Freelance Writing - 12 Things You Should Be Prepared For

Freelance writing is a great opportunity to step outside of the normal realms of standard work atmospheres and taking things into your own hands. For those that manage to succeed in the field, it's incredibly rewarding. However, there are pitfalls to the decision to become a full time freelance writer. Below are listed the two biggest pitfalls of having a full time freelance writing job at home. If you can't handle these, you might not want to quit your day job just yet.

1. Self Motivation - If you never did your homework, didn't study, and rarely went to class in school, it might not be best for you to write at home as a freelance writer with no supervision and an open schedule. Procrastination is your enemy when real life clients with your paychecks are waiting for their articles.

2. Paydays - You never know when you're going to get paid. In fact, as a freelance writer you might never get paid. While, most of the time clients pay within 30 days of completion, keep in mind that some projects might take you 2-3 weeks to complete. Add 4 more weeks to that and you just spent 10 days writing a massive project and won't get the check for almost 7 weeks. You'd better make sure you have money set aside at all times. It's a necessary aspect of any freelancing career.

3. Taxes - As soon as you make your first $1000, start doing research and figure out if you are going to owe taxes...here's a tip: you will. As a self employed writer, you're going to be paying more taxes than normal in all likelihood. You have to pay all of your social security (employers pay half normally), self employment tax and federal income tax. Of course, you also get to deduct a lot more stuff. Just make sure you have receipts.

4. Work space - You're probably going to be working at home; which means, you'll have limited space and whoever else is there with you. Try your hardest to create a secluded space to work in. If you can't, invest in a nice pair of deprivation headphones.