Your writing bubble

One of the greatest challenges for freelancers is creating “the bubble.”

The impenetrable little cocoon of sanctity where you do your thinking, your writing, your creating… the stuff people are actually paying you for. 

All the other “functional” stuff we must do for our businesses; the marketing, the billing, the communicating… doesn’t require the same bubble.

In fact, I do my best to separate “admin” activities from the creative bubble. 

For instance, I’m writing to you now in my office, sunk into a leather sitting chair with my laptop resting on a stool – just two feet from my desk, where I do all the “command center” stuff. 

Twenty-four inches and a different seating position change my mindset because I’ve created the habit of writing creatively here, as opposed to there. 

Plus, Jessie prefers the desk chair and usually commandeers it whenever it’s open.

When I started writing copy, my “office” was a slab of concrete attached to our small house by thin aluminum walls. 

I spent endless hours out there tapping away, trying to find my groove. 

Winters were cold and summers were scorching. I installed an overambitious air conditioning “window unit” that rattled the entire room when it kicked on. 

On prospecting calls, business owners would ask, “What’s that noise? Are you near an airport?”

I was having a blast. 

You make it work. 

The biggest X-factor in creating a bubble is actually not your comfort…
it’s getting buy-in from the other people in your life.

Your family, roommates, friends… 

They need to see your discipline before they can respect your space.

My wife was incredibly supportive of my bubble time. 

Our kids were two, and less than a year old when I was spending eight hours at my job and several more at night in the bubble. 

I’d come home, we’d have dinner, bathtime, booktime, then I’d disappear until after Michelle was asleep. 

There’s no measuring the benefit of her confidence in me to make it pay off. 

If there are people in your life who aren’t bought into your mission (“bubble bursters”) do your best to sell them on it. 

If they refuse, then you have bigger decisions to make.