Whether freelance working life suits a writer
Suitability for freelancing depends on the working life a writer wants as well as their tolerance of uncertainty, independent work and business responsibilities. Personal circumstances can make the same arrangement attractive at one stage and unsuitable at another.
Temperament and business responsibilities
Freelancers are business owners who need self-motivation, drive and adaptability alongside writing skills, including the ability to accept highs and lows. Even without employees, the freelancer takes responsibility for business decisions and success.
A 2015 practitioner checklist recommends considering ten questions, assuming that substantial medical-writing experience and start-up funding are already in place.
Emotional considerations
- Is the writer self-reliant, self-motivated, self-disciplined and self-confident?
- Is the writer suited to working alone, acting as their own manager and assistant?
- Can the writer cope with feast or famine in both workload and income?
Practical considerations
- Can the writer manage without employer resources such as IT support, secretarial help, pension and sick pay?
- Are there sufficient industry contacts and sources of contract work?
- Is the writer comfortable negotiating contracts and rates and familiar with the range of industry rates?
- Is there a clear focus for the writer's skills, experience and interests?
Financial considerations
- Has the writer sought advice from a qualified accountant who knows the industry?
- Is fluctuating income acceptable alongside commitments such as rent, mortgage payments and school fees?
- Should the writer establish a company, operate as a sole trader or use an umbrella company or agency payroll?
Social recognition can also affect the decision: one new independent consultant's scepticism centred on freelancers' social standing rather than uncertainty about business success.
The decision should include an honest written assessment of strengths, weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages, feedback from friends or family without a vested interest and discussion with partners or others affected.
A writer considering the move should also examine whether working alone without colleagues' support suits them, particularly when client feedback often arrives only as requests for changes. One experienced in-house writer's concerns before freelancing included finding enough work to make a living, missing office company, losing IT support, unfamiliar tax and legal administration and maintaining discipline at home. After researching and planning, he regarded worry about such a major change as natural.
The options available at the time
Freelancing may become an option through circumstances rather than a long-planned ambition. One pharmaceutical writer with thirteen years' writing experience considered it after his employer announced a move from Alderley Park to Cambridge in March 2013. He declined relocation in March 2015, left at the end of September and began trading on 4 October 2015. His alternatives were relocation, retraining outside medical writing, a contract research organisation (CRO), a local publications or regulatory agency, or his own business. He wanted to remain in medical writing, found CRO and agency employment less appealing, and regarded freelancing as realistic because pharmaceutical companies, CROs and agencies all used freelancers.
Ex-colleagues who had become freelancers were almost uniformly positive when he consulted them: they reported plenty of work, valued home working and wished they had moved earlier. An association freelance meeting also offered positive accounts, people to consult and reassurance.
Knowing freelancing is feasible can help a writer make informed career decisions even when it does not currently suit them. This does not mean abandoning efforts to improve an employed role or resigning suddenly: personal responsibilities and financial commitments require consideration before a decision.
Autonomy, flexibility and the kind of work
Autonomy allows a freelancer to arrange their own time, portfolio and projects rather than relying on an employer's direction. Flexibility can allow work to fit personal, family and daily needs, while breaks, recovery and holidays still need planning. The flexibility of hours and workload also depends on boundaries and the value the freelancer places on their services.
Whether breadth or depth is preferable depends on the individual. One freelancer valued remaining a generalist across areas as different as pharmaceuticals and nutrition, which she considered difficult within a single employer; employment could instead allow complete focus and experience across a product's whole life cycle.
Another writer moved into freelancing in 2010 to work from home, learn business skills, manage her time more freely and broaden her writing experience after increased line-management responsibilities had taken her away from writing. A further writer, made redundant in 1992 after about fourteen years in pharmaceutical employment, valued part-time home working while her son was young; twenty-three years later she still preferred its flexibility, independence, challenges and varied clients and roles to a full-time office post.
A change in the working environment
In a 2019 account, a pharmaceutical writer liked her work and received strong appraisals but disliked office expectations around dress, after-work socialising, snacks and remaining alert after lunch. She adapted through looser traditional Korean clothing, quiet time in a conference room, salsa with colleagues, a fish tank and herbs in her office, and a colleague rock band whose rehearsals provided an alternative to alcohol gatherings. After almost six years, she concluded that a flexible environment of her own would make her more productive and started a company.
She subsequently worked mainly from a home office separate from personal space, while retaining a registered office, and eliminated commuting. She could avoid tight formal clothing that gave her migraines, replace alcohol gatherings with ballet, choose fruit or fermented soybeans over convenience-store snacks and take a half-hour nap if needed. She reported less afternoon sleepiness, which she thought reflected a healthier lifestyle with more yoga and ballet, and believed that extra time for music, photography and dancing had improved her work volume and performance. Flexibility and autonomy were her main reasons for the move.
A preference that can change
Working alone can cease to suit someone as family circumstances change. One outgoing writer found home-based freelancing practical while her three children were young but increasingly lonely once they attended school full-time. After seven freelance years, she wanted colleagues without returning to a boss, fixed arrival times or permission for holidays; a client request for eight abbreviated clinical study reports in two months then prompted her to hire staff and start a company in 2006.
Anxiety can also change as a practice develops: one writer was initially nervous about assignments in unfamiliar areas, but found her comfort zone and confidence expanded with experience across documents and therapeutic areas. Fear of insufficient work may later give way to fear of coping with success.
Freelancers have different niches, expertise and needs, so priorities vary; practitioners should find their own way, avoid excessive comparison and seek help from peers where needed.