The Freelance Rules #15 - Stay on top of your game

I'm not sure whether this entry counts as a warm-up to the writing I need to complete today or just a displacement activity. I'll tell myself it's the former but it's probably the latter. In fact, my last 90 minutes since I turned on the PC has largely been displacement. I've chased a couple of late payments (when am I not chasing money?); I've set up a meeting in London on Monday to make my day there more valuable and I've done some pretty basic but necessary admin. And all the time, what I should really be doing remains looming on the side of the desk - a 16 page brief for training materials that need  to be completed today.

Think about that: a 16-page brief (with five supporting documents) for an e-learning script that will probably come out around 2000 words.

Much of my time, I'm really engaged by the projects I get involved in. Working to discover the barriers to youth employment has been fascinating; a series of recent case studies around sustainable cultivation in Asia and Africa has opened my eyes to the issues facing small farmers in the developing world; and even helping two very different organisations relaunch their intranets on the SharePoint 2010 platform has been something I've been really able to get my teeth into.

Capability

But one of the first things any half-decent freelancer must become acutely aware of is that not every piece of work will be quite so fascinating. Some will present no challenge; others may be on the edges of your skill-set and you might wonder why some other projects have come your way at all. But, as long as the piece of work is within your capability to deliver, you will succeed as a freelancer only if you pay the same care and attention to the piece as something you're passionate about.

You will only get the repeat business that's the lifeblood of freelancing, and only see your name spread positively beyond your direct clients if you bring the same professionalism to the most mundane and boring project as you do to those that really make your heart sing.

I spent much of Wednesday on my particular elephant in the room. My client knows I was reluctant to take it on (I consider creating e-learning materials a very particular skill and it's an area I don't usually get involved in.). But she convinced me that this particular scripting piece within a far bigger project was actually both within my skillset and that she considered me the best person for the job. Flattery really can work.

So, on Wednesday I got my head around the brief and read through all the source material. While I'm fairly neutral on the subject matter, it was frankly hard to get enthused by a series of dry, academic, analytical reports that provide my base material.

Still, I got my material in order, started prioritising what my client sees as the key points and began constructing my argument - essentially my script narrative. I'm about two fifths in now and the job so far is competent, workmanlike and solid. It hasn't yet come to life.

Inspiration

At some point today, drafting the remaining script sections I hope it will come to life. I hope that something clicks and I suddenly get the inspiration that will draw this together as a cohesive whole rather than a series of separate sub-arguments. I can feel the links bubbling just under the surface, but that sustaining narrative hasn't yet percolated to the front of my mind. Often when I'm writing, be it a plan or a script or a piece of editorial, that idea will be there from the start - that makes the end product so much quicker and easier to produce. But sometimes, as with this piece, it's a bit of a grind. It may well be that in three or four hours when I have all the components assembled, I'll look at it and see what I've missed so far.

What I do know is that I have to get a piece that I'm proud of over to my client by end of play today. Anything less lets me down, lets her down and will not fulfil the brief for her internal clients. This may not be my favourite piece of work this month, but it has to stand tall alongside everything else I'm involved in.

I've actually written myself into a better mood for completing the assignment. Now to ensure that the mood lifts a dry subject into a cohesive script - better still if I find that spark that will make it compelling.

A wreck - but on a high

I'm a total wreck today, but on an emotional high that's surging adrenaline through my veins and bringing renewed vigour to even the most mundane tasks.

Physically, I'm still suffering the effects of a recent stomach bug, and every meal's currently a case of Russian roulette. But slowly I'm improving. The swelling's finally gone down on my cracked knuckle, though it's still tender to the touch and still hampering my already lousy typing. And to cap things off, I've got a stubborn summer cold that has glued up one ear ever since I flew to Scotland 10 days ago. So at the moment I'm a particularly unappetising prospect.

But I've finally settled into the rhythm on my current editing/rewriting project and what looked like a train crash of good intentions and questionable process is slowly coming together as useful and usable intranet content. I now have one contact to deal with rather than a deluge of conflicting information from many, and we're groping towards a way of working that suits us both.

A couple of other pieces of work have come my way this week including, deliciously, some scripting on a video covering the internal problems the company is having paying suppliers. The irony is that it's for the company that always pays me late and, having taken on the writing at the 13th hour, I've knocked out the job without a purchase order!

So what's given me the new energy? It's probably the cloud I've been riding on ever since about 8.35pm yesterday when Middlesex CCC defeated Lancashire to reach finals day of cricket's Twenty20 Cup.

I've supported 'the Middle' for over 30 years - having first made my way to Lord's at the age of 12 to watch the likes of Gatting, Brearley, Daniel and Edmonds. For the first decade of my love affair with the club, they could do no wrong, regularly picking up trophies. But for the past 20 years, the cupboard's been pretty bare, and I've got used to season on season of underachievement.

But something's changing at St. John's Wood, and a new breed is emerging: talented players who've got the appetite for winning and don't realise when they're beaten.

At about 6pm last evening, in the unfamiliar surroundings of The Oval, Middlesex were 21-4. Lancashire were rampant having ripped the heart from Middlesex's batting. An hour or so later, 'Sex left the field 176-8. Moments before, Dawid Malan had departed for 103, scored at almost two runs a ball. He'd lashed the Lancs bowlers all around the field, turning near disaster into hope.

That hope turned to joy about 90 minutes later when Tyron Henderson splattered Dominic Cork's stumps all over the square and Middlesex were heading to finals day for the first time since 20/20 began in 2003.

Malan was immense, but so was Middlesex as a team. In 32 years of supporting my home County, I've never been so proud. It was one of those perfect games of cricket. I wanted Middlesex to win and they duly did having put my heart through a blender first. I wanted Lancashire's talisman, Andrew Flintoff to do well - and he did with 50-odd runs and three wickets. And, in this gloomy summer, I wanted the sun to shine - and even that fell into place.

Surrey members had been let into the match free, and there was one in particular in the lower tier of the pavilion where I was seated who moaned about Middlesex and declaimed loudly how inferior they were to his side throughout the evening. Even he had to swallow a large helping of humble pie by the end (and Surrey are precisely where this season, sir?)

I grew up on the exploits of Slack, Butcher, Barlow, Radley and the spin twins, Edmonds and Emburey. Now the likes of Godleman, Joyce, Morgan, Malan, Finn, Murtagh and the rest may just be propelling Middlesex back to cricket's high ground.

They've won nothing yet, but they've put me on a high today, despite the rain, my lack of sleep and the mountain of editing I've still to do.

Sometimes inspiration comes from most unexpected sources.