“I'm a Writer Trapped in a Lawyer's Body”
By Heidi K. Brown
My strategy for building up my freelance writing business is simple: tell every single person that I meet (and who asks “what do you do?”) that I am a “writer trapped in a lawyer's body.” One day, while living in New York City, staring out the window of my downtown high-rise office building and wishing I could trade places with the deckhands on one of the barges encircling the Statue of Liberty below, I realized that my dream job would be to work from my apartment and write all day long and get paid enough money to enable me to pursue my creative writing interests. Now, as an attorney I did happen to get paid to write all day long, but I was at the mercy of crazy bosses, lunatic clients, erratic court deadlines—and thereby had little control over my life and even less energy left over for creative pursuits. Yes, the pay was good and regular, but fighting and arguing for a living was no longer my cup of tea. That particular day, I decided that, slowly but surely, I needed to transition myself from litigation attorney to full-time writer, whether it takes one year or ten. So far, so good.
My first snippet of advice for pursuing the freelancer's life is to start by trading off of your current talents. I am a lawyer who happens to have a gift for legal writing, so it only made sense for me to start there. The first step I took was to leave my lucrative downtown Manhattan law firm job and transition to a small firm who needed a chief brief writer. I sought out a specific firm I thought would be open to such a dynamic (less established and smaller firms and companies seem to be much more open to freelancers because they can save on overhead). I was pretty candid with the partner who hired me—I had known him for ten years from a prior firm we both worked for at the beginning of our careers—and indicated that I would prefer to be paid hourly rather than salary so that I could have more control over my schedule and the freedom to work on other writing projects. I made it clear that I did not want to be on the partnership track anymore and I did not want the pressure of business development; I was there to write. Because he knew me (and my work ethic) already, he miraculously agreed. It was an easy sell to his partners: hire someone they don't have to train, who will cost them little in overhead (I offered to work from my apartment in NYC because their office was based in Washington, D.C.), and whom they can let go easily if the workflow or caseload dries up. That was a couple of years ago and I still earn the majority of my income from that law firm each month. Of course, because the legal work I do now for that attorney tends to exceed those boundaries I initially set for myself, I do lose control over my schedule more often than I would like, but it's a start, and a solid foundation to what I hope will be a future career as a full-time author/writer.
When I started announcing to all my friends that I was well on my way into my personal metamorphosis from high-powered attorney to angst-ridden writer (insert image here of me sporting a beret and smoking Gitanes while sipping espressos and furiously penning the Great American Novel), a good female friend who had just launched her own NYC marketing agency perked up. “Hmmm,” she mused. “I could use a good business writer to edit some of our Requests for Proposals. How much would you charge per project?” And thus emerged my second freelance gig: editing lengthy Powerpoint presentations for her creative marketing agency. Her company is based in New York while I am currently living on the West Coast, so she often sends me documents at the close of business East Coast time, and I e-mail them back to her inbox by the next morning. She has also hired me to participate in brainstorming and “word association” sessions to come up with catchphrases for new products targeting lawyers and business executives. I have never had more fun with a thesaurus in my life!
Now, with these two freelance gigs under my belt, I legitimately call myself a writer instead of a lawyer, whether I am filling out forms asking about my occupation or meeting new people at a cocktail party. It's my Field of Dreams “If you build it, they will come” philosophy. And somehow it works. A mere mention of my new “occupation” recently landed me another writing “consulting” gig, this time reviewing and editing a marketing executive's application for a grant to an international exchange program. Fun and creative (though not much pay for that one—my remuneration came in the form of a bottle of expensive tequila)!
The key for me, thus far, has been truly thinking of myself as a writer, first and foremost. While I still spend the majority of my average day performing legal research and drafting legal briefs for the law firm, I make sure to work on my creative writing craft every day, in an effort to get one step closer to my “dream job”: novel writer extraordinaire. Every day, I do Julia Cameron-esque “Morning Pages” (I highly recommend reading her book, The Artist's Way) and also try to work at least an hour on short chapters of a self-help-type book I am developing with an East Coast friend. I participated in the National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) in November to keep my creative juices flowing on a novel idea that has been whirring around my head for a few years. I believe stirring my creative pot on a continual basis is essential to moving me one step closer each day to my true goal of the writer's life—though in some respects I already have that life now.
