Blurb: The short-term nature of projects lends more freedom to the writer, while keeping the interest high. Also, maintaining a work-life balance is infinitely easier when one is an academic writer.
A balance of work and life is one of the most essential aspects of successful professionals leading today’s complicated urban lives. This becomes a bigger concern for freelancers since they tend to take up a huge quantum of work. This happens for two basic reasons — the fear that they might hit a dry patch where work might slow down to a drizzle and effect their income; and, the guilt or apprehension that they would procrastinate and not work up to their potential makes them overfill their plate to avoid slacking.
However, overworking and/ or taking up more work than they can handle simultaneously can be detrimental and damaging to their confidence. And, here comes the perfect solution for this predicament. Academic Writing.
Academic writing is where writers are required to work of specific short term projects that allow them to manage their schedules better. The biggest advantage of academic writing is that all projects are distinct. Therefore, the writer is not required to commit to a huge workload at the very beginning. Projects generally range from small scale to medium scale. Thus, the writer has to deal with ‘small packets’ of work making project timelines and deadlines extremely easy to manage.
In addition to that, each project comes with a specific set of rules, guidelines, and list of requirements. The complete absence of ambiguity also helps the writer work faster. The definitive boundary of what and how much the writer can include in the work makes the entire process extremely hassle-free. Another godsend advantage is the fact that the writer a limited sources of information that they can refer to, making the research process easier and faster, which lends itself to make the entire project move faster.
What's more? Fixed deadlines. Each project has immovable deadlines that have to be met. Most projects would have a 24-hour to 48-hour deadline which are sacrosanct. The writers, therefore, have the advantage of choosing projects as per their convenience without fearing that they are losing on huge chunks of work if they pass on one project. Projects with shorter deadlines are easier to slip into one’s daily schedule without hampering the work-life balance that everyone seeks today. Also, the shorter deadlines leaves little to no time for procrastination which helps in improving the overall productivity. Also the feedback loop closes quite soon giving writers the opportunity to improve their work in real time.
Writers who do ‘free’lance writing are looking for the quintessential ‘free’dom; and for them academic writing is the best opportunity.