{"id":3713,"date":"2015-09-26T01:24:53","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T08:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harperkingsley.net\/blog\/?p=3713"},"modified":"2023-10-17T23:37:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T06:37:13","slug":"mental-illness-and-the-freelance-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/mental-illness-and-the-freelance-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Illness and the &#8220;Freelance&#8221; Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How do people do the freelance writer thing? It seems near to impossible to me. But then again, there are some days when I can barely crawl my way out of bed.<\/p>\n<p> There are times when the dom\/sub, master\/slave, caretaker\/caretook dynamic of fiction is really appealing to me. Because for sure, I cannot take care of myself. I&#8217;m not being facetious or anything. I literally have doubts about my ability to care for myself. And that&#8217;s frightening.<\/p>\n<p> I&#8217;m tired of being scared. I would like to live a somewhat normal life. Where there&#8217;s always food in the fridge and clothes to wear. Maybe a strong partner that can handle home repairs as easily as they succeed at their career.<\/p>\n<p> I hate the anxieties that eat away at me. From the things I cannot handle (<i>house, car, boat,<\/i> life) on my own to what direction I&#8217;m supposed to be moving in. The future seems so uncertain. And I know there are some days when I won&#8217;t leave my house.<\/p>\n<p> It&#8217;s weird. To be so comfortable in the box that I can&#8217;t get myself to leave it. Though sometimes it&#8217;s not so comfortable, yet I&#8217;d rather endure some self-imposed hardship than go to the store. Because I hate that people look at me (<i>chest, butt, face, teeth<\/i>) and try to force-meet my eyes. And I hate that sometimes I relish their gazes (<i>commanding the room<\/i>) and other times I want to cringe away (<i>stop<\/i> staring <i>at me! I belong to myself<\/i>).<\/p>\n<p> And in all that confusion &#8212; where I find myself running calculations on notebook paper just to experience some semblance of control &#8212; it&#8217;s easy to lose track of time.<\/p>\n<p> Unless I can find someone to manage me, I despair of ever having a lucrative freelance career.<\/p>\n<p> I&#8217;m just too terrified to reach out for that golden opportunity<i>.<\/i> And those times when I feel brave enough to take on the whole world&#8230; I&#8217;m manic and should not be trusted with anyone&#8217;s heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do people do the freelance writer thing? It seems near to impossible to me. But then again, there are some days when I can barely crawl my way out of bed. There are times when the dom\/sub, master\/slave, caretaker\/caretook dynamic of fiction is really appealing to me. Because for sure, I cannot take care&hellip;<\/p>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/mental-illness-and-the-freelance-writer\/\" title=\"Mental Illness and the &#8220;Freelance&#8221; Writer\" class=\"entry-more-link\"><span>Read More<\/span> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mental Illness and the &#8220;Freelance&#8221; Writer<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"Layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-harperkingsley0-0","post-3713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-kindled"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pPoL-XT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3602,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/letters-trust-myself-in-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":3713,"position":0},"title":"Letters: Trust myself in you.","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"March 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I love to write. There's something beautiful and wonderful about words, a magic that goes much deeper than pen, ink, or a digital image on a screen. It is unfortunate, but words don't really pay a whole lot and the human body needs food to live. The brain is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Real Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Real Life","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/real-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4307,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/ive-found-a-love-for-the-bronte-sisters\/","url_meta":{"origin":3713,"position":1},"title":"I&#8217;ve found a love for the Bronte sisters","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"March 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I've found a love in myself for the Bronte sisters. I'm a bit interested in what was going on between Charlotte and Anne, that's for sure. Seriously, read their Wikipedia entries. They're a novel of their own. Like their birth order, start with Charlotte first. She seems to have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mailed&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mailed","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/kindled\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4443,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/issues\/","url_meta":{"origin":3713,"position":2},"title":"Issues","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"May 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my fifth (sixth?) time attempting to write this. It's nothing too bad. I promise. It's just that money is a problem, and as I currently am, I cannot make or hold onto a whole lot of it. It's pissing my family off. I feel like I've been on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Self-Care&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Self-Care","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/self-care\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2374,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/my-trees-are-pollinating\/","url_meta":{"origin":3713,"position":3},"title":"My trees are pollinating","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"April 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The maple trees are sending out little white and yellow specks of dust. Just a rippling tide floating out of the air. Tiny dry specks that can be blown away. I should write that. A society so advanced they use plants to breed. Your DNA added to some beautiful tropical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mailed&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mailed","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/kindled\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3298,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/whats-up-buttercup-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":3713,"position":4},"title":"What&#8217;s up buttercup?","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"November 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I am currently attempting to NaNo, but it seems like today is the one where everyone wants to have a conversation with me \u00af\\_(\u30c4)_\/\u00af What is NaNoWriMo? Well, it means National Novel Writing Month, and it lasts all through November. Basically, everyone spends all of November trying to write a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mailed&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mailed","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/kindled\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6946,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/11-june-2025-0414\/","url_meta":{"origin":3713,"position":5},"title":"11 June, 2025 04:14","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"June 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Proper aftercare is essential in all walks of life. Sometimes I wish I'd take better care of myself. I wash my hands and forearms. I wash my face and neck. I have washcloths. I moisturize my skin when I remember, though I know I should take better care. So it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/11-june-2025-0414\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6160,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713\/revisions\/6160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}