A friend once told me that I was "living the dream" as a professional freelance writer. When asked what they meant, they simply said: "Because you're your own boss, you work the hours you want and you get to see your children."

It's an interesting set of assumptions - because they're all completely wrong.

While I am (technically) my own boss - I'd argue that a boss (in the conventional sense) has been replaced by the fleet of customers I have on my books. They're all my bosses now. I suppose the one advantage is that the tables have been turned. I can choose whom I work with and "fire" any one my "bosses" if I want to.

And, yes, I do get flexibility in my hours. But I just worked for most of the bank holiday weekend as I listened to my children playing outside. So, that's points two and three of my friend's statement scuppered too. But, to be completely objective, I do get to pick my children up from school every day - I just have to work until 1am most nights to make up the hours.

Now, please don't think this is going to be a big rant about the woes of freelance writing. If you're thinking about a career as a freelance writer, I ABSOLUTELY recommend it (I even used capital letters to emphasise this point, which means I'm REALLY serious about this).

The best and worst part of my work is: I love it. Why's that a bad thing? Because I can't say no to the flurry of fascinating work that comes my way - so I always end up with too much on my plate.

Boo hoo. Poor me. What a chuffing first world problem.

​I could write a very smug and self-indulgent piece on why I LOVE my job. (Yes, capital letters again. I know you noticed.) But I don't think you'd want to read that. And I don't think I'd want to write that. (Which breaks the golden rule about only writing stuff you'd want to read.)

Anyway, the assumptions people make when I say I'm a freelance writer are intriguing. (My favourite question so far from someone I'd only just met is: "Are you writing the next Fifty Shades of Grey then?" No. I'm more geek than grey.)

So,  I was particularly fascinated by this white paper on The State of Freelance Writing in 2017 by the bods at Freelance Writing. It gives a fascinating insight into life as a professional freelance writer. Here's a synopsis of the findings:
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• Most freelance writers earn $10,000 or less annually
• Most freelance writers work less than 20 hours a week
• Those who earn 40K+ work full-time
• Most writers gained specialised expertise in previous jobs. This expertise then allowed them to be better freelance writers.
• Writers predict the industry will become more competitive
• Writers also predict they will continue on in the field for the foreseeable future

The full infographic is at the end of this post if you want to see all of the stats.

I was quite disheartened by the findings of this white paper. It seemed, on first inspection, to paint freelance writers as a struggling bunch of workers with a below-par income.

But, the middle sentence, really stuck a chord with me: Most writers gained specialised expertise in previous jobs. This expertise then allowed them to be better freelance writers.

And I think that may be the thing no one tells you about freelance writing:

I'm quite flattered when people ask me for advice on following a career as a freelance writer. I'll be honest, it's more luck than judgement that has led me to "living the dream".

But the one bit of advice I give time and TIME again (see, capital letters, this is important) is to (drumroll please): HAVE A SPECIALISM.

I've touched on the importance of a specialism before, and it's absolutely vital if you want to thrive and survive as a professional freelance writer.

Throughout my 10+ years as a writer, I've always focused on science and technology. After all, I have two degrees in physics, I've worked as a research scientist and software developer (amongst other things) and have an unhealthy obsession with Brian Cox. I write about the stuff I love and know about.

That's not all.

If you really want to succeed as a writer, you need to give your clients real value in everything you write. No one wants to read another listicle about the top 10 ways you can do XYZ - people want real insights from real people.

So, make sure you find your niche and work hard to become an expert in this area.

​Before I came up with the (dubious) tagline that "I'm the freelance writer who gets tech", I was part of the below $10K salary demographic identified in the Freelance Writing survey.

As soon as I started shouting about my expertise in science and technology, the work snowballed.

So, if you want to "live the dream" - you have to invest the time in that dream. You have to work out what you want to write about. Then, work your socks off to achieve that dream.

And try hard not to punch anyone in the face who claims you're "living the dream" as a freelance writer as you work until the wee small hours to make another ridiculous deadline.

After all, you're you own boss, right? And you can work your own hours, right? And when did you last see your children?

The real truth about freelance writing is: it's a tough job.

​But it rocks.

Here's the full infographic from Freelance Writing:

Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun - but it may have formed much closer to the Sun before moving to its present position.

Neptune rotates on its axis incredibly quickly - its equatorial clouds take only 18 hours to make one rotation - and it's also the smallest of the class of planets known as the "ice giants". Despite being smaller than Uranus, Neptune has a greater mass.

It also has a very thin collection of rings and has 14 moons. One moon, Triton, is a volcanic icy world and was recently discovered to have seasons.

Neptune's atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, helium and methane gases. Methane absorbs red light, so the planet has a rich blue hue. Below its atmosphere, you'd find a layer of water, ammonia and methane ice and the inner core is made up of rock.

The planet also has a very active climate. A large storm was recorded on its surface in 1989 (and can be seen in the above image) - it was called the Great Dark Spot and lasted approximately five years. 

