# Fancy yourself a freelancer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968 "2006-07-18T03:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/1 "2006-07-18T03:46:39Z")
If so, what do you freelance in? For the purposes of this thread, we will say the requirements are: -You regularly engage in short or relatively short-term (1-2 year or less) contracts for multiple employers/clients, without being wholly dependent or permanently loyal to any. -You make at least part of your income this way. Otherwise, it’s a hobby. Myself, I’m a “hobbyist” writer (by this definition), but would like to be able to call myself a freelancer, eventually. Tell me about your freelancing. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/2 "2006-07-18T04:06:28Z")
I´ve worked freelance more than I care to remember, some where good jobs, some where awful nightmares; in the end I think I gained a whole lot of experience and I´ve met many interesting people so I don´t regret that in the least. I´ve done mostly graphic design freelance jobs, mostly 3D stuff and in one case I worked for a year and a half as a texture artist for an English company. The worst freelancing experience was almost two years ago, I was working at my current job then (Character Animator in a studio) and by some odd arrangement of stars, or simply because fate fancies me as it´s punching ball sometimes, three deadlines converged at the same time. At the job it was a commercial that had to be made and I was in charge of modelling a creature; the other was a deadline for the English company I mentioned earlier and the third was another freelance job animating a character for a documentary. I think I slept three hours in three days; at some point I was working on two computers simultaneously; I had one assignment in one and another in the second, I switched places while the computer made a calculation or while a file was loading… Somehow I managed to get everything done in time, but I hardly do any more freelancing since then. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/3 "2006-07-18T04:15:57Z")
I’m a freelance software engineer, though I only have one client at the moment for a three month contract. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/4 "2006-07-18T10:36:42Z")
I write software for a living and this year I will make probably 30% more than my salary by freelancing. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/5 "2006-07-18T13:39:21Z")
I’m a musical director/pianist for the theatre. My whole life is rehearsing a show for two weeks, playing it for a couple of months, and then starting the whole process all over again with a whole new show! It’s kind of cool… It would be easy to get bored if I did the same show for a year or two, and it’s nice to meet different people with each job. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/6 "2006-07-18T13:52:06Z")
Full-time freelance copyeditor for eleven years and counting. I work mostly on college-level textbooks on a variety of subjects, with a few trade books and fiction works thrown in for interest. I have four longtime “core” clients and am currently courting two or three more; I’ve also dropped a few clients over the years for various annoyances and infractions. I regularly turn down work and am currently the main breadwinner for the household, earning about double what I made at my last “Real Job.” I’ll never go back! ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/7 "2006-07-18T14:02:23Z")
You’d probably call the freelancing I’ve done a hobby. I’ve always had a full-time job every time I’ve taken a project. For a while I was steadily writing book reviews for the paper. Prior to that, I’ve done projects for other newspapers, special sections and individual stories. It was never a significant source of income; mostly just something I like to do. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/8 "2006-07-18T21:02:43Z")
I am theoretically a freelancer but I do nearly all my work for one client. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/9 "2006-07-18T21:55:04Z")
You’d probably class mine as a hobby too–I do freelance writing/editing/development for a game company, but it’s in addition to my full-time job as a technical writer in the software industry. It’s fairly steady as far as the amount of work goes, but the pay is sporadic so I couldn’t even come close to supporting myself on it. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fancy-yourself-a-freelancer/364968/10 "2006-07-18T22:06:23Z")
My sole source of income for the last four years has been through Google Answers. I perform research projects – some large, some small – for which I am paid between $1.50 and $150, with the possibility of tips from satisfied customers. I am an independent contractor selected and approved by Google Answers, so I suppose this might qualify as “freelancing.”