Yesterday, I shared three tips for jumpstarting your writing career. Here are three more. I can\u2019t tell you how many people I meet every year who ask me how I organize my time so that I can write. Well, for me, writing is my full-time work. It\u2019s what I do and what I\u2019ve been doing for forty years. It\u2019s a lifestyle that I take for granted now. But in the beginning, I had some of the same challenges you have when it comes to finding time to write, disciplining yourself to write and so forth. <\/p>\n
I once worked at a regular job outside the home, for example, but I still found time to write. Here are three more tips for you:<\/p>\n
4: Use your time wisely.<\/strong> Becoming a successful freelance writer or to write a book takes discipline and realistic scheduling. Failure comes to those who procrastinate, who have trouble prioritizing tasks and who are easily distracted. Those who succeed in this business have found a way to organize their lives and discipline themselves. <\/p>\n 5: Just start<\/strong>. It isn\u2019t easy to transition from full-time office worker to full-time writer. Most of us don\u2019t have the funds to support us while we build a new business. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019d 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 How I missed writing. While I had a good job with lovely people around me, I disliked working for someone else\u2014on someone else\u2019s agenda. And it looked as if this would be my future. I became despondent. That\u2019s 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\u2019t even begin to describe how happy and fulfilled I felt. But I wanted more. I wanted to come home and establish a writing business that supported me spiritually as well as financially. So I began using that time in the wee hours of the morning to submit articles to magazines\u2014remember, 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\u2019ve never looked back. <\/p>\n 6: Write what they want<\/strong>. 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 not very interesting jobs in order to keep the flow of money coming my way.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen too many writers so bent on making their own personal statement or doing things their way that they get nowhere in this business. If you want to make a living or even earn some part-time money as a writer, you have to go where the work is and write what is needed\/wanted. Write about things that are current, popular or even a bit provocative or controversial. <\/p>\n It takes more to become a full-time writer than just dreaming about it. If writing full-time is your dream, read and reread the above six points and use them to finally fulfill your passion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, I shared three tips for jumpstarting your writing career. Here are three more. I can\u2019t tell you how many people I meet every year who ask me how I organize my time so that I can write. Well, for me, writing is my full-time work. It\u2019s what I do and what I\u2019ve been doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t