The downside of an editing job is that it is very hard to price, at one end of the scale are the simple jobs which involve correcting grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, these types of projects are great. At the nasty end of the scale are the projects which require huge amounts of re-writing of the original copy, these can often be more time consuming than writing the pie\e from scratch would.

It can be really hard to gauge which type of editing is required from a project brief, it can really be an "open the can and take a look" kind of deal, sometimes the contents are tasty, at other times you wish you could put the lid back on.

As a UK native, this used to be a problem for me, there are many differences between UK English and American English, spelling and grammar are the two most obvious, but it goes deeper than this, tun of phrase, slang, sentence structure, all of these things are quite different.

I have gotten quite good at writing in the American style over the years, but recently I have been having the reverse problem. I am writing more and more for the American audience, so much so that when I am writing for my UK clients, I find myself using the American style. It is very odd to find this happening, and quite surprising in it’s own way.

I have experimented with many portable devices in the past, nothing really fits the bill perfectly, a laptop is just too cumbersome to carry around all day, a smartphone is just impossible to use for word processing, even if it has a QWERTY keyboard. As a freelance copy writer I need a decent keyboard, not necessarily full size, but comfortable and useable.

Recently I have been experimenting with an Asus EEE PC, and I have to say it’s pretty useful, the keyboard is ok, I can type quite quickly on it, although the layout is a little strange. The major problem is the screen size, I have the 7" model, which has a native resolution of 800 x 400 pixels, just a little too small to be comfortable. My only other gripe with it, is the fact it has no built-in Bluetooth connectivity, so I have to use a dongle.

Overall it’s been great so far, so much so that I am considering switching to the new model, which has a larger screen and runs at 1024 x 800 resolution.

Possibly the most awkward thing for me, is the fact that I always seem to find myself either deathly quiet on the work front, or snowed under. Yesterday was a great example of this, I was just finishing off a fairly heavy project, and had very little else lined up for the next few days, in truth I was looking forward to a short break.

So what happens just as I save the final copy of the dissertation I had been working on? My email icon lights up, and there in my mailbox are two new, very large projects, both with tight deadlines. In a normal working environment, you would explain to whoever assigned you these projects that you do not have enough time to complete both before the deadline. As a freelance writer, I cannot afford to turn any of my established clients away, I do not want them taking their business elsewhere, so I have to accept both projects and burn the midnight candle again.

This is the only major problem I have with being a freelance writer, and I can see no way to make this issue less challenging, but then again, I am not sure I really would want too.

I think the strangest task, must have been the freelance writing I did for an adult website, I basically had to right naughty stories. This actually almost got me into trouble with my young lady. I use voice recognition software sometimes, especially when I am writing something that needs very little research. So I was sitting on my balcony, in my hammock, with a headset on and dictating adult stories to my laptop.

After about an hour of this, my girlfriend comes storming up the stairs, flying out on to the balcony with a face full of rage. She looks a little confused though, and after a few moments she starts laughing. She thought I was on the phone, talking dirty to another girl!

Who would have thought being a freelance writer could present you with such a strange problem? Luckily she was used to seeing me working this way and understood.