Notes from a Hired Pen: Looking back on the busiest week of the year

Readers!

 

The second or third week of December is typically my busiest week of the year. Many of my clients want stuff then so they’re not stuck doing a ton of editing close to the holiday, and/or they know when they need to submit my invoice in order for me to get paid out of their 2024 budget. I usually get a couple of last minute assignments too, whether a client suddenly realizes they have extra money to burn before the calendar flips, or because their in-house staff is just overwhelmed and they need to pull in a pinch hitter — me.

Here’s the breakdown of what last week looked like:

• 4 assignments for a regular client ($2,500)
  My client assigned these stories back in November, but they were all due this week because of their deadline for when they’d need to submit an invoice for me to get paid. Instead of leaving all that work to this week, I made sure to do as many interviews as I could right before and after Thanksgiving, and then set my own deadlines for when I wanted each piece done. Because it’s hard to get people on the phone this time of year, I wasn’t able to start writing until last week, but thankfully most of the leg work was done.
• 1 rush job from an occasional client ($750)
  A healthcare system I write for a handful of times a year reached out in a slight panic because one of their researchers published a big paper, but hadn’t given them a heads up. That meant their own news story needed to be written ASAP at a time their writers were already overloaded. I could have said no given how much work I already had, but it was a pretty straightforward paper that would only require one interview, so I said sure. It helped that the researcher got back to me right away, and was delightful to talk to (after the call we swapped pictures of our dogs).
• 3 short, evergreen assignments from a semi-regular client ($1,600)
  Another client I write for a few times this year came to me with a proposition: they had money to burn before the end of the year, would I be open to a few short pieces that I could write without interviewing anyone? I went back and forth on this one because of my workload, and the rate isn’t spectacular, but ultimately said yes  — and negotiated a slight pay bump.
• 2 last minute assignments for a regular client ($3,000)
  These were technically due in January, but if I got them done by the end of last week, then it would make my editor’s life easier, so I said sure. These were Q&As, which might sound easy, but they were on extremely technical topics that required a lot of prep work on my part.

Total billed last week: $7,750

My general goal has been to bill $8,000 a month, so yes that was a lot of writing packed into a short period of time (even more than the same week last year, where I billed $7,000). And if you’re looking at some of these and saying “hmmm isn’t that too low?” remember I evaluate an assignment based on a lot of things, including how easy the editor is to work with, how many revisions are required, and how long it takes from starting to write a pitch to payment — and notice I didn’t pitch any of these.

It was not my best week, as a human being. I never felt stressed, but tired. On Wednesday afternoon, I found myself staring at my dryer for no apparent reason except that it was not a computer screen; and on Thursday night, as I was working on a revision that had also been tossed onto my plate, I found myself crying. I couldn’t see the screen and thought something was wrong with my eyes, then realized I’d just forgotten to put on my reading glasses.

I got through this in the same way I get through difficult (running) races: I reminded myself that I have been in this exact same position before. And, like in those races, I have made it to the finish line.

And I did! The on Sunday I ran a race close to my house but not before seeing a guy get attacked by geese (he was fine, we can laugh).

As a true present to myself, I am now off to see Gladiator II. Denzel, I’m coming for you!

 

Recent Bylines

“How CIOs can prepare for Trump’s tariffs” for CIO Dive

 

What I’m Reading

• The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan. This starts out as what seems like a pretty straightforward family story about two half sisters in an uneven relationship, but as the book progresses it turns more into a fable. I don’t know if I just didn’t like the story (and I usually like what Tan writes!) or have been in a reading slump, but it was meh for me.
• Stella Diaz Never Gives Up by Angela Dominguez. I liked the first book in this middle grade series so much that I had to read the second. It’s summer for Stella Diaz, who is between third and fourth grade. She starts out bored but is then surprised when her mom plans a vacation for the family to Mexico to see their family, and then she gets to go to camp at the Shedd Aquarium. I wanted to be a marine biologist, so it brought back some warm memories of being an ocean-obsessed kid (I even went to the University of Tampa as a marine biology major, surprise!) This sounds like a nice, wholesome read, right? Not to bigots. According to the National Education Foundation 2022 banned book report, this very sweet book was on the list. God forbid white kids learn that Mexican immigrant children might be like them. In fact, four out of 10 banned books have protagonists of color, according to Pen America. I’m just going to link to my letter to the editor again (and the New Jersey law banning book banks has passed — cry harder, Connie!)

 

What I’m Watching

• Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsay? As much as I’d heard about JonBenet Ramsy, I realized I never knew what happened. This documentary doesn’t just go over the case, but also the everything around it, including incompetent law enforcement and out of control media coverage. Some of the journalists who reported the false things police “leaked” to them were interviewed and admitted partial fault, but saying “well the police said so why wouldn’t I believe them?” was enough to make you want to smack your forehead.
• Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster. Another case I didn’t know the details about, but this documentary learned much more into the salaciousness of it, very much the opposite of the JonBenet one.
• A Man on the Inside At a loss of what to do with himself after the death of his wife, a retired professor played by Ted Danson gets hired by a private investigator to infiltrate a senior living center to find who stole a necklace. It’s funny and sometimes painful — anyone who has ever cared for an elderly person will feel some pangs. But overall, it’s a catharsis of a show. It was also a wonderful way to give a lot of senior actors not just work but interesting work. You’ll do a lot of “where do I know that person from?”
• Conclave. Oooo bitchy cardinals! This is a (fictional) take on the politics and machinations that take place among a group of cardinals in choosing the next Pope. If you’re not Catholic, you may want to read up on the controversy of Vatican II because it comes up. Or just know that if someone says the church needs to bring back the Latin mass, what they really mean is they’re bigots. It’s now streaming on Peacock.

 

Nail Polish of the Week

You would think I’d reach for a CHRISTMAS COLOR, but it was a gloomy day when I did my nails, so I went with Nice Set of Pipes by OPI, which is a dark violet. To be fair, the week before, I did Rebel with a Clause by OPI, which is about ’tis the season as you can get.

 

Until Next Time!

Jen A. Miller

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