There's a fine line, though, between keeping in touch with clients and pestering them. I try to make it a rule now to avoid calling people unless it's several months since they've been in touch. And when I do call, I make sure I have something specific to say or ask, rather than...

• risking long embarrassed silences
• expecting the person at the other end of the line to entertain me

I probably won't spend more than a couple of hours, making phone calls and e mailing in my efforts to get work. Much more than that and I'm afraid I might start to sound a bit anxious or desperate. If you haven't got anything to say, just shut up, is probably not a bad piece of advice.

When I've done my bit to try to move things along, I find it's better to put money worries aside and get on with something else. Luckily I've got something to get me through these lean times.

Sometimes, though, I even have to remind myself what that something is, so obsessed do I become with the idea of getting work. It's my writing I turn to when I feel I've invested a reasonable amount of time in furthering my business. I realise now, forced to think about it, that it is writing that led me to translation in the first place. I have long held an ambition to find a livelihood that would allow me some flexibility in order to be able to write.

Manual Labour?

For a while I thought the answer was manual work. I reasoned that doing something repetitive and far removed from the intellectual realm would give me a greater appetite to sit at my desk and be quietly creative. I'm not saying that mixing concrete or painting ceilings was bad for me, but it certainly never made me write more.

Quite the contrary: I found that after a day of digging or swinging a sledgehammer, the only things I could think of were beer and bed. Oh, and all that heavy work gave me a very bad back, so that now I wear a special belt when I sit down at my desk for any length of time.

Now that I've accepted I'm not getting any younger, I've dismissed heavy labour as a viable alternative. It's too distracting, apart from being exhausting. When at a loose end these days, I turn to my unfinished novel (well, hardly started really).

There's also the bunch of short stories that seem always to benefit from a further polish, new opening paragraph or total re- write. Then there are the various articles on topics like...

• the irritating mannerisms and catch phrases of television personalities
• the current state of relations between the sexes
• these pieces containing my perceptive and idiosyncratic insights into the world of translation

Out comes the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and I'm on the phone to magazine editors telling them all about a half-forgotten article that strikes me as not half bad.

Those short stories I sent out ages ago to three or four journals? Well, the fact they didn't use them means nothing. I obviously haven't tried hard enough. One thing I can say about getting into freelance translation is that it's certainly made me more tenacious and determined in other areas of my life. I've always fancied the idea of making a documentary but thought it was other people who did them. Today it strikes me as a perfectly reasonable and realisable ambition.

Translators and other professional linguists probably have as diverse a range of interests and enthusiasms as any other section of the population. Because of their openness and exposure to other tongues and cultures, the chances are they have far more interests than people from other walks of life.

So whether you're a philatelist or a lepidopterist, an amateur drummer or part-time philosopher, now, when things are quiet, is the time to indulge your other side. If you're short of work, don't sit staring at the phone, and do resist calling people if it's just to hear another voice.

Get out the model airplane kit, re-decorate the kitchen, dust down those neglected volumes of Proust and enjoy yourself while you can.

For my part, as soon as I've finished writing this article I've got every confidence that the phone will start ringing and the faxes flowing. Who knows when I'll next get a chance to think about the direction my novel should take. Or precisely what that documentary is going to be about.

John McCarthy lives in North London and translates/interprets from Spanish. He has also lectured in Translation at two London universities. He also writes reviews, articles and fiction.

John did indeed get a telephone call with work quite soon after writing this article. Funny how the world works isn't it?

My suggested alternative activities for building your business when you don't actually have income generating work are...

1) Marketing

• take another look at that CV or resume and chop out the excess. If you're not sure how, check out...

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• format it into a plain text email
• write a short and sweet covering email
• get hold of as many agency emails as possible
• fire away those emails

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2) Construction

• spend some time on your web site
• if you don't have one, learn how to do it...

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3) Horrible Jobs

• why not work on your accounts?
• get your tax return done ahead of the deadline this year?

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