Quarter 1 of 2019 Writer’s Life [#yearofwriting]

Posted on by Irina Gonzalez

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Well, here we are. It’s a new year and, as I promised, I am keeping up my #yearofwriting posts but this time doing them quarterly because, honestly, monthly was just really hard to keep up with last year and I can’t do it anymore. But, as a freelancer, I think it’s really important to share how I am doing in hopes that it will inspire others. This year has brought a LOT of changes. I don’t even know where to start so, for now, I’ll start with the money stuff.

How much I made: $8405

Okay, so, that doesn’t actually seem like a lot. If you want a monthly breakdown then, well, it looks even more pathetic: I made $5,940 in January, $2030 in February, and $435 in March. Crazy, right? But it’s not actually this simple. There are a few very major things that happened during these three months that gave me these results.

The first: I dipped my feet into content marketing writing BIG TIME with a new gig at Lending Tree in January. As you can tell, it paid off because I made tons of money and surpassed my month goal from last year ($5k) and this year ($5,800). That sounds pretty great, but…

The second: It led to some serious mental health issues in February. Basically, I got overwhelmed by the work because, as it turns out, I am not cut out to write about cars and finances. That’s not to say I never ever write about finances or cars (I’ve blogged about both here and written a few fun relationship-centric money stories) but, ultimately, it wasn’t for me. After a very, very difficult month, I discovered that I need to stick to writing personal essays and about lifestyle topics that actually interest me. Otherwise, I can write for a bit about stuff I don’t like but it will ultimately send me into a depression spiral, just like I experienced at the end of January and early February.

The third: I got a job!!! That’s right, unless this is the first time you’re coming across my page, then you probably know that in early March I started as the Managing Editor at The Temper — which explores life through the lens of sobriety, addiction, and recovery with an unapologetically intersectional feminist approach. That was a big change and why my freelance $$ looks so small in March. I’m a W2 employee now (though it’s part-time), so I’m not tracking that income as part of the #yearofwriting. And, as you can tell, starting a new job kept me busy and made me need to push all of my other deadlines.

All in all, it’s been an interesting start to the year. To be honest, and this might sound a bit hokey, but I feel like I learned a fuckton about myself and the way I work in the past few months. I’m on track with my 2019 writing goals (#2!!! #7, too!) and, best of all, I have started writing for OprahMag.com and it’s been… a fucking pleasure, honestly. Not only did I get to write a thoroughly researched personal essay about a topic I feel VERY passionately about, but it’s also leading to more work with them and with other Hearst publications. So that’s, well, exciting!

I’m sure there are a lot more changes to come this year. But I’m finally in a good place after a rocky (though successful) first couple of months. If nothing else, I learned that prioritizing my mental health is critical to my success in life. That’s pretty true with my freelance writing career but, honestly, it’s true for other aspects of life, too. Here’s hoping I take that lesson and keep remembering it throughout the rest of the year.

What was published: 

What was published (The Temper): 

What was published (Lending Tree): 

What was published (by Fierce by mitú): 

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