I recently celebrated six months of being a full time freelancer. And by "celebrated" I mean announced to my boyfriend, who sweetly reminded me that he knew I could do it even before I knew. I get a lot of email from aspiring writers wanting to "what's it really like?" and "what do you wish you'd known then that you know now?" That should really be the subject of my first book, and frankly I'm still figuring some of this stuff out. But here's the shorter, blog-friendly version of what I've learned.
It IS possible to earn a living as a writer. It's tough if you only want to write poetry or the Great American Novel, but if you're willing to write press releases, product reviews, and the like, it's doable. With the right combination of talent and tenacity, you can find a way to make it work. I've learned to juggle copywriting projects with articles for magazines and websites. Frankly, not all of it is the type of stuff I pictured myself doing. Still, I'm happy to set my own hours and work on a variety of projects.
Most of your time is not spent writing. It's easy to get infatuated with the idea of spending all-day, every day writing. But the reality is that unless you're outsourcing the other stuff, you will have to be your own IT, marketing, benefits, admin, and bill collection departments. Linda estimates that she only spends 15% of her time actually writing! Don't quit your day job unless you're good at multi-tasking and problem solving.
It's OK to accept projects that are new to you. A couple of times early on I accepted projects that were slightly outside my comfort zone. One of them I had serious reservations about (not about the client, about my ability to meet the client's expectations), but it has developed into a steady source of income every month and resulted in referrals to other clients. I had to spend some time figuring out this new genre, and now it feels like second nature. Don't be afraid to stretch yourself as a writer. It will help you stay flexible as a writer and keep your client base diversified.
And it's equally OK to say no. Sometimes you just know that this isn't the project for you, but you're reluctant to turn down a paying gig, because who knows when the next one will come along? Veteran freelancers have told me that while that feeling never completely goes away, there's always another project around the bend. You could refer the project to someone else, but if you sense that it's too good to be true (for instance, a startup offering ridiculous sums of money with no indication of a legitimate funding source), then maybe it's better to just say no.