When I first started Fancy Comma, LLC, it was just three weeks before the pandemic. In February 2020, signed a lease for an office and assumed I would just have one of those “boring” jobs like everyone else has — for me, sitting at a desk and writing — and figure out a way for the bills to get paid (little did I know that our work would be so needed in the pandemic!).
One of my most salient memories of that time in super early 2020 is the general level of stress I had. Driving a moving van through town to get to my new office, I felt physically ill. I had never started a “real” business before, besides various random side-hustles that were both fun and gave me spending money. What’s more, I did not feel like an businessperson in the least.
Most businesspeople I had seen were old and male. They looked important. I did not want to be like them, nor could I really aspire to their level of influence as a woman in the business world. I just wanted to carve my own path in which I could sip coffee and listen to music and write about cool stuff every day. Low on funds to decorate my office, I furnished it with a commissioned painting of commas from my artist friend and secondhand store furniture. I got an ottoman from Target that I used as a standing desk, so I could be like the people I saw at NPR when I went on a tour there back in 2013 or so. I got a comfy chair at a discount from a Staples going-out-of-business sale.
My freelancing was low-key, and I was, too. It had felt like, since I left my prestigious graduate school program, nobody took me seriously in life. I also did not take myself seriously. When I worked on freelancing, I just felt like I was doing the high school and college writing assignments I did growing up, but weirdly, got paid. I daydreamed of being a kindergarten teacher, though I would never admit it at the time (something I get to do now as an English tutor!). I became tired of seeming important and creating a facade of importance.
Starting a business was not about being important to me. It was about making my business a formality for tax purposes. It was also one of those things that nobody else really cared about besides me. Friends and family saw me working, and had no idea what I was doing (just explaining science to people, I would say), but I freelanced every day, even through holidays. After all, I had student loans and credit card debt to pay. So, when my therapist suggested I become an LLC, I reluctantly took her advice.
When I became an LLC, I literally cried that such a thing was possible. Seven years before, I had left graduate school with a Master’s, when I was sure I’d be a PhD working in a science lab somewhere. People started to talk to me about “Fancy Comma,” a thing that I created that did not exist before then…so surreal.
It’s been almost four years and Fancy Comma, LLC is still going strong: through a pandemic and this most recent economic downturn. I didn’t do it all myself, but there’s nobody to stop me.
That’s the really cool thing for me about freelancing — that I can feel like nobody’s there to hold me back.
That’s not to say that freelancing is easy — when I started out, I was absolutely sure this would be my temporary job and that I’d just get some boring office job. That didn’t happen! Well, it almost did — my office became the U.S. Congress (a never-boring place) for a couple of months when I interned there in the late 2010s — but I was still doing the stuff I did as a freelance writer: analyzing, synthesizing information, and, oddly enough…writing. I’m pretty sure my research and writing skills helped me get the job.
Freelancing has been a place where I could get career wins when it felt that the whole world was closing career doors on me. When I went to a job interview and mentioned I was a freelance writer, I got a freelance job, though I did not get the job for which I interviewed.
In the past 10 years I’ve been freelance, I’ve learned that I love to work from home, I prefer yoga pants over boring office attire, and that I don’t need a lot to get high-quality writing done. I used to work in boring, stuffy offices, and now I can work from almost anywhere.
Sure, I don’t have a really flashy title by my name, but I love that there’s nobody to tell me “no” since I’m my own boss. When I was in grad school, my success hinged upon the approval of my advisor and program. The credit for my ideas wouldn’t often go to me — it would go to my advisor.
It’s not the same in freelancing at all. If I have a good idea, I can work on it, little by little, over time, to make it a reality. In fact, that’s how I wrote up my Master’s research 10 years after leaving grad school.
Sure, I’m not curing cancer these days, but I’ve learned that there’s more to solving difficult research problems than working on the problem itself. Just as important to curing cancer is telling lawmakers why they need to support and fund it — so the actual science can get done.
Of course, “success” differs from freelancer to freelancer. If you asked me what a successful freelance job would look like, I would tell you that it would be one in which I get to pursue my non-work passions alongside passion projects. The 9-to-5 life isn’t for me, and I’m okay with fitting in work here and there where my life allows. I’m on a mission to maximize both work and life happiness…and nobody can stop me.
What we’ve been up to this month:
We’ve blogged about books about unethical communication and ways to stress less in scientific writing.
For Veterans Day, we republished a story from The War Horse Blog about a writer’s retreat for military spouses.
Sheeva also interviewed a number of people for our YouTube (we now have 40 subscribers!):
That’s it for this month’s newsletter! If you liked it, make sure to share it with others!