"You have SUCH a hard life!"  Is a cry I hear from my friends often, usually accompanied by an eye roll and a hefty dose of sarcasm. To them, my job entails playing on Facebook*,  talking to interesting people and "just" writing about a diverse range of subjects.  OK, so they aren't totally wrong, but the catch is that I have to show clients positive results from my work in order for them to keep paying me.  Facebook campaigns have to translate into website traffic; blog posts have to encourage interaction with visitors; articles have to be interesting enough to hold readers' attention.  If creating that kind of content was easy, then I would be out of a job as all of my clients could do it for themselves.

What they don't see are the hours that I spend at my laptop - often long in the night.  They don't see the struggle between meeting a brief and expressing my creativity. (What do you mean I have to cut 250 words out of my beautifully crafted essay Ms Editor?!)  They certainly don't see the time that I put into researching ideas and markets, pitching editors, applying for projects, putting together proposals or the hundred other activities I do while not on the clock.  The only people who see how many hours I actually put in are my parents, who are often lamenting that I work too hard.

That said, I am willing to admit that I feel I have an easy life.  I love writing.  I love meeting and talking to amazingly interesting people both virtually and in real life. I even love coming up with strategies to help businesses strengthen their presence online.  But by far the most important thing that helps me enjoy my life is that I have (almost) complete control over who I work with and what topics I write about.  (I say almost because sometimes beggars can't be choosers, and a girls has to eat...or afford that designer sweater she saw in the shop last week.)  When I am looking for work, I rarely look at the dollar signs.  Sure, I need to get paid for my time, and I have a minimum hourly rate, but once that criteria is met I also need to be able to get fired up about a project in order for me to take it on.  I rarely take on writing purely as a means to an end, the end being to collect a paycheck.  If I wanted that kind of work there are much easier and better paying careers than being a full time writer!

The beauty of this, is that when I am researching and writing I don't even feel like I am working! I have always said that if I won the lottery I would go back to University, learn languages, go to museums and visit historical sites around the world.  I am a knowledge junky and my writing career feeds my habit. 

So when people talk about finding a work-life balance, whether they believe I work too much or too little, I can't help but feel a little smug, that as long as I have a good work-write balance I am pretty happy.

Now, I must go and grab my coffee, muffin and watch Fashion TV... and guess, what?  I write for a wedding fashion blog, so I am still working!

*Speaking of Facebook, why not head over and Become a Fan of Writers Remorse?