In case you missed my interview with She Leads Africa by Rafeeat Aliyu, click here.

Here’s the beginning:
Abigail Arunga used to be the Digital Editor for Zuqka.com before she subscribed to the ideal of happiness at work and quit her job for more sleep and less money. Before that and other subsequent mutinies, she worked as a contributor for several local Kenyan magazines such as Home and Living East Africa, DRUM and Saturday Magazine (Nation).

Now, Abigail is a 28-year-old (yeah, she can’t believe it either) writer, blogger, scriptwriter and committed lover of sleep. She is the author of Akello and a side of raunch, both (only slightly) sensual poetry collections, is trying to avoid questions about when the next volume is coming.

Abigail was also a scriptwriter for the award-winning soap opera “Lies that Bind” and continues to write for TV with shows such as “How to Find A Husband” and “Majaribu”. She began her writing career as an intern for Storymoja Publishers and is a 2011 honours graduate of USIU (don’t forget that. She thinks it is very important, mostly because she was surprised). Oh, and duh, she’s a feminist –who isn’t?

Here, Abigail shares her expert advice on surviving the struggle of being a freelance writer.

Did you always set out to be a freelance writer?

That was not the plan! Employment was kind of the plan. Until I got employed and realized I was not only a terrible employee, but I also hated having to be employed. Not because of the sweet salary, but because I hated having to answer to something outside of myself —no matter how nice that something was to me.

Small decisions, by the way, like not being able to stay home on my period, or having to ask to not come to work? It felt like a cage…