In terms of generating future workload through interactions with potential clients, I usually at some point mention my background in the corporate world but emphasize that I have now chosen this non-traditional path and actually prefer flexible and creative compensation scenarios. This approach has brought me clients that otherwise may not have ever considered a freelancer to do a job that is typically performed by a salaried employee. For instance, I met a corporate attorney who needed someone with a legal background to re-write contracts during only a six-month period but she was having a hard time filling the position because most lawyers want something more solid and secure. I described to her my skillsets, and explained my comfort level with unpredictable project durations. Together we are working on a solution that will fit both of our needs.
On a routine basis, I also check websites like www.craigslist.com (there are job postings for writing and editing) but have not had much luck yet with paying gigs that way. My personal network of friends and colleagues has brought me a much more constant flow of work.
It is very important to me, at this stage in my transition to the writer's life, that I not get lured back into the corporate world by the so-called benefits and perks. Thus, I buy my own health insurance (check out www.ehealthinsurance.com) and have set up my own retirement planning with a financial planner. While I no longer get paid for vacations, I do take a moment each day to appreciate the fact that I get paid to sit at my desk in my pajamas with my dog sleeping on my feet, and can take a coffee break at any time, sit on my deck and stare at the Pacific Ocean—which I could never do in my prior corporate life. However, when I need a legitimate vacation, I try to tie it into my writing life; for instance, I recently attended a yoga/writing retreat in Mexico to work on my novel (which, call me crazy but, I truly believe is a tax write-off because I wrote for about four hours a day).
Managing my freelancing business does take a certain level of organization and diligence. I obsessively keep all my writing-related receipts (Author's Guild membership, printer paper, toner, even the e-mail address I established to communicate with writing clients, etc.) and set aside one day every two weeks to follow up on administrative tasks such as invoicing and filing. I have a tax accountant to help me attribute appropriate write-offs to my home office space, utilities, and travel expenses, and I keep an ongoing notebook of query letters and other correspondence to track the efforts I make on a continual basis in my “pursuit of the writing life.”
My writing life is often a solitary one, but I make it a point to constantly connect with fellow writers (I follow Carolyn See's recommendation to send “charming notes” to writers whose work I admire). When I start to go stir crazy (or realize that I have gone eight hours without talking to a single living being other than my dog), I force myself to take a shower, put on an outfit other than yoga pants or gym shorts, and go out into the world for some human interaction.
With flexibility, diligence and focus, I believe any aspiring writer can pursue the freelancer's life. I know now that I could never go back to the corporate 9-to-5 world though I work just as hard now in my own private office environment. This flexible lifestyle fits my personality so much better and gives me the freedom to be myself—quirks and all.
Tips for the Pursuit of the Freelancer's Life:
? Start by identifying your current talents: Mine was legal writing so I started with pursuing freelance work from law firms. It would have been odd for me to leap to something like travel writing or medical editing. Start with what you know.
? Make sure you feel comfortable initially not having that predictable paycheck: I truly believe you can make just as much money (maybe even more) being a freelancer, but the first step is letting go of the addiction or reliance on that predictable paycheck. Start off with a cushion of savings in the bank.
? Start networking with people you know: The best resource for freelance work is people who already know your work ethic and your ability to get the job done even if you are not sitting in a corporate office every day. Start with past employers or work colleagues and friends in your industry.
? Be clear about what you want and don't want: I find that it's easy to get sucked back into the all-encompassing corporate world if you are not clear on your limits. I have to constantly stop myself from crossing my own boundaries. Also, by being clear with clients on my preference for flexibility regarding working hours and compensation arrangements, we have come up with creative solutions they never before considered but which benefit them as well.
? Talk the talk: If you want to be a writer, then simply declare yourself one. “I am a writer.” Then go and write—every day. This website (www.wow-womenonwriting.com) is a great example of how submitting articles or entering contests (which, here, do not require lengthy submissions) can make writing a party of your daily life. Get into the routine of writing and submitting your work, and soon you will make money doing so.
Bio:
Heidi K. Brown is a writer trapped in a lawyer's body. Originally from Virginia, she lived in New York City for six years but recently moved to Laguna Beach, California. She has published three editions of a legal textbook for first-year lawyers with Thomson-West Publishing, but her true passion is her creative writing. She has written a screenplay and two novels. She counsels young lawyers on their legal writing, and puts together writing workshops at a yoga retreat in Mexico. She happily resides in Laguna with her better half, Mark, and their adopted Australian Shepherd, Rowan.
© 2007 WOW! Women On Writing
e-mail: editors@wow-womenonwriting.com
March 2007, Issue 8: The Freelance Union