out some paperwork, I wandered around the computer department clueless as to what to do next.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of What Every Freelance Writer Dreads…..

As writers, people often view us as the literary version of the ‘starving artist’. Society holds two assumptions:

·         If you are not Nora Robert, Stephen King or some other high-profile writer then your chances of earning a living with your creativity is slim.

·         Being a successful writer is a matter of writing and submitting your work.

While there may be some truth to the statements listed above, it is not that simple. You can earn a living writing novels without having the name recognition of Stephen King or Nora Roberts. While being a successful writer does require that you write and submit your work, it also requires an understanding of the market and a mastery of the skills required to get your work noticed. It demands constant education.

However, writers are not just creative thinkers. Writing, being a form of communication, is necessary in all professional industries. Whether it is a politician needing a speech written or a CEO who needs corporate copy drafted for the company website, freelance writing can provide a variety of work, opportunities to learn and a respectable living.

Thanks to the Internet, freelance writing is more than writing books, drafting news articles or submitting how-to articles for magazines. Web surfers are looking for useful content and websites need writers to provide it. Well-crafted articles attract repeat visitors, which draws ad revenue.

By incorporating creativity into your client such as well as your written product, you could see your thoughts and ideas on the Internet, in magazines and in the newspaper. Venture beyond the traditional writer sources and you could hear your ideas on the radio and on television.

Why cruise the same familiar streets? Why not modify that route to find opportunities you never knew existed?

Check back often not only for new suggestions and opportunities.

Sincerely,

Laura Major