How to Become a

How to Become a Freelance Writer Hundreds of thousands of writing opportunities exist.

Making the most of them is where the art of the

freelancer really comes into play. A freelance writer

is someone who writes without belonging to any

single company or entity but acts like a small

business or an independent contractor.[1]

It's possible to be a full-time freelance writer earning

a living, or to be a part-time freelancer

supplementing a regular income. Another role is to

simply do it for fun or to build up a broader portfolio

of skills. In this article, you'll get the basics on what it

takes to ease your way into freelance writing as a

career or hobby.

Steps

1 Be a good writer. It may seem self-evident but

there is a substantial group of people who believe

that they can write but when they attempt it, their

lack of originality, good grammar, and self-discipline

prove otherwise. Be sure that you're comfortable

with writing, that it is a medium in which you can

express yourself with ease and clarity, and that it is

something you don't mind doing almost every single

day of your life without respite. If you don't already

have writing qualifications, consider doing a college

degree in journalism or English, or taking a

workshop so that you're at least aware of the major

requirements in writing, and the terminology used.

Even if you already have a degree in a non-writing

related course, you may find it easier to either get a

writing diploma or to get an entry-level job as a

copywriter or editor in a field related to what you

graduated in.

Decide whether you prefer fiction or non-fiction or

perhaps even both. Non-fiction is much easier to sell

than fiction,[2] so bear this in mind when making your

choice. If you're writing for fun, you have more

leeway to experiment, though.

Decide whether you want to write for a living, for

extra money, or for fun. The reason for

your freelance writing will impact the approach that

you take to running your freelance operation. Bear in

mind that treating freelance writing as a full-time

income will require a lot of hard work and

establishing yourself in the niche, so be prepared to

put in the effort and time.

If you already have qualifications, from a degree to a

diploma, always make use of these to support your

expertise. These are extremely helpful in a

competitive world where many people are seeking

the same thing but who don't have the qualifications

to stand out.

2 Be comfortable communicating. Unless you want

to be the hermit novelist living in poverty, you'll need

to reach out to other people as a freelance writer.

You'll need to be prepared to market yourself, to

drum up business, and to chase leads. You will also

need to be happy to turn around work quickly and

according to the client's or employer's needs and

changes, and all of this requires

good negotiation and interaction skills. Fortunately,

much of this can be done by email, meaning that

you can rely on writing to connect but it does mean

you'll need to be prepared to put yourself out there

and not just sit about waiting for leads.

As part of this, you'll need to know how to write a

query letter. A query letter explains the concept of

what you're proposing to write, along with a very

brief explanation of your experience

and qualifications. This letter has to sell your idea to

an editor, blog owner, or website operator and will

become a regular part of your toolkit. The sooner

you're comfortable with it, the better.

3 Realize that turning a creative passion into a job

can dampen your enthusiasm.No matter how

much you love writing, there will be occasional

writing jobs that you'll hate doing. In this situation,

you'll need to learn the art of "just doing it"

regardless of your feelings, your desire

to procrastinate, and your temptation to rush through

it. Master pushing through the dislike barrier by

treating it as the work that it is and looking forward to

the more interesting writing coming up. Some

freelance writers find it helps to maintain their own

writing on the side, as a means for ensuring that at

least something they're writing remains a pure joy.

4

Balance the joys of working alone with soaking

up the vibes from being around other

people. Working from home or for yourself can be

very lonely at times (no matter how much you love

your writing) and you can feel as if you're working in

a vacuum. Part of the answer to this is to accept the

unusual (and often liberating) nature of being a

freelance writer; the other part is to get out and be

around people as much as you can. Get portable by

having a notebook or laptop, and portable Wi-Fi

access, and go and write around people when you're

feeling lonely – a cafe, a library, a park, anywhere

that you feel involved in society again. You might

find you need to do this regularly, or every now and

then; just find your own rhythm and don't box

yourself inside your house all day.

5 Be prepared for a lot of self-discipline and good

money management. If you're planning on making

a career from writing freelance, you'll need to have a

good sense of responsibility toward your clients or

employers and yourself.

Have financial systems set up before you start taking

in work and be regular with your invoicing, tax filing,

and reconciliation of accounts. You cannot afford to

be sloppy when it comes to your income!

Be organized; have a dedicated writing space, all of

your reference books in one place and easily

obtained, all the writing equipment that you need in

good working order, and a decent ergonomic work

station set-up. Writing daily can do terrible things to

your posture if you don't take good care of it!

Have a deadline system in place. Whether you use a

diary, an online reminder system, a wall chart,

a whiteboard, or whatever, be sure to have some

sort of system in place that allows you to see at a

glance what writing work is due when and for whom.

