Would you like to establish a career as a freelance writer? Follow the suggestions below and your dream could become a reality.<\/p>\n
1: Make time to write. Usually this means making some sacrifices. What are you willing to give up in order to write? Sleep, TV, Internet surfing, clubbing or perhaps overtime at work? <\/p>\n
2: Be realistic about your writing choices. Perhaps you dream of supporting yourself by writing stories for your favorite romance magazines. Or maybe you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to become a novelist. It is extremely difficult to break in as a career writer of fiction. If fiction is your writing bag, but you want to write for money, I urge you to write fiction on the side, if you want, but pursue a mode of writing that is more likely to produce the monetary results you are seeking.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I recommend: start writing articles for magazines, seek freelance writing work in corporate offices or on the Internet or produce some how-to booklets on topics related to your expertise, for example. <\/p>\n
3: Use your time wisely. Becoming a successful freelance writer takes discipline and realistic scheduling. Failure comes to those who procrastinate. Those who succeed in this business have found a way to organize their lives and discipline themselves. <\/p>\n
4: Just start. It’s NOT easy to transition from full-time office worker to full-time writer. Most of us don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the funds to support us while we build a new business. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always have 12 or even 8 hours each day to spend working my freelance writing business. I built it over time. For any of you who are interested, here is my story:<\/p>\n
I started writing articles for magazines from a corner of my bedroom using a manual typewriter in 1973. Thirteen years later, however, it became necessary for me to take a full-time job. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just spent 5 years researching and writing a comprehensive local history book and self-publishing it. So funds were low and my lifestyle was in transition. <\/p>\n
With a full-time job, there no longer was time to write. How I missed it. While I had a good job with lovely people around me, I hated working for someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u201don someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agenda. And it looked as if this would be my future. I became despondent. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when I realized that I had to find a way to write no matter what else was going on in my life. <\/p>\n
I started getting up at 4 every morning and writing before I went to work. Then I would write on weekends. I completed an entire book in 8 months on that schedule. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even begin to describe how fulfilled I felt. But I wanted more. I wanted to come home and establish a writing business. So I began to use that time in the wee hours of the morning to submit articles to magazines\u00e2\u20ac\u201dremember, this was before the ease of the Internet. Within a year, I was able to quit my job and come home to write. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never looked back. <\/p>\n
5: Write what they<\/em> want. You have to go where the paying work is and accept the jobs that are available. While I never compromised my values in order to get paying work, I have certainly had to take some challenging and sometimes uninteresting jobs in order to keep the flow of money coming my way.<\/p>\n I have written campaign material for school board elections, water company newsletters, mundane website material and even manuals.<\/p>\n If you want to make a living or even earn some part-time money as a writer, you must make some sacrifices. You’ll also have to go where the work is and write what is needed\/wanted. <\/p>\n