GRRRRR!

Sympathy grolws always help!
Sigh, it is a total nightmare. I have managed not to panick about my job situation until today, because I knew there would be a vacancy for a while. Now though, total panic. I have no idea how to get by on less money, I actually have problems seeing how I would get by on they money I make now.
I do think I’ll get quite a few short time assignments, unless the financial situation gets even worse. Still, even full time on short time assignments would mean a serious loss of income. Plus, there are now more people fighting over the short time assignments. There’s another girl who have filled in for people in culture since I left there, and I know there’s another temp who is finishing her studies these days and who says her plan is to work in our paper on short time assignments, hoping it will add up to a full time job. She has worked for the weekend editor as a temp inbetween studies and I know the editor likes her. I have worked longer than the both of them, but I have no idea if that is the deciding factor in who gets the work, I have a feeling it will all be up to who the editors want.

It really is quite a nightmare. After years of being sick and not being able to work, I finally found the job I can actually do without getting ill. And I’m loving every day of it. Which makes things more difficult. If it wasn’t for my health issues, I could try to get a job like the ones I used to do for a while, and then try to somehow work my way back into journalism, but that is just not an option. I’ll just have to hope and pray that there will be enough work for me to somehow get by.

It really is quite a nightmare. I love my job, and I desperately need the money.
Some international ESC work next year would be fun though! And thank you for saying my English is good! :)
I did actually look into trying to freelance for publications in English once, before I got this job. I could look into that again. With a very good spelling check programme on my computer and some work on my vocabulary, it might work. And the market for publications in English is of course huge compared to publications in Norwegian.
I don’t think I’m really cut out for freelancing though. Basically, freelancing requires some organizing skills, being able to sit down and actually come up with an idea, make a plan, get out and do the necessary interviews, get back and write the article, and do all the work involved in selling articles. My scattered ADD mind is really not cut out for it. One of the things I absolutely love about journalism is the thing everyone else say they would hate: daily deadlines. When I know I have to hand in an article by 4 in the afternoon, and that they are actually sending the paper off to be printed then so there’s no way they can wait for me, I focus better than most. Once there is no real deadline, I’m off doing something else, wasting incredible amounts of time doing nothing at all. And pretending there’s a deadline just doesn’t work for me, as long as I don’t have to send my work off to someone else, I start procrastinating.

I might end up having to try freelancing though. But I think it would be a serious struggle, and I’m not sure I would manage to make enough money to get by.

I do hope some sort of solution comes up, and that I will be able to at least work enough to somehow get by. Sigh.
^{Good article ideas there, definitely!}

I do hope so! Sigh. I really love this job, losing it will be so hard! Things might work out in time though, I do hope so!
I think the first thing I need to do is to finish a book review I have spent too much time on, and then make sure to tell the culture editor I would love to write more reviews. I have done that a little on my spare time (I get paid a little extra per book, but do the work outside regular office hours) but well, life has been difficult, and I haven’t had much energy left over, so I haven’t exactly been superefficient in doing that. Hopefully, if I put more effort into working faster with reviews now, he’ll ask me to write more reviews after july, which would help my income a little. They don’t exactly pay very well for that, but freelancers get paid more for book reviews than the full time journalists, so it would at least help.
Sigh though. I don’t know if I’ll actually manage to make enough money if I only get short term assignments and some book reviews.

I do think I’ll get very good recommendations from my editors. Not sure if that will really be any help in this financial climate though, there are just extremely few jobs out there for journalists, and a lot of people competing for the jobs. Many of whom have more experience than me. Sigh. Crap, crap, crap!

Wretched economy.

Sorry to hear you’re being threatened.

To add to Jessy’s sympathy hissy fit, and the sympathy cheers, growls, and emergency-corkscrew wavings from the others, I’ll..I’ll…I’ll throw a Tink-er tantrum on your behalf!

For what it’s worth, though, I’ve freelanced in the publishing world (albeit as an editor, proofreader, and indexer, not as a writer) for two decades. I’m not rolling in dough, but I’m rich in every way that matters.

The “organizing skills” you’re worried that freelancers must have – and that you think you don’t have – can be learned even by those with ADD tendencies. (I know, because I have them, too.) There are ways to build structure into those free-form days.

• For longer assignments, you can simulate genuine (not pretend) daily deadlines by working backwards from the due date and determining how much has to be done by what point in order to finish on time.
• You can also try setting up a “buddy system” whereby you commit to getting a reasonable amount done in a given day, and then report your progress at the end of that period. People do that here on 43T all the time, and often find that the thought of having to confess that they spent all day playing online Scrabble or whatever keeps them relatively productive.
• Me, I have sometimes found that even here, the anonymity can let me off the hook a bit. I can “confess” my slothfulness here without any serious consequences. Earlier this year, I used Facebook (where I’m known by my real name to a mixture of personal friends and professional contacts) to spur myself to accomplish some tasks I was worried I’d avoid. I changed my status line to say “[Tink] has five loathsome tasks to do this week. She will at least make progress on one of them by tomorrow, OR she will donate $5 to a cause she finds even more loathsome.” What a fire that lit under my butt! Just the thought of having to write and send that cheque caused me to pick up the phone pronto! I knocked off 3 of the 5 tasks on the first day, and by the end of the week, I’d accomplished the whole list, plus a few other items that I added mid-week. This approach could be adapted to any important project.

I just read a wonderful book on freelancing that you might find useful. See my comment “P.S. In case you haven’t read it” under another 43Ter’s freelance at editing and proofreading goal.