The perils of working from home…
On the surface, working as a freelance writer may seem like a great job. Yes, you can work from home and watch a bit of daytime TV whenever you fancy a break. Or if you start to feel a bit peckish, you can disappear into the kitchen for some snacks. And let’s not forget the housework—instead of having to put washing on at 10pm, you can get it done during the day in between work assignments!
But seriously, writing for a living is actually harder than most people realise, especially if any or all of the following mess up your day.
The Dog Ate My Homework
Pets are our best friends and in times of need, we can always rely on our beloved pets to give us support and unconditional love. The trouble is that pets are sometimes uncaring of the fact you have work to do. Instead they want your undivided attention, or if dinnertime is not too far away, they might decide to pester you until you feed them. Cats and keyboards are a fatal combination. All it takes for a cat-related disaster to take place is to leave a feline in close proximity to a computer. You disappear out of the room for a few minutes and by the time you come back, your cat is sprawled out on the keyboard and your work has either been deleted or there are some interesting new keystrokes in the document.
No, I Don’t Want to Buy Double-Glazing
Anyone who works from home will be familiar with the pain of telesales calls. No sooner have you settled down for a work session than the telephone rings and some annoying person is trying to sell you new windows or a fitted kitchen. The easiest way to remove this irritation from your life is to unplug the telephone.
Help! I Need an Osteopath!
Writing means sitting in one place for large periods of time, whether you are writing or researching the piece. As a result, writers can easily spend several hours glued to their seat, absorbed in the complexities of a challenging brief. If you have great posture and your desk set-up is spot on, back pain is unlikely, but unfortunately for many people who spend their day typing, back pain is an occupational hazard.
Have You Got Five Minutes?
Well-meaning friends and relatives often have a problem understanding the concept of ‘working from home’. Because you are at home all day, they tend to assume that you are always available for a chat. Of course this is not the case and it can be really annoying to have to field telephone calls from friends and family at inopportune moments. You could tell them to “go away” but after a while you wouldn’t have any friends left, so the answer is to lock the door and turn your ‘phone to silent until they get the message.
The Ink Elves team are more than happy to take care of all your writing needs, so let us suffer while you get on with other important tasks!