TO BECOME A WRITER OR NOT?

Harry was an engineer by default. I say, by default because he had no interest whatsoever in engineering. His grandfather decided that he would do engineering. He had two reasons for taking this decision. One, because he was working for someone who owned a construction conglomerate so he had planned that he would recommend his grand-son to the company after his civil engineering. The other reason was that his son-in-law was an architect. Therefore, he wanted Harry to work with his uncle and do business with him. This was planned as a back up, in case the job did not materialize. However, when Harry passed out of civil engineering, both did not happen.

His uncle did not take him to work in his company because he did not want Harry to work with relatives. The job in the construction conglomerate did not materialize because Harry's grand-father was no longer alive when he graduated in civil engineering. This means, there was no one to recommend him for a job in the construction conglomerate. Thus, Harry decided to seek employment in the private sector with companies he did not know much about. For 15 long years he worked at civil engineering, performing various job roles. However, he did not get career stability. He was always being kicked out of every civil engineering job that he took.

In fact, one company, which gave him a civil engineering job, also kicked him out for working too hard. He worked so hard that he had to get operated for the spine. In the three month resting period, post-surgery, Harry wanted to start doing work because he wanted to earn money. So, he started working as a freelance writer online. He did not earn enough for himself. However, he continued at it irrespective of the money he earned in it. His age was nearing 50 and he was divorced. He had lost his father and he was the sole earning member of his family. He wanted dearly to become a freelance writer, but the money was not guaranteed in it.

His mother wanted him to get married and therefore she started chiding him to take up a good job and get married so that he would get a partner. He had not yet married because he was not settled in life. His mother was getting worried now. Harry earned only Rs 5000 per month in his writing work. It was not enough to get married. However, he decided to continue it irrespectively because he enjoyed doing it. It was a passion for him. So, to earn money, he took up a full-time job with an educational consultancy and he kept at his content writing on a part-time basis.

He could not decide what to do. He could not decide whether to become a full fledged freelance writer or continue with his writing journey along with his job. He was in two minds. On one hand, he was getting a number of freelance opportunities and wanted to become a full-time freelancer. On the other, he wanted to earn money, a lot of money. Both could not happen in the same profession. Therefore, he continued doing his job and freelancing on the side. Things were going well, when suddenly, like all his other jobs, he lost his job at the educational consultancy too.

Now, he was at the cross-roads. On one hand, he wanted to freelance and on the other, his mother wanted him to look for another job. Nobody was offering him a job because he was 45 years of age. Therefore, he decided to take up full-time freelancing and decided to earn money in it. He raised his rate some notches. Along with his job, he was charging his clients 12 paise a word. Now, with no job, he asked his clients to pay him 30 paise a word. They obliged on the condition that he would work with them for a period of six months. He agreed.

He had read several blogs on writing and had come to know that if he wanted to earn more money with less effort in his writing, he will have to find out one or two niches in which to write articles and leave aside the rest. He had not yet done this even after nine years of life as a freelancer because he wanted to earn money from it and also because he was not getting any writing assignments in his favorite niches. Therefore, he could not decide whether to become a freelance writer or remain an employee.

Every night, he used to sleep with the dream of becoming a writer and every morning, he would start searching for a job once again and decide against becoming a freelance writer. This was when he got a call from a consultant. A company named College pond was hiring freelance content writers to work for them. They would give 15 days training after which he would be hired as a full-time freelancer with the company. This was a lucrative opportunity. Therefore, he decided to grab it with both hands and decided to become a full-time freelancer. His decision had been made. He was now a FULL-TIME FREELANCE WRITER.