Sometimes! But not as much as I thought it would be. Before I started freelancing, I imagined that it meant waking up every morning and wondering what I was going to do to make a living that day. In my experience, it’s not like that. On any given day, I work on a mix of longer-term projects (like magazine features, podcasts, and blog editing), quick-turnaround projects (mostly shorter stories), research for future projects, and admin work (replying to emails, invoicing, writing my newsletter).

As a freelancer, the work comes in waves. Amid the instability of the journalism industry, that can actually feel a lot more stable than a staff job: When a publication shuts down or lays off staffers, at most, I only lose a chunk of my income. My workload (and income) varies throughout the year, but I’m never waking up in a panic with nothing on the horizon.

Short version: the variety of the work, the freedom from office politics, and the ability to lean into my own efficiency.

Longer version: As a freelancer, I get to decide what I work on (or at least what I try to work on). I’ve always liked wearing many hats: I like to write features, collaborate with artists and musicians, report audio, edit magazine packages, dream up one-off creative projects… Within a work week, I like moving between all these types of work in a way that would be hard to do in a staff job. And, of course, I choose who I work with. I have coworkers who I have weekly calls with to talk about our stories; if a workplace has emotionally consuming office politics, I don’t work there again. I also really like creating my own schedule and workplace. Some weeks, I work a ton of hours; some weeks, I spend a slow afternoon reading outside. I’m never performatively working.

I think of my work as a scattergraph. One axis is how much I find the work enjoyable/meaningful. The other axis is how much money it makes. All my work falls at a different point on the scattergraph: The well-paying work that doesn’t light me up subsidizes the long-term projects I love that don’t pay very well.

I find this approach clarifying, because I think any job has a scattergraph like this. You always love some parts of the job and don’t love others. As a freelancer, I can see and adjust that balance.

I’m going to be very honest and detailed about this, because I think financial transparency is a huge part of breaking down barriers to make this kind of career more accessible. If you have other questions about this, I’m happy to talk about the further details of my personal finances on a call. Obviously, I’m not a financial professional and this is just what works for me.

Staying organized about my finances takes a lot of the stress out of freelancing. I have a spreadsheet that I use to track every assignment; it auto-calculates how much money I make each month and how many publications/clients I worked for in a given month and year. You’re welcome to make a copy of my spreadsheet template, which is here. (Request access and I’ll share it with you.) I also have a sample invoice bookmarked; feel free to make a copy for yourself. I also often use Toggl (the free version) to track my time, which helps me figure out my hourly rate for different kinds of projects.

As a freelancer, I pay estimated taxes. This sounds scarier than it is! Basically, my taxes aren’t withheld by an employer, so every quarter, I pay the IRS and my state tax board a set amount, which is based on what my income was the previous year. Every February, my accountant tells me what my estimated tax amounts are and when the deadlines are. (If you freelance, get an accountant! It’s not very expensive and they’ll save you more money than you pay them.)

I have a separate savings account for taxes. (I like a high-yield savings account, like with Marcus or Betterment.) I have automatic transfers set up each month from my general savings account to my taxes account. Every February, after my accountant tells me the deadlines and the amounts, I schedule payments from my tax account to the IRS so it all happens automatically.

Unfortunately, you will need to have a financial buffer when freelancing, because every publication has a different schedule for how fast they pay you. I keep around $3,000 in my checking account, so that I can pay bills and rent regardless of whether a publication is late with their payment. I also have six months of living expenses in an emergency fund savings account. (It took me a while to build that up.)

I’d say there are three big pieces to this.

The first is having a strong and broad community of people who like working with you. Networking always sounds kind of cringey to me, but there’s a way to do it that feels right to you. I find a lot of work through people I’ve worked with previously, or people I’ve reached out to and connected with before. (I don’t just reach out to pitch. I also reach out to a writer/editor when I admire a project they worked on. Then, I can get back in touch later — besides, it’s nice to thank someone when I love something they made.) Then, when I’m looking for work, I reach out to my network to ask about what they’re looking for. This is why I think it can be tricky to freelance very early on in your career; it’s easier once you’ve had a couple staff jobs, since that provides you with some contacts to pitch.

The second part of finding freelance work — and I’d argue the most important, by far — is being a joy to work with. I say this as a former editor of freelancers, too. Some easy rules: Always turn in clean copy before deadline. Read your article out loud (to catch errors and improve the flow of your writing) before you turn it in every time. When you get an edit email, reply promptly saying that you’ve received it. Remember that every article is a collaboration, so don’t be precious about your work. Say thank you (including to your fact-checkers). Everyone (including editors, fact-checkers, designers) wants to work with people who make their jobs more pleasant and easy.

The third is to pitch effectively. There are other resources on this (I recommend this advice from Ann Friedman, this interview with Stephanie Foo in Alice Wilder’s excellent newsletter “Starting Out,” and this template from The Writers’ Co-op), but generally, always ask yourself a few questions first: Can you summarize the pitch in a few sentences? Is it important and timely? Why is it a particular fit for x publication? Why are you the right person to write it? How does your story fit in with previous coverage/stories at x publication? (Always spend some time reading a publication before you pitch an editor there.)

Sure! I think of freelancing like this: I have a good job right now. I’d move on for a great job. (Feel free to pass any along!)

What are you looking for? Do you have some work lined up? Are you reasonably sure you can get work? Do you like the freedom and responsibility of working on your own schedule? How much do you want a work community, and how much do you have that outside of an office job?

Most importantly, I think it’s worth asking the same question you should ask in any job search: What do you want to accomplish and learn in the next few years? If you want to learn how a publication works on the inside and build your skills through a regular relationship with an editor, then you probably want a staff job. If you want to pursue projects of your choice and structure your own work, that sounds like freelancing.