The Great Dark Spot was discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is the only craft to have flown by the planet. The Hubble Space Telescope has also studied Neptune, as have many ground-based telescopes. In fact, a strange storm that's as wide as the Earth has recently been spotted on Neptune by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Believe it or not, scientists have theorised that Neptune and Uranus could produce "diamond rain" thanks to the combination of the high temperatures and pressures, and the hydrocarbons present on both planets.

It may sound a bit far-fetched, but this process has recently been reproduced in the lab. Unfortunately, the lab-produced diamonds were only a few nanometres thick - but Neptune and Uranus's diamonds could be far bigger.

And here's a great video on the blue planet from Astrum:

Right. Before I start writing this post, you can stop sniggering at the name of this planet. Uranus is the name of the Greek god of the sky. Although, it was almost called "Georgium Sidus" (after King George III) by the planet's discoverer - William Herschel.

Anyway, Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. One year on Uranus is equivalent to 84 Earth years and a day is only 17 hours and 14 minutes long.

​Uranus is also the third largest planet in the Solar System. Here's a quick scale reference where Ironman is the Earth and Uranus is a Galia melon. You could fit 63 Earths in Uranus.

Uranus was the first planet to be discovered using a telescope back in 1781. Herschel originally thought his discovery was a comet or star, before the observations of fellow astronomy Johann Elert Bode confirmed it was indeed a planet, and subsequently named this planet Uranus.

Uranus is an "ice giant" planet with 27 small moons and 13 faint rings of rock and ice debris. The planet is mostly made up of a hot and dense fluid of "icy" materials including water, ammonia and methane. There's no solid surface to land on and it also has a small rocky core that heats up to almost 5,000 degrees Celsius.

Its unique feature is that it orbits at almost 90 degrees from the plane of its orbit. In other words, Uranus looks like a ball rolling around the Sun.

Only one spacecraft has ever visited Uranus, which is almost three billion km from the Sun: Voyager 2.

It took the craft nine years to get there, before gathering a huge amount of information on the planet in just a six-hour flyby. The craft found that the temperature of the planet's Sun-facing pole is the same as the temperature at its equator and that there may be an ocean of boiling water about 800 km below the cloud tops.

Voyager 2 also discovered 10 news moons, two new rings and a strong, tilted magnetic field on Uranus.

If you're ever in the beautiful city of Bath in the UK, then check out the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. There's not just some great information on the discovery of Uranus, but the work the Herschels did on astronomical instruments and the mathematics of astronomy is fascinating. William worked alongside his sister Caroline, who helped him to develop the modern mathematical approach to astronomy.

The Hubble Space telescope also spotted a huge shimmering region on Uranus earlier this year, which is believed to be caused by powerful bursts of solar wind.

​And here's a great video on Uranus from Altrum:

The Cassini space probe will begin to spiral to its death tomorrow after giving us some of the most spectacular images of the planet Saturn - so this seems like quite a fitting Sunday Science post. More on Cassini later. 

​Saturn is one of the most recognisable planets in our Solar System thanks to its characteristic rings, which are made up of chunks of rock and ice.

​It's not the only planet to have rings (Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune do too) - but it is the second largest planet circling the Sun and farthest planet from Earth that can be observed by the unaided human eye.

Saturn is a gas giant planet, which means it is big and, um, mainly made up of gas. Just like Jupiter (another gas giant), Saturn is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium gases.

The centre of the planet is also remarkably similar to Jupiter's core, although it is slightly smaller. The core is a dense mix of ice, water, rock and other compounds, which are enveloped by liquid metallic hydrogen.

The days on Saturn are short (believed to be 10.7 Earth hours - but this is difficult to measure) but the years are long as the planet takes 29 Earth years to orbit the Sun.

Saturn also has seasons, just like on Earth, thanks to its tilt with respect to the Sun. 

And here's a fun fact - Saturn is the only planet in the Solar System that's less dense than water. So, you could float it your bath tub - if you could find a big enough one!

Oh yes. As mentioned, the Cassini spacecraft has been whizzing around the planet for 13 years. While the images are stunning and have revealed more detailed information about Saturn - there have been some interesting developments in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.

​One of Saturn's (confirmed) 53 moons - Enceladus - has a global saltwater ocean under its icy crust. Cassini has had Enceladus in its sights for some time - it first detected signs of an icy water plume in early 2005. Could the moon harbour life near hydrothermal vents? It's one of several ways life could exist on Saturn's moons.

Another one of Saturn's moons - Titan - has also just been added to the list of candidates for supporting life in the Solar System. And two other Saturnian moons - Dione and Tethys - could also be hiding liquid under their icy exteriors.

Saturn is a beautiful - and much photographed - planet. Check out NASA's image gallery here and you can see Cassini's images here. 

Here's an extensive list of facts about Saturn and a lovely 4K resolution video from Astrum: