Canada’s meeting place for freelance writers and creators

Established 2010

Whether you’ve got too much work to do during this busy month or not enough work coming in during the most expensive time of year, the holiday season can be a tough time for freelancers. There's been lots of advice on Twitter this month for freelancers wondering how to survive the next couple of weeks. Here's a handy round-up of some of the best:

• PWAC Toronto says you should spend your holiday downtime cleaning your office, reaching out to past clients and setting goals for 2015.

• Contently suggests that you use the slow Christmas and New Years period to, yes, clean your office, visit the dentist and work on dream projects.

• This post from Fast Company says you're better off spending this slow period getting serious about LinkedIn and setting concrete career goals.

• The Write Life advises freelancers to spend the second half of December getting all the stuff organized: client information, accounting, websites, email inboxes and social media profiles. Oh, and the fun part: setting up some coffee dates with fellow freelancers for early in January.

• On the lighter side, this post from Creative Live lists all of the positive aspects of being a freelancer over the holidays: you can shop during off-peak hours, you can work from airport lounges, and you're always home to sign for package deliveries.

• And from Story Board's archives, here's a post by The Born Freelancer with advice on how to cope if you've got too much or too little work to do over the next couple of weeks.

How do you cope during the holidays? What do you think is the best way to occupy yourself during a work lull? Let us know in the comments below or come and join us on Facebook for some freelancer holiday camaraderie.

Cheers and happy holidays from Story Board!

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.    This is the time of year for greater social interaction, even among self-professed curmudgeonly writers. But with it also comes the…
by Rachel SandersDesmond Cole is a Toronto freelancer and political commentator who writes about policing, race and social justice for a variety of media outlets. When the grand jury decision came down in Ferguson, Missouri last Monday, he felt compelled to go there in search of the stories that weren't being told. As a freelancer, however,…
The Canadian Media Guild has launched a freelancer directory that offers its freelance and temporary members a place to showcase their skills and experience to potential employers. The database has space for members to highlight their publication credits, training, and education. Profiles also have space for work samples of all kinds…
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.  I was talking to a freelance colleague of mine recently who was being dismissive of a fellow freelancer: "Pffft! He isn't a real freelancer;…
[caption id="attachment_9518" align="alignright" width="265"] The altered version of the Pan Am Games' ad for unpaid feature writers.[/caption]Last Thursday, Toronto freelance writer and investigative journalist Andrew Livingstone ran across a job ad posted by the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.The ad was seeking five writers to produce feature…
In this regular feature, Story Board asks Canadian writers to share a few details about their work habits and their strategies for navigating the ups and downs of freelance life. Andrew Braithwaite is a Canadian-born writer currently living in San Francisco. He's written about food and wine, architecture, travel and culture for such…
This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments.   It sits there like a landslide, blocking your creative journey and costing you time, energy and temporary sanity. I'm talking about a…
A group of researchers is seeking freelancers in Southern Ontario to participate in a study on insecure employment.The study is part of a multi-year project exploring poverty and precarious employment in the area (PEPSO). The organizations leading the project include the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton and the United…
Legal cases that have arisen over improper use of photos sourced from social media over the past few years have demonstrated a growing need for a better system for crowdsourcing citizen journalism.Enter platforms like NewZulu -- a crowdsourcing platform that recruits users to upload their photos of news events for potential sale to news outlets.…

Page 38 of 63

First 36 37 38 39 40 Last