The other day I was telling a friend about my new gig at Suite101 as the Freelance Writing Feature Writer (which I’m tempted to call the “FWFW” just because) and this pal, who I have known for about ten years said, “What kind of writing do you do now?” (As in, tell me again what it is you do?)

LOL!

Yes, I laughed out loud, because this is a question I get fairly often. I told my friend not to worry, because half the time even my family isn’t sure what exactly I do. One day my mom even printed off an article from a guy that wrote about dating, and told me I “should try and get into this.” Of course, I’ve been doing that for years now.

I’m not sure why it’s so difficult to understand what I do, but maybe it’s the fact that I work from home. I think for most people, it’s hard to imagine getting anything substantial done when you’re a room away from a television, pj’s, and chocolate.

So back to the question. Here’s the answer: I am a freelance writer for a variety of different clients. I usually put links to my online writing gigs (Suite101, Blisstree, EveryJoe, etc.) down in my blogroll. I get paid for things like this. (Yes, really.) I also have a few of my own blogs (dating, diabetes, and writing related) and those are in the roll, too.

But I also write for private clients. I write the occasional magazine article, some corporate blogging gigs, and odds and ends from people who need a writer’s assistance. (I don’t have links to those because they are either done on a ghostwriting basis or are done off-line.)

I think the other thing that throws people off are the books I write. There are some people (and God bless ‘em!) that believe I am a famous novelist because I’ve written a book or two. I can tell you that my books do make money, but the vast majority of my income stems from freelance writing. The books do a variety of other things for me, however. They add credibility, get me some cool radio and interview gigs, and occasionally, new freelance writing jobs. I was once offered a very lucrative freelance writing job that I did for years (even before I was a full-time freelancer) strictly from a book I wrote. Suffice it to say I hope to always write them.

Hope that explains what I do. Now that we’ve covered that, what do you do?