Saturday, May 10, 2008

Countdown to freedom

The universe is opening doors for me and shoving me through them. It's telling me I'm not in the right place, and I need to get where I belong, and soon. I haven't been happy at my job ever since I decided I want to freelance write and edit for a living, and it's become increasingly more unbearable as time has gone on. At the same time, more and more opportunties are opening up for me in the writing world. More and more people are reaching out to help me get where I belong, and I think it's time to listen to what the universe is telling me. It's time.

I own a house (lol about $5 of it, anyway), a horse, and have bajillions of bills. I can't just quit my job and hope for the best! I need a plan. I need to make sure I'm not going to put my life as I know it or my family in jeopardy. I've put some thought into this and consulted my dear friends and helping hands, Beth, Michy, and Sandi. Here's the plan:

In August of this year, I will take a leave of absence from work for one month. Hopefully by then I'll have two weeks of vacation time so I only have to go two weeks without getting paid. Between now and then, I need to send out as many queries, complete as many assignments, post as many articles, and place as many job bids as I can. I will also ramp up my dance teaching career again. During the next 2.5 months, I need to build up some clientele, set wheels in motion to get some more, and earn some extra money so I can pay my bills and put myself in the best financial position possible.

In order to replace my current income and have some for taxes and stuff, I need to make $1000 per week. Ouch! That's $200/day, 5 days/week or $150/day, 7 days/week. Ok, that sounds more doable. Put another way, that's 40 hours at $25 per hour or 60 hours at $16.67. Hm, not so bad! It can be done!

Starting today, I'm going to track everything I do toward my goal. I need all the cheerleaders I can get, so feel free to comment with your suggestions and cheers!

Friday, May 9th:

1. Talked to Linda at The Ballroom of Sacramento to see about getting on the class schedule. She will do what she can to get me at least one class, will let me dj one dance per month, maybe add some workshops for me. I may get to do some receptionisting as well, and if I do I can work on my laptop for a while while I'm there so I can keep writing.

2. Wrote most of a $35 article (submittable as-is, but want to add a couple things) and all of an $8 article.

Total earnings:
$43

Contacts made:
1

Current assignments due:
5 for Horseman's News by 5/18 and 5/25: 1 started, 1 basically done, 3 not started
5 articles for Sandi: 1 complete
2 articles for AC need rewriting: not started
Rewrite Bubba Goes National: all but one chapter complete
Mommy's Survivial Guide to Autism: Waiting for Beth to edit and give me notes
That's about it. I have little stuff floating around, but these are at the forefront of my mind.

3 comments:

Catherine Leigh said...

Good luck!
I'm also trying to give up my day job for the writing life.
Sounds like you're making better progress than me! I'd better quit goofing off.

Jennifer Walker said...

ha ha, thanks! Good luck to you...you can do it!

Jennifer Walker said...

I'm sorry felicia, I just now saw your comment! Thank you so much and best of luck to you!