Tag-Archive for ◊ freelance ◊

22 Jul 2009 Success in Small Doses
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , ,  | 4 Comments

Some writers on a forum were having an interesting discussion the other day: how do you define success? Everyone has his or her own standards, of course. For some, it means achieving a certain income goal. For some, it comes in the form of accolades and acceptance. To others, it’s more in the personal things– family, partner, children. And many more find it in the acceptance of self, in finding peace.

I don’t actually like the concept of “success” because it’s such a vague word and we’re all successes and failures at different points in time in different aspects of life.

I do have long-term goals though, and two very important ones were to (1) have an office to call my own, and (2) get health insurance. Because you know, in America, there were times when I should have gone to a doctor and I didn’t. I couldn’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket only to be told by the insurance company that it wasn’t covered. That says more about the American healthcare system than it does about any of my personal failings, but for several years now, I’ve lived in fear of having an accident or falling sick.

In India, it’s hard for me to get any kind of proper healthcare because I’m a freelancer and hence not reliable. I can’t be trusted to make payments on time. I mean, I can’t even get a credit card, let alone any kind of health coverage. The last time a credit card salesperson called me, she asked, “Free Lands? Is that the name of your business?” and when I explained it was F-R-E-E-L-A-N-C-E, freelance, she asked me what freelance meant. I told her to look it up in the dictionary and hung up.

So. Office and healthcare. If I had those, I figured, that would be a huge professional achievement.

Well, I do finally have an office (that I LOVE, by the way), and as of this morning, thanks to the superhuman efforts of my gorgeous and wonderful mother, I have health insurance.

That has to count as some kind of success, doesn’t it?

03 Jul 2009 Panties and Principles
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment

People sometimes ask me the purpose of this blog. I tell them it’s about my life as a female freelance journalist in India (or wherever work takes me), the focus being female, freelance, and journalist, usually a combination of the three.

People ask me how I came up with this blog, and I tell them I didn’t really. I came up with a newsletter for international writers, in which I wrote a weekly editorial about my life as an Indian freelancer, and when I gave that up to focus on my own work, hundreds of my 7,000+ subscribers said they missed the editorials and kept pestering me to give updates on my life and work. (Many of you still remain. Thank you!)

The goal of this blog has never been to teach anything, but to share my experiences, as I stumble, succeed, and stumble once more. Clearly, the stumbling happens frequently.

But there’s another thing that I’m quite passionate about and that’s women’s issues in India. I don’t identify as a feminist; I believe as much in male empowerment as I do in female empowerment. But we all know that in countries like India, women are sometimes treated like second-class citizens. And I’m always interested in challenging that, while raising a few eyebrows.

I could ramble about social injustice all day (and I do; I’m great fun to be around), but this blog is not the space for that. Which is why the nice folks over at True/Slant recognized my need for ranting and offered me a space on the website to start a blog about women’s issues in India.

It’s titled Panties and Principles (hop on over to find out the origins of that name) and I’ll be posting frequently. I’ll take a sometimes-humorous-sometimes-serious look at the lives, challenges, and successes of the Indian woman.

Come talk to me.

Recent posts:

Welcome to “Panties and Principles”
Delhi High Court Legalizes Homosexuality

21 Apr 2009 The Freelance National Anthem
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags:  | 2 Comments

National or international, I love it.

17 Apr 2009 Gawker’s Hall of Shame
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

So, Gawker asked freelancers for the worst late payment offenders among print publications, and got some answers. The lists are by no means exhaustive, and they’re also not completely reliable. One person’s complaint does not make a publication a deadbeat, but enough of them should make you think before pitching. So do your research and talk to other freelancers.

The first list appeared on March 24, 2009 and named, among others, Self magazine. (My last payment from Self arrived quicker than any other American publication I’ve ever worked with, so there ya go.) The second one was published on April 1, 2009, and names Men’s Journal, Time Out New York, Canadian Geographic, and to my surprise, The National.

07 Feb 2009 Rich for a Day
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , ,  | One Comment

After much complaining, e-mailing, arm-twisting, and whining, three payments finally arrived, making my day a little bit brighter, my bank account a little less intimidating.

In all the years that I’ve been freelancing, this is one thing I’ve found to be the most true: no matter how you time your assignments, your publications, your payments, there will be several weeks, even months, when you go without seeing a paycheck. And then they’ll all arrive at once, turning you from pauper to princess all in the matter of twenty-four hours.

It’s like winning the lottery. Except that by the time you’ve won it, the bills are piled so high, it only lasts a few hours, if that.

Every time a writer e-mails me about advice on freelancing, I want to hold his or her hand, and ask, “Do you like Maggi/Ramen noodles? Do you know that chopped veggies can make it healthier? How much will you cry if you’re owed thousands of dollars but only have about ten in your bank account?”

The answers to those questions are really what make you a freelance journalist. Writing well is just a bonus.

17 Nov 2008 Writing is Work. Really.
Author: Mridu Khullar |  Category: Uncategorized  | Tags: , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

A lot of the writing I’ve done in the past few days hasn’t really been, uh, writing. Sure I’ve written the occasional query letter, I write dozens of e-mails per day, I’ve been making notes for projects that are in the works, and I write a daily journal.

But while a lot of it is, technically, work, none of it is actual place-your-butt-in-the-chair writing.

The writing life, unfortunately, isn’t all that romantic. When most full-timers think of quitting their jobs and working from home, they focus on the “from home” part, but they forget the work. When they think about dumping those corporate suits and walking around the house in their pajamas all day, they forget that more often than not, they’ll be sitting in those pajamas in front of a computer screen for hours on end. When wannabe freelancers talk about the freedom of working on their own clock, they forget that the only freedom they’re awarded is in choosing which 18 hours of the 24 they’d like to work. Writers who love the idea of working on their own, don’t realize how isolated the lifestyle can be.

I’ve encountered those family members and roommates who think it’s okay to ask the cable guy to come at 10 in the morning to fix something, because, you know, I work from home, and I have all the time in the world to take care of such annoyances. That despite the fact that anyone who’s known me for more than seven minutes knows that I work all night and sleep through the day, only get up during days when I have appointments and interviews (read: have to leave the house), and oh, actually do have to work to make a living. There’s a reason I call myself a journalist. No, really.

Fortunately, I’m good at dealing with such issues, so I haven’t really had much of them. The cable guy rings the bell, is asked to come back at family member’s day off, and the message is made clear. No more cable guys show up at 10 in the morning.

When most freelancers start their careers as at-home workers, their biggest problem and their biggest failure is to set boundaries: for others and for themselves.

Writing is very much a job. A sometimes frustrating, sometimes demanding, sometimes unstable job.

The only difference is, it’s a job you love.

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