I found Chrissie Stephen sitting on a wooden bench in the local park and quickly writing her thoughts into a small notebook. She greeted me with a huge smile and laughed as she explained –
‘I have discovered that it is essential to always have pen and paper with me as I never know when I am going to be inspired! I have also found that I need to write every day. I have tried going on holiday several times without taking a notebook with me and end up running into the local shop to buy one as I am missing my writing!’
Chrissie has loved writing since she was eight years old and says that she was often reprimanded for writing too much in exam papers! She has large and very clear handwriting and when she was sitting her GCSE English Literature managed to complete 30 pages!
‘I went to a convent school and the nun who taught me, said that she felt sorry for the poor examiner who must have been exhausted by the time they had finished reading my exam paper!’
Chrissie started to write as a hobby when she became an Army wife and was living in Germany. Every time they moved, Chrissie managed to get work with local newspapers and magazines which she loved. When they were living near Southampton, she was highly delighted when she landed a job with the leading women’s magazine Family Circle as a food tester –
‘This was great fun, but my children found it very strange that I was giving them different Christmas puddings to sample in August!’
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The family lived in Cyprus for a number of years where Chrissie worked on the military newspaper and garrison magazine and also wrote for several magazines and newspapers that she helped to launch for the English-speaking communities in Paphos, Limassol and Larnaca. By this time, she had also begun writing feature articles for in-flight and hotel magazines – which she particularly enjoyed. She also tried her hand at writing short stories for both adults and children and to her delight, several were published.
After a short spell in the UK, in 2015 Chrissie moved to live in south-west France and within a year and following the closure of the main airlines that she wrote for, she suddenly found herself without any writing work. She quickly began to research online to find freelance writing opportunities and joined several freelance websites. She soon landed some work writing hotel and resort descriptions, but felt that she had not found the ideal website for her.
On further investigation, she came across Upwork. The website was clear and easy to navigate, and she was soon applying for a variety of jobs. To make an application for a job you need to pay in a given number of ‘connects’ – these are virtual tokens and can be bought quickly and easily on the website – with the money being deducted from your earnings. To add to the fun, if you are applying regularly for jobs, you are given surprise bonus connects – something Chrissie feels is a fun incentive.
‘In the early days, the most difficult part was knowing how much to bid for a job. Competition has always been very strong and it is not unusual to see that there have been more than 50 other applications for the job that caught your eye. You can apply for a job giving the cash amount that you would like for it, or you can bid with an hourly rate. If you get this type of job it is crucial to keep an accurate time sheet – something I am hopeless at doing so I always suggest a set amount and clients are usually quite happy!’
Usually, if your application has been successful you will be contacted within 2- 4 days. Chrissie has written for clients in many different countries and has completed academic papers, lifestyle blogs and feature articles on a variety of subjects – both for publications and websites. She has also written regional travel guides that have been published on Amazon and has ghost written e-book on gut health and good eye health.
‘I am very lucky because I thoroughly enjoy working for clients long term as you have the chance to get to know them and exchange a few comments about local weather problems or world events. I have been writing for some of my clients for more than five years, so it feels lovely and sociable. An increasing number are using zoom through the website to meet the candidates for their work.
Chrissie likes the way that writers are protected by Upwork. When clients advertise a writing job they are requested to deposit the amount that they are going to pay for the job in Escrow. They can then trigger its release when the work has been successfully completed.
In the beginning Chrissie was slightly disappointed to find that Upwork takes 20% of all money earned on the website. On two occasions, she had problems getting paid by clients and each time Upwork has stepped in automatically to deal with the situation and to release the funds-
‘I think it is well worth paying for this level of protection and importantly, without Upwork, I would not have been applying for the work in the first place. On each occasion when I have contacted the Upwork Help Desk, I have been really impressed by the speed and efficiency with which my problem has been solved. The moment you contact the Help Desk your query is allocated to a designated member of the team who is swiftly in contact with you – something I find really reassuring’.
‘I do think that the website has been really well designed with great attention to detail. Your wages are paid in dollars at the end of each month, but you can request them as you go along if you prefer. At any time, you can see what your pending earnings are and you can scroll back through past payments. When you are searching for new jobs, you are always notified when previous clients are advertising a new job. You can also add filters to your search that include certain types of work, particular countries as well as the level of writing required and the number of applicants for the job’.
Chrissie certainly sounds delighted with her freelance writing and admits it is ideal as it can be wrapped around her day job and family commitments-
‘I love the fact that I have had some amazing jobs including researching about endangered whales, proofreading a book on The Beatles and writing about the stories behind famous poems. It really is great fun’….
