Huge relief or anticlimax?

I’ve had a manic few weeks since my last post, completely snowed under with work. I’m usually fairly good at planning my work schedule so that I have a reasonable workload, but just recently I’ve completely miscalculated. I just took on too much at the same time, with two big writing projects with final deadlines within a week of each other on top of a busy dictionary project. It’s meant weeks of working evenings and weekends, lots of stress and, at points, sheer panic and tears when I really didn’t think I could possibly fit everything into the time available. My health’s suffered, my brain’s frazzled and the rest of my life has been shockingly neglected, but this afternoon I finally sent off the last big batch of work – hooray!

It was a huge relief, but also a bit of an anticlimax – one project got no response at all when I sent the final manuscripts and today’s emailed materials just prompted an out-of-office reply! All a bit demoralizing when you’ve put your everything into getting stuff finished on time. But hey, I suppose that’s part of the freelancer’s lot – although you avoid all the hassle and politics of working in an office, you miss out on the pats on the back too.

Oh well, you just have to create your own rewards I suppose - time for a few evenings with my feet up and a glass of wine …