I finally managed to finish my accounting job. Feb 2 was my first day of freelance writing full time. I managed to get a lot of writing done.

I had a goal of writing 4 to 5 Demand.com articles a day. I focused on that and by Thursday had 15 done. I hated it. Demand requires a certain format for their articles. You can’t deviate. It is very restricting. But they pay you on time every week.

Did you noticed I stopped at Thursday? My son woke up on friday with a 102.5 temp. It was a scary day with his fever going as high as 103.9 and him not recognizing me for a few moments. He was sick on and off until wednesday. The doctor said he could go to school Friday the 13th, but I kept him home because his immune system was compromised from the steroids.

So week 2 of my freelance writing career was spent taking care of a very sick 4 year old. I managed to write one article all week.

I also found out that I am going to owe a hefty sum to the IRS for taxes, my husband’s car failed emissions and we have to get it fixed before we can get the tag for it. Oh, and I got a rejection letter.

Overall a very bad week. No income and a rainstorm of bills.

I wish I could say I stayed strong and knew my choice to follow my dream was the right one the whole time- but I didn’t. I have been having some major doubts and have barely managed to keep my head.

Week one had me so sick of writing and then week two had me worried sick about my son. It’s been tough.

But here is what I have learned, which I already knew but forgot. I need to write for better paying markets and I need to write for a variety of them. My mistake was thinking I could replace my income- or almost replace it right away.  I could do that writing 32 Demand articles a week, but I would be miserable beyond belief.

I knew this would be a hard thing to do and I knew that it wouldn’t happen overnight. I need to keep working. Wash, rinse, repeat as my mentor, Michy always says.

I am not a risk taker by nature, so this whole journey has been scary for me. Plus I have always been really good at my job. I don’t get bad reviews. So rejection is hard for me. It is something I need to get used to as a writer, because I am going to hear it a lot.

One highlight of the last 2 weeks was seeing my name under pending interview here. Pending author interview. That’s right, Rissa Watkins, author.

So I am ready for week 3 of the writing career. Here’s hoping I get some good news and make some money. Otherwise I’ll be trying to pay the tax man with copies of the book.