Thinking Ahead

One of the most important, albeit most difficult, parts of being a freelance writer is keeping the past, present and future in synch.

In the magazine business the check that lands in your mailbox today represents the work that you completed between one and three months ago. The stuff you're working on today won't pay off for another one to three months. And you've got to be scrambling for assignments today that will have deadlines one or two months out.

If you do all this right you maintain a nice, steady cash flow. If you don't, you're going to have holes in your income that will have your Significant Other fretting and your creditors calling.

It's a balancing act. Fortunately you don't have to think about all three at once. But it's best to spend part of each day on each of the three areas. Monitor your payments for work submitted, work on the stuff that's current and spend part of the day thinking about ideas and submitting queries for more articles.

--RC