10 | The Writer • November 2019
FREELANCE SUCCESS
BY PETE CROATTO
F
reelance success – the term,
not the column – is a murky
concept. Most 9-to-5 jobs fea-
ture easy-to-identify high-
lights: a glowing, life-affirming
performance review, a raise, maybe a
promotion. Your boss likes you, so she
lets you work from home or gets you
that sweet parking spot. Perhaps you
get a sizable gift card for your birthday.
I never got these perks. At my last
full-time job, birthdays were marked
with the same apple cake served on
plastic plates in the boss’s sad, sterile
office, the final scene in a Raymond
Carver story. It was fitting that the
office sat next to a cemetery.
All those dizzying amenities made
it easy to go freelance in November- I love what I do now, but I’m fre-
quently floating in space – in a dreamy
kind of way, not the terrified Sandra-
Bullock-in-Gravity way. That’s the per-
manent occupational hazard of this
set-up. You must provide the tether
office workers take for granted: finding
health insurance, paying taxes, setting
up an office schedule.
Recognizing accomplishments fall
under that category, and they’re just as
important to keep you grounded. Some
are obvious, like if you leave your
steady job to write full time or find a
publisher for your book idea. Here, I’m
more concerned with acts that get over-
looked in the daily slog toward legiti-
macy and away from insolvency.
Remember to take pride in these
small triumphs; no else will do that
for you.A stranger praises your work.
Twitter is frequently awful if you’re a
realist, a grammar nerd, or not a
straight white man, but it allows the
stay-at-home writer to feel less alone.
(Fellow freelancer Jen A. Miller refers
to it as her water cooler.) Anytime a
stranger shares your story or offers a
compliment, savor it. Someone who
isn’t a relative or a friend or a parentWhat the hell is freelance
success, anyway?
You’re doing OK. Really.
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