12/2/2017

“Hanging on the Telephone” was that, now old Blondie hit that practically started the Eighties. It used that phrase you keep me hanging… Now instead of the fixed phone that you couldn’t even move around at the time, you got the home remote, mobile, sms’ emails. No matter. As a freelancer, particularly freelance writer, you remember that song quite often in any of its new modes you wish.

It seems that waiting is one of the constants of this job. And I don’t know anybody that likes it. At the university I studied at, most of the final exams were oral. There is an order list, you wait, get your seat, three questions and that’s it.  Unfortunately, most professors or their assistants didn’t bother to make some sensible lists, they used the alphabetical order of last names, and mine starts with a z. Means that for some four years, I had to keep on waiting, and waiting, and waiting…

And waiting is one of those things where the saying “history repeats itself” keeps cropping up. Particularly in freelance writing. You just have to pick which one is worst for you. Starting with waiting to hear whether they will consider you at all. Sometimes they don’t even respond in any manner. For months. If they do, they ask you for you terms. You give it to them and then you wait. You got your hopes up, and sometimes, if they don’t like them, they don’t answer, again.

Ok, so you finally get the job. Payment time. Maybe it’s not payment cycle time, maybe the employer is too busy, he forgot (ha!), or delaying. Or maybe, if you didn’t make a proper contract, go through a freelance site, he simply does not want to pay. Anyway, you wait.

Oh, there’s one more. You get a regular assignment, he starts paying you, regularly, and then he stops. Exactly at the moment you counted on that money the most. Another wait - to get a grab of him, see what is going on and so on…

So what do you do? You don’t like waiting either? Can’t get yourself to write? Oh there is a bunch of good solutions: wash the dishes, take a walk, read and research something (good for the nerves!), and all the time you can play that Blondie song. If you remember, you can really dance to it.