Freelancers & COVID-19

From Warren Ellis’s weekly newsletter —>

I said to someone on Friday afternoon, in some shock as it dawned on me: “I’m actually bored.” I mean, I’ve got stuff to do. But almost none of it is pressingly Right Now Do It Do It Now Now Now. With my intended upcoming comics projects wiped out, a lot of the daily pressure went out of the room too. … I’m hoping my ability to focus comes back soon, but The Thing We’re All Doing is clearly fucking with me at this point. I’m writing this bit on Friday, and the day was frankly a wash. I suspect I’m still in the grey zone of having lost so many projects and dealing with the sudden inrush of air into the space they filled. ¹

Reading this was interesting for me because I’m still very much buried under stuff that I wish I could ha e gotten to last week…

Be that as it may, reading this made me realize how many freelancers are probably being affected by the continuation of the great COVID-19 slowdown.

Having been a freelance therapist before I know how much of an economic hit things outside your control can take. For me (as a therapist in the American Midwest) it was when things shit down due to extreme cold. Those shutdowns would only last a few days, but it took those few days of income away from me, and that hurt. This COVID-19 stuff is going on for months and I’m not sure we can see the end yet.