Journalism – Lisa Hughes

How to cope with self-doubt when you’re freelance

January 14, 2019January 13, 20193 Comments

I’ve never met a writer who wasn’t riddled with self-doubt. Pouring your blood, sweat and tears (oh, the tears) into each word and wondering with every syllable if you’re good enough. Word to the wise: don’t become a writer if you can’t face mental gymnastics each time you face a blank page. Continue reading “How to cope with self-doubt when you’re freelance” →

Productivity tips and tricks for freelance writers

July 19, 2017July 19, 20172 Comments

What’s the key to freelance success? Being productive when you work for yourself requires good old-fashioned discipline and ninja time management skills. At the risk of sounding like a 1980s business bible, time management is absolutely essential for freelance success. Of course there are other factors – being tenacious, pursuing all leads and just blind fate. But in my experience once you’ve mastered managing your time, you’ll hit your productivity stride, your clients will be happy enough to give you more work and the mythical work-life balance we hear so much about can actually happen. Continue reading “Productivity tips and tricks for freelance writers” →

Networking tips for people who hate networking

June 15, 2017December 20, 20182 Comments

‘It’s all who you know.’ Is there a more discouraging sentiment when you’re starting out in your career? After finding out that your arts degree is in fact worthless, I can’t think of a more sinking realisation than the one where you realise connections, not your First Class Honours degree or last slave labour internship, are what catapult you further up the ladder.

After a few years of feeling all ‘why me?’ about growing up in a small town and therefore having no ties to the all-important Dublin-centric media, I started to realise that the personal connections thing works both ways. If I could just bump into people and make a good impression…that was an opportunity to make the connections I was so lacking. Sounds easy, right?

There’s just one problem: I loathe networking. Continue reading “Networking tips for people who hate networking” →

Freelance writing tips: 5 lessons I’ve learnt

May 2, 2017May 2, 20173 Comments

I have a lot of opinions on being a freelance writer in Ireland in 2017. Although it’s offered me opportunities to work at companies I used to dream about while growing up in a small town, I still feel like the whole house of cards could collapse at any time, that every publication I write for could go the way of the dodo and we’ll all be replaced by ‘influencers’. Welcome to the Freelance Fear.

It’s an interesting but challenging time to be a journalist. Each week I hear that a journalist I thought was killin’ it has become a press officer or joined a tech company and there’s a strong sensation of ‘don’t wanna be the last one on this sinking ship’ when I meet other journalists, even editors. While it’s admittedly tough out there, at the same time it seems like everyone is a freelancer and there are few staff jobs anymore. In the US alone, more than a fourth of the workforce is now part of the freelance ‘gig economy’ so this way of working isn’t going away any time soon. Continue reading “Freelance writing tips: 5 lessons I’ve learnt” →