I have just been asked a question from a former colleague of mine, and it was about something that I hadn’t really thought about. It is because I work from home, and he thought that it was quite a difficult status to achieve. He had been trying for ages and wanted to know my secret. Well, I can’t think of a secret that I’ve adopted to be able to work from home. So I feel we best way to explain it is to say exactly how it all happened to me. Hopefully, you can find something in this story that you can use to help you start working from home, whether it be through your current employer, or starting a small business of your own.

Some years ago while I was living and working in Holland, a small company I worked for went into bankruptcy. It was all right for three of the four people in the office as they were contractors, who came from England, but to me it was slightly different. I had set up home in Holland. So, I had to keep the job of some sort is. As the company went into decline, one by one the other members of staff left. Just leaving me there in the office alone. Now I wanted to be able to have an income the next year after the company closed so I decided that I would keep working on the project’s. even though I wasn’t getting paid. This gave me a lot of contacts with the companies we were working for. With this one-to-one contact with the companies I achieved a reputation of wanting to get the job done, whatever the circumstances. So when the New Year came and I had no salary, I had to find another way of making an income. So I went to see an accountant, who helped me set up a one-man business. I then contacted the people I had been working for and said I would be willing to carry on with the project. They were quite happy with the continuity and therefore I started working to myself.

I realised that this work was not going to last forever, so I started advertising. Even though it was in a different language, being only an English speaker living in Holland, but that seemed to work well. The thing about technical writing, as opposed to any other kind of writing. It is not continuous, project based projects have highs and lows. They do not always need to be documented at that moment, seven hours a day, five days a week. So, people were quite happy to hire me on an hourly basis as long as the schedule was met. With long-term projects. I did fixed quotes, and then invoiced equally over the six-month, this gave me some kind of regular income. This also meant I had to find other tasks to occupy my time and also would fill my bank account. So I didn’t just stick to technical writing but looked at other aspects of the job and that included finding translators for people at desktop publishing. Basic illustration and consultancy. All these tasks got me out to meet people, and my name was passed about, which in itself was self publicity.

After a few years working like this I decided to move back to my roots in the United Kingdom. Because I did not have a reputation as a freelance writer. I went back into contracting, basing myself on site. I did this for approximately 18 months. Then I explained to the manager of the department I was working for that there was not really enough work to keep me occupied for 40 hours a week, probably only about 25. Obviously, this meant a cut in income, but it also meant a cut in expenditure for such things as travel, eating out, etc and also gave me more time with the family. Following on from this conversation, I suggested that I worked from home and came into for meetings once a week. In turn this would focus the other members of the software teams time on when they had to give me information to carry on with the project. Working on site meetings can be cancelled or pushed back or deadlines, switched very quickly, but if you state that you will be in on Thursday for a meeting. The meeting actually happens when and where it was set so therefore the project keeps on schedule and everybody’s happy. The manager was quite happy that his budget was not going over on documentation, and I was able to find more freelance work, while I was staying at home. Self publicity, again, I suppose.

Sometimes it is hard getting jobs where they do will allow you to work from home, but it all boils down to trust, your self belief belief and your ability to be able to get to their site in a reasonable time, if required.

So in conclusion, what I am saying about being able to work from home, is that it is a combination of getting people to trust you, having belief in yourself, self publicity, (that is the bit I don’t like really), and getting the job done on schedule on budget and correct. You must also be willing to do jobs that you wouldn’t normally do. They could be jobs that are on the periphery of your main task. For example, my main profession is technical writing, but I am quite happy to take jobs as a proof reader copywriter and editor at desktop publishing. You have to change the rates you ask, according to the task you’ve got but if you want the luxury of working from home, and it is a luxury. You have to be flexible.

So if you really want to work from home and stayed with the company you’re working for the best plan is to make a list of the benefits that you feel it could give to the company, how often you feel you would be happy with being on site, what you would be willing to give up, to be able to work from home and make sure you have the facilities to be able to work from home and still be in contact with the office during the working day. And now the difficult bit, finding your boss in a good mood and presenting your plans to him.

My estimate is that at any given time around two-thirds of the world’s adult educated population has thought about writing a book. What’s my basis behind that statistic? It’s the percentage of people that come up to me and tell me so when they find out that I am a writer and writing coach.

So if that is the case why aren’t we flooded with endless book releases? There are a variety of reason, of which here is a handful: Book publishers only take on about 1-2% of submitted manuscripts, self-publishing a book takes money and promotional knowledge to be successful, keeping yourself motivated whilst you write 40, 80 or 100 thousand works is tough, book writing isn’t always as easy, fun and riveting as it sounds.

However, if your sight is still firmly fixed on getting your book written here are some tips on novel writing that will hopefully see you not only finish your novel but raise a publisher’s interest in it.

Plot your story

A story is always easier to write if you know what is going to happen, when it is going happen and how all the other events and characters fit in around it. If you are unsure how to plot make the most of the vast selection of writing courses, books, e-books and even computer software created to help.

Make characters believable

If you have realistic characters that are absolutely believable they can almost hold any story together on their own. But once again this requires some forward planning, perhaps even before the story-plotting. Decide who your characters are, why they behave the way they do and what their traits are. This can be done in many ways, write their biography, their CV, pretend to interview them for a magazine article or even write a journal for them. How you do it is up to you, but having a profile and understanding of your characters will once again make writing about them smoother and easier.

Set yourself a writing goal

There is nothing like, thinking you’ll start your next chapter tomorrow to create procrastination. Decide how much time you can give to writing then set yourself an achievable date for your first draft. If that sounds too much set yourself a deadline for the first chapter. In this busy world it’s far too easy to let time go by because of distractions and other priorities. If your writing is important, set a goal and stick to it.

Prioritize your writing

Do you consider your writing or the fun you have writing worth your time on? Chances are that if you have read this far into the article your answer to this question is, ‘Yes’. If so, give your writing the respect it deserves. Put it up there on the top of your ‘To Do List’ with eating and sleeping.

Have fun

This may seem a funny one to some people, but as a writing coach and a mother of teenagers I know that it’s a lot easier to motivate yourself and others when you’re having fun. Add to that the fact that if you’re bored with your novel it will reflect in your style of writing and then become apparent to your reader. Let’s face it, who wants to read something that is even boring to the person creating it? So find ways to keep your writing exciting, goal setting is a great way to do this, as is your writing environment, software and equipment. Find what inspires you and stick with it.