Recently, Linda Formichelli over at The Renegate Writer posted "3 Excuses That Are Keeping You from a Successful Freelance Writing Career" and then asked "What’s Your Excuse?" I decided to answer her question, since I seem to fit her criteria. I have a full time job, writing on the side, earning not much.

Here's why I'm keeping my full time job, why I don't bid on jobs, why I don't send in query letters to big publications, why I write for sites like Helium and Suite101, which pay for page views to my articles and ad-click and require a huge amount of articles to actually turn a good profit:


1. SCHOOL
I'm still pursuing my degree. With a high tuition, I cannot afford a month or two with lower income. Till I graduate, I have to have the safety net that is a steady income from my full time job. To add to that, I'm currently writing my thesis (or... trying, most of the time), that and the regular exams and classes take up a lot of my attention. Attention I cannot afford to give other things at the moment.

It's very possible that once I graduate (and decide not to continue my academic career), I will reevaluate my stance and change the ways I do things right now.

2. PASSIVE INCOME
I have to admit. I am fascinated by the concept of passive income. Even more, I'm completely in love with it. When I had long periods of time when I hadn't written anything and Helium still paid me, I was so high with happiness, it's difficult to describe. And as an extracurricular activity, it's perfect for me.

3. LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY
I'm not going to hide this. Writing short informative articles are easy. I'm writing them mostly from my own experience. It's quick and easy and after a long day at work, the last time I need is stress over deadlines (I have enough of that on my fiction projects)

4. SHORT STORIES, NOVELS
Apart from non-fiction articles and projects, I also write fiction. Short stories, a novella a year for my Fandom bigbang. Sometimes I need to put everything on the side and spend an entire day finishing my story, because OMG there's a deadline! Sometimes I simply need to ignore everything else and put my fiction projects before everything else.
If I had big clients (or any clients at all, in fact), I wouldn't be able to do it. I would have to deliver first to those that trusted me with their projects and paid me obsene amounts of money for my services. I dont deal well with guilt.

5. I ACTUALLY LOVE MY JOB
Yeah. You read that right. I actually love my full time job. And I enjoy it. A lot. Not only that, I know there is still so much I can learn about International Education. I just don't want to miss out on that.

6. NON-US CITIZEN
This means two things. Some writing jobs are out of my reach becaue I cannot fill in the W9 and those other American tax related forms. And due to exchange rates, what may seem like a small payout for American writers is actually a nice one for me. Yes, I recognize that this argument also means that a nice and big payouts for Americans would mean huge ones for me.

FINAL NOTE
I realize that Freelance Writing is not a career for me right now. But it's not a hobby either. I think, in my mind, it's more of a side project. I still want to succeed in it. I still want to develop my skills in various areas and meet people. But I don't live and breathe Freelance Writing yet. There is this one point, my graduation, when I'll be seriously rethinking my approach to life and my future career.

Right now, I have so many plans, writing projects, novels, ebooks, articles etc.
Hopefully, I can achieve at least some of them while still working and being at school.