Being a freelancer (my dream)

Whenever people know that I don't really want to be a teacher at highschool, they inmediately ask me what am I going to do when I finish University. I always say that I want to be a writer, and I also want to be a translator and editor, but apart from that I would like to be an Illustrator too, so I started to say that I am going to work in the book industry by doing all of those things, which is something I really want to do. Besides that, I tell them that I want to be a freelancer, and most of the time they don't even know what is that so I have to explain it to them. If you are like me and you want to be a freelancer, you should read this entry.

First of all for the ones who don't know what I am talking about: being a freelancer means being your own boss. That's it. You work from your home (if possible) or from a place rented by you, of from your office, etc. The thing is that you decide everything on your 'company'. You choose if you want to wake up very early or more late, you choose if you want to wear a suit or a dress, or if you prefer wearing your pajamas, you choose how many hours are you going to work and who are going to be your clients. You decide the name of your 'company', the rules for working, the prices, the EVERYTHING. You are the boss, the employee, the secretary, the manager, the marketing person, etc.

Why do I want to be a freelancer? Weel, because I want the freedom that freelancing would give me. I want to do artistic work, I want to create, to write, to edit, to translate, to illustrate, to live a life full of creativity and joy. I know that problems may arise anyway, that clients can be mad at me for some reason, that money is not going to be falling like rain in my pockets, but I'D LOVE TO BE A FREELANCER, to feel happy doing what I like to do, and that feeling is what I am searching for since forever. 

How do I know that I will be happy if I am not a freelancer yet? My idea of being a freelancer started when I knew Frannerd. She is a freelancer illustrator from my country and she recently published a book called 'A punto de partir'. After reading her book I started watching her youtube channel and I couldn't stop! I always feel motivated and inspired when I watch her videos; it makes me feel happy somehow, with a lot of motivation to work and be creative...and that is how I realized that I wanted to have a proffesional life similar to her. I always wanted to work in my home, because apart from not liking the fact of waking up at six A.M to go to a job that wasn't the one I wanted (being a teacher of English), one of my dreams is to be a mother, and having the opportunity of raising my kids and being at home are some of the things I am most concerned with. Those factos collided (wanting a creative job and wanting to be at home) and I said: OH GOD I WANT TO BE A FREELANCER. 

Do I know the pros and cons of being a freelancer? Oh yes, I know that there are cons and pros. I have read a looooot of blogs and interviews on the subject and I also bought some amazing books that are related to it:

1.Steal like an artist from Austin Kleon, isn't a book about freelancing, but it is a book about creativity and in some way that has to do with the job I want to have.

2.Creative, INC from Meg Mateo Ilasco & Joy Deangdeelert Cho, It's an amazing book about being a freelancer and having a freelance business. It gives you tips about every single aspect of having that 'career', it motivates you and it also has some interviews of people that are already freelancers (all of them with different jobs such as Animator, Illustrator, Prop Stylist, etc.)

What am I going to do now? Meanwhile I finish my career I will also focus on making up my portfolio, which is (as I have read) very important when you want to work as a freelancer. I will also try to use my leisure time for creative purposes like writing, drawing and learning things about both topics. I also want to start working for people (potential clients), doing translations or editing. Hopefully I will finish my first book and do the possible to publish it.

If you are in the same road as me, I recommend you to investigate, create and try to do what is in your hands to fulfill your dream of being a freelancer.

With love, Sofía.

Am I a writer?

I am a writer, and it took me a lot of time to figure it out. Ok, I haven't published any book and I am not famous at all, but I write and that is what a writer does, right? 

Since I am a child I have written many stories. My first tale was about an horror mansion. I was pretty obsessed with enchanted houses and misterious murders and at that time (eight year old me) I

was very inspired by the horror stories that older girls than me used to tell in the school bus. So one day I started writing a tale about a group of kids (inspired by the kids of my bus) who went to a mansion. Every day in the mansion was more terrifying than the previous one, and apart from that,  a new kid disappeared every new day. I wrote that story with different pencils and did many draws of zombies, ghosts and scary things. 

I remember myself a few years later writing a new horror story. This was better than the previous one, of course. It was about a picture; I know you may think that a picture is not really scary, but this one was a cursed picture. I can't remember any detail of the story so I'm not going to bother you with that.

When I started growing up I continued writing, but my stories were more about love, like teenager love. I was really amazed with writing romance and trying to get the attention of possible readers by getting my own attention. I always say 'If it doesn't catch ME, then it is not going to catch anyone alse', and  maybe that is why I get so upset when I realized that any of my stories is not really good for someone when it DID catch my attention.

I attempted writing a novel about a detective who was hired to investigate a crime related to kidnapping. But the story was very stupid itself; it wasn't a detective story but a LOVE story. The detective fell in love with a doctor who finally WAS the kidnapper and she also fell in love with the man who  hired her: another doctor who was the brother of the missing girl. VERY REALISTIC, I KNOW.

My next story was supposed to be my first Best selling novel, but it ended up being nothing. Why? well, because I don't know where it went.  It was about a little girl and a little boy who hate each other (they were neighbours), and over time they built a friendship. I wanted to write about how they managed to be friends after being enemies, and how they started falling in love when they were teenagers and adults.  I was so excited to write this, but one day when I was searching for the file on my computer, I couldn't find it. I am not sure if I deleted it by  mistake, or if someone else did it (when I say 'my computer', it really means 'the computer of my family'). Short story: I still cry on my mind when I remember this story which I was pretty excited to write.

I don't wan't to bore you so I am going to summarize my next writing creations: 

-I wrote my experiences and love experiences during eight grade in PDF, and It has pictures and quotes.

-I wrote a love story which was inspired by my love triangle problems of eighth grade (a very stupid story I have to say). 

-Another story that I still want to finish about two groups of people living in the middle of nowhere. (It's called AGAPI, in case you want to follow the trail of this one in the future).

-Just one chapter of a story about love and a girl who could see the aura of people and know if couples are meant to be.

-A few chapters of a story of a girl who dies and becomes an angel.

-I finished a fanfic about Niall Horan from One Direction. (You can read it in Spanish here: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/18951396-i-never-thought-you%27d-be-mine-n-h )

-I recently finished another fanfic about Harry Styles from One Direction. (You can read it in Spanish here : https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/21155923-diamonds-in-the-sun-h-s  )
(I am also doing the translation in English here: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/63826750-diamonds-in-the-sun-english-h-s)

-I wrote two 'Dialogues' which are in spanish and very very embarrasing so I am not going to show you that.

-AND MANY MANY SONGS, in spanish most of them.

I always though that you only become a writer when you publish a book, and I also heard from a famous author that he doesn't consider himself a real writer because he is NOT that good as other authors. So I always say to myself 'YOU ARE NOT A WRITER YET, YOU NEED TO WRITE AT LEAST FIVE BOOKS AND BLAHBLAHBLAH TO BE CONSIDERED AS A PROPER WRITER', and you know what? I am tired of thinking that way. I AM a writer, I have been writing since I can remember, I have finished some tales and some novels (or fanfictions), and I have written so SO many songs in my entire life that if that doesn't mean I am a writer, then what does it?

I am going to tell you a last thing to all of you who are just like me: BELIEVE in yourself and start calling yourself a writer, because if you have written a lot of things, although the rest of the world haven't read any of your work yet, does that mean you are any less? When you publish, you will just be PUBLISHED, but you have being a writer before that and THAT is what really matters. 

Thank you for reading and take care.

With love, Sofía.