Jen Miller, a New Jersey girl as well as being an author, blogger and freelance writer, deflates these and other popular myths about writers who work for themselves in an excellent post on her blog, Down the Shore with Jen.

Freelance writers are essentially entrepreneurs, and anybody who’s ever worked for themselves knows, when you’re the boss you have to work twice as hard because there’s nobody else there to pick up the slack. When you freelance, there are no paid sick days, vacations or holidays – if you’re not working, you’re not making money.

And just because you make your living writing doesn’t mean you spend all your time putting words on the page. Miller figures she spends 30 percent of her time writing. Other freelancers only spend 15 percent of their time writing. The rest of their time is devoted to researching publications, pitching ideas, doing interviews, chasing invoices, blogging, networking and maybe, just maybe, cleaning the office.

When it comes down to it, freelancing is like any other job. It’s work, and it comes with all the good and bad of any kind of work. But for the independent minded, it’s work where satisfaction is guaranteed.

That’s what New Jersey freelancer Jen Miller discovered when she pitched a World Series story to the sports section of the New York Times – and then another, and another.

Miller doesn’t normally cover sports. But she’s a Phillies fan and had just read a piece in a writers’ newsletter about who to pitch at the Times. So when the World Series was underway and she got an idea for a related story, she sent an email. To her surprise, she got a quick answer and a quick sale.

Jen explains exactly how it happened in this post on her blog, Down the Shore.

The bottom line – when you get inspired, follow through – and quickly. And don’t be afraid to aim high.

Because sometimes it is all about being in the right place at the right time with the right idea.

But I can’t do Twitter. At least not yet.

There’s only so many hours one person can devote to online social networks, and only so many social networks to keep track of, and right now, I’m drawing the line at Twitter.

Call it social network overload. Using social networks is a great way to stay connected with friends and colleagues. And as I’ve written before, it’s helped me find sources and led to writing assignments. But it’s easy to cross the line from awesome productivity tool to awful time suck.

A lot of writers I know have joined Twitter, the micro-blogging site where you write “tweets” about work or life in 140-letter increments and sign up to read other people’s posts. Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist blogger, is a fan. So are a couple dozen of the freelancer writers I hang out with at Freelance Success, the subscription-based message board for professional writers. Some writers use it to help promote their books or blog. Jen Miller, a New Jersey freelance writer and author of The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide: Including the Wildwoods explains how she’s using Twitter to promote the book in this article on Mediabistro.com, the Website for freelancers (NOTE: You need to be a Mediabistro member to read the story).

I already spend at least an hour a day on my social networks and this blog. I can’t see how I could add Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, GoodReads, RedRoom, or any of the half-dozen social networks people have invited me to join without cutting into the time I spend doing other work, like researching and writing articles.

Researching this, I found posts dating back to 2004 from blogger complaining about social network overload. The names of the social networks may have changed since then, but it’s the same problem. It’s also an issue some of the best-known minds in the business are grappling with. If you have 55 minutes and $15 to spare, you can hear what Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson thinks about the future of social networks and the media in this video clip from the recent Mediabistro Circus conference.

No doubt there are tools out there that could help me streamline my social networking activities – if anyone knows of good ones, let me know. Eventually, I could change my mind and join Twitter or GoodReads. For now, call me a Luddite, Twitter challenged or just plain behind the times. I’m happy with the social networks I have, but no more.