Freelancer in Focus March 2008 - Mark Howkins

Click for more images

Address: Lincolnshire Email: mark@wordscope.co.uk Telephone: 01400 251534 Website: http://www.wordscope.co.uk Area of Expertise: Writing, journalism, copywriting

Description How have you found working freelance? What are the highs and lows, the frustrations and the bonuses? I came from a job where a fairly substantial amount of money slid invisibly into my bank account every month. Freelancing is a radically different and more precarious situation! Every day I’m on the look out for work and potential earnings: even when I’m in the middle of something I still have to think ahead to where the next commission might arise. Arguably, it’s more exciting than before – a more ‘real’ way of making a living that keeps me alert and wanting to write well, to maintain a standard. The best thing about it is the variety of work that comes my way and the chance to understand and help people who do all sorts of different things – from selling leisure magazines to constructing sustainable houses. I feel I’m learning more than ever before – about writing and about, well, 'stuff'. Has being a member of Freelancers In The UK helped you? We’d like to think so but how? In several different ways, actually. The most obvious is that the site is a source of commissions – an easy way of seeing specific projects and accessing the people who are running them. But also, partly for the reasons I gave above, it’s reassuring to know that there’s someone on the end of a call or e-mail who can advise me and who knows how the system works. So, I definitely feel supported and recognized. The site also contains information about courses and workshops – general developmental openings that flag up ways of doing a(n even) better job. What are the biggest challenges for you for 2008? Without doubt I need to hire some professionals to sort me out a decent website. I have enough material now to showcase my work and I ought to be doing just that. More generally, I want to make sure that by the end of the year I’ve established a reputation in all the areas I cover – commercial, voluntary sector, media – as a high quality writer who’s completely reliable: really, I’d like to be the first name that organizations think of when they’re handing out repeat business and one they’d always recommend to others. Who’s your favourite author/actor/actress and why? There are lots of people I could mention! I think Jill Tweedie (who wrote for The Guardian in the 70s and 80s) was the first journalist I became aware of who really made me think. I’d always say Shakespeare! His writing has everything: beauty, drama and, of course, lots of different kinds of truth. And Anne Frank, whose diaries I’ve been able to research, is someone I admire, mostly for the relentless honesty of her writing.