Any freelancers?

My dream would be to be a freelance writer... does anyone do this? I would love to just write 40+ hours a week from my home. But I feel it's so hard. I'm feeling down about my goal. Any words of encouragement?

Keep trying!!! I would love to do the same thing. I keep looking into it, but haven't been successful in finding anything yet. I'll let you know if anything comes up!

Don't worry...we all go through days like this. I had mine yesterday. I'm feeling more optimistic today.

I'm a freelance - but not a writer! I had worked for 6 + years at different agency and one day I decided to go off on my own. I had made a lot of contacts along the way! Its hard work, but totally worth it.

My cousin does this. She's older - in her early 40's. She got her start by working for various publications and publishing houses over the years - mostly in her 20's. While working at these places, she started doing freelance press releases on the side for some of the people she had networked with at various industry events.
And then Netflix happened. She was their main point-of-contact from the get-go (still is!) for press releases - back when the idea of putting a DVD in the mail was just wacky! From there, she's done freelance work for Google and a few other tech companies. She is based out of San Francisco/Berkeley/Oakland, but she brings her work EVERYWHERE with her. She visits me all the time and uses my apartment as a crashing pad when she's in NYC, so I've seen her in action at work. It takes a lot of dedication and networking. Those two things are key. (I've grilled her about this a lot, LOL!)

I also want to note that she is single - she is not relying on someone else to help bring in a paycheck, so it might be a little easier for you. She took pretty much any and every freelance job offer early on because of that - stuff that she didn't necessarily care for, but hey - it paid the bills.

Now, she owns a big Victorian home in California, a house in the wine country of France (that she rents out to travellers during times when she's not staying there) and is fixing up a house in Barcelona (same thing as the French house...she'll stay there and rent it to travellers).

It takes a lot of hard work, and all of her gruntwork was before craigslist - she said that craigslist is a huge help to current young freelancers. And she should know...she's done some work for them too!

Just wanted to add...her 'thing' is press releases, specifically in the technology industry. So try to make contacts in whatever industry it is that interests you - art, food, music, tech, science...etc.

i am agreeing with Marie.

I'm also a freelancer (graphic designer and i do design full time too) but it is rough. make as many contacts as you possibly can and it's all about referral and word of mouth!