Welcome to Next Year
Happy New Year, one and all! And how splendidly convenient that 1st January falls on a blog posting day. (And also that I drank very little last night, so there’s a relatively good chance that this will make sense – or at least, no less sense than it usually does.) I was looking yesterday and my first post of 2016, and discovered that I had been all encouraging about people have ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ every few days, weeks and months rather than hanging around until the year itself actually turns. I think I stand by that, because although there are things that I might well endeavour to be better at in 2017, they come from what I’ve learned over the past twelve months, rather than a desire to tick off boxes as the new year begins.
So rather than list here the things I think might be helpful to think about as we arrive at the start of another January, or indeed the things we have left behind at the end of a worn-out December, I’m going to fess up to the three biggest things that I’ve discovered since the beginning of last year. Just my discoveries, personal and specific to me as they might be – but perhaps they might be of some use to you as well. I hope so. I’ll be on holiday next Sunday, anyway, so if you so desire, you’ve got a whole fortnight to ignore them, and me, before I’ll be pinging up on your Twitter feed again.
1. Reading isn’t work, and it’s completely brilliant. This might strike you as pretty bleedin’ obvious, but it’s something I feel I’ve rediscovered in the last few months, thanks to others. We spend a lot of time puzzling out the current ‘glorification of busy’, and although part of this is to do with adding unnecessary things into the schedule, part of it is also to do with reclassifying certain activities as ‘work’. I read all the time, of course, for my work: almost exclusively non-fiction, and in many cases dipping in and out of volumes rather than progressing cover to cover. Somewhere along the line, and without my really having noticed, reading fiction – reading for pleasure – had also taken on a kind of dutiful air, and mostly involved reading things by dead people that I felt as if Everyone Should Read. Well, stuff that. I still read the odd book by dead people, but live ones write pretty excellent fiction too. And since the autumn, I’ve read more for pleasure than I have for ages. I think I owe not a little of this new-found delight in novels to my decision, on moving over the summer, not to have a television in my new place. I can’t begin to tell you how much time I suddenly have to read, walk, go on day trips and generally do things, thanks to that.
2. Yes, I am that expensive. I’m beginning to notice a second stage in freelancer-dom, that comes after the initial panic of having to charge people for what you do. It’s the bit where, having finally got over yourself enough to stop apologising for having to make a living, you actually come face to face with the would-be employers who wish you were cheaper and tell you so. That they don’t have enough money to pay you for whatever it is they’ve actually asked you to do. And hey, guess what? That means they can’t afford you. Not that you have to apologise. Not that you have to negotiate down. If you really really want to do the job, or do them a favour, or whatever, then great: go ahead. But actually no, I can’t lower my price just for you. I won’t do you a special rate because this is a one-off. Most of my career is one-offs. Do you ask the checkout staff at Sainsbury’s if you can have a discount on Christmas puddings because they’re on a once-a-year thing? Didn’t think so. Not only do I not work for free: I also don’t work for less than a reasonable fee, set and refined by several years of experience and research into budgets and pricing. If you were hoping for something cheaper… then I wish you luck in your search elsewhere.
3. I’ve still got a lot of things I want to get on with and try! Lots of things! I’ve got books to write and talks to give and ideas to pitch and things to translate… and many other things, some of which I probably don’t even realise yet that I’d like to have a go at. Isn’t that exciting? I guess this is another effect of the several-years-in scenario: now that I’m comfortable and confident with the kinds of things I’ve been doing since I first went freelance, I want to try new ones. Some of them are big and long-term, others short-term and quite simple. Some will need help and I’ll have to learn new things to make them happen. Some will need time – something of which I am perennially short, so I shall have to work hard to make that time to show myself I mean business. Others will need courage – quite a lot of courage in fact, and some perseverance to boot. But you know what? That’s ok. It’s going to be tough, and slow, and sometimes pretty scary, but it’s ok. After all, what’s a new year without some new dreams, schemes and adventures?
I hope you’ve got a few planned too. I’d love it if this was the year when you told me about them. Comment below, or via Twitter, to keep in touch. Maybe if we all keep each other posted on our progress, this year we’ll achieve even greater things than we think we can.