That way you can prioritize accordingly and not have

last minute rushes.

Communicate well and regularly. It's very important

that you feel comfortable reaching out to people to

make queries, to reassure them of your skills and

ability to meet deadlines, and to keep clients and

companies informed as to your progress and any

issues that may come up.

Don't take on more than you can do. Part of being

organized is knowing your limits. Once you do get

into a flow of regular writing, don't be lulled into a

false sense of confidence that you can do more than

the hours in the day. Remember to maintain a good

balance in your daily life.

6 Set a goal and keep working in the meantime. If

you plan to write magazine, online, and newspaper

articles, don't quit your day job until you're making

enough money to sustain your lifestyle. This means

that you might have to do your writing in the early

morning or in the evening or whenever you have a

spare moment, such as on the weekends. However,

it's good practice to trial your writing aspirations in

this way because it provides you with the opportunity

to see whether you enjoy writing under pressure and

across a broad range of different topics. It also gives

you the opportunity to work out whether you can

write well enough.

Visit the reference section of your

local bookstore and buy a copy of "The Writer's

Market". This will give you the know-how of writing in

easy-to-digest guides.

There are numerous exercises you can do to

increase your abilities as an author- submit letters to

the editor of your local newspaper, write articles for

your church bulletin, create a blog, even write

articles for wikiHow.

7 Become active in the writing community. There

are writing groups and freelance writer associations

in many countries and it's a good idea to belong to

them so that you can meet other writers, get

information and advice, and establish your

credentials as a writer. A quick search online should

find organizations in your local area or country. Look

for a group that has meet-ups, seminars, guest

speakers, and offers advice on all aspects of writing

including publishing and marketing, as well as

having contacts with publishers and networking

opportunities. Many of these groups may also be an

excellent resource for writing job leads, so being a

part of them will soon pay back in terms of contacts

and work offers.

Attend conferences and conventions that focus

solely on writing, authors, and freelance writing. You

can meet publishing professionals on these

occasions, as well as having the opportunity to

network with other freelancers.

In the United States, you can subscribe to "The

Writer", a publication which provides information and

advice on writing a query letter, finding publishing

houses, and how to run a writing business. It's an

excellent resource if you're keen to become a full-

time magazine writer.

8

Decide what type of writing you're going to

do. These days the choice includes print writing

(magazines, trade publications, newsletters, and

newspapers) and online writing. It's possible to do

both, although you may find yourself very stretched

trying to keep up. Even within the online writing

sphere, there are various possibilities, including blog

writing, guest blog writing, topic specific websites

(for example, green living, pet care,collectibles, etc.),

"article mill" sites (these vary in their quality), and so

forth. There is also official writing for government,

but for this type of writing you'll often need

qualifications and experience in the policy-making

areas you'll be writing for; contact a company that

handles such writing to ask them what they're

looking for.

Be aware that many print publications such

as newsletters and trade publications are done in-

house or outsourced to a company specializing in

writing. In this case, you may be better off trying to

get on the books of a company that is happy for you

to do freelance work across a range of topics using

their contacts. They'll take a commission but you'll

gain the benefit of their expertise and established

market.

9

Start looking for opportunities to write to build

your portfolio. Initially it is important to establish

your credentials and build a portfolio. It may be

simplest to begin by writing for small, non-paying

publications and websites. By writing articles for

smaller publications, you will gain experience, get

known, and get a bunch of published articles with

your name on them that you can use to show clients

and employers. You need that portfolio for

established publications to take you seriously and

hire you. Visit your local library to get lists of

publishers and ideas for whom to contact.

Submit a poem or story to a children's magazine

such as Owl if you're a young person.

If you're a teenager, join your

school's yearbook committee and submit articles to

the school newspaper. Regard this effort as good

practice for your future freelance career.

If you're a college or university student, craft strong,

well-written essays for class that you might be able

to later get published. You can also offer your

services at the writing lab, and write articles for the

student newspaper, literary magazine, and alumni

magazine.

For an adult, start with reputable online sites that

accept articles – make contact with the owners of

sites and blogs that you admire and explain that

you're building up your portfolio and would like to

write some pieces for free in return for your name

being publicized. If you have your own blog

or website, this can help you as you can include it as

a backlink with your name.

Non-profits are also excellent places to find writing

work. Donate your time and effort and get your work

published in their newsletters and publications and

use those as part of your portfolio.

Turn your best articles into PDFs that can be easily

emailed to potential employers or clients.

10 Reach out and start job hunting. When you feel

that you're capable of writing professionally, think of

something you'd like to write about, then start

contacting the relevant people. Find publishers you'd

like to write for, then read their guidelines. This

cannot be over-emphasized - sending queries and

articles in that have nothing to do with the

publication is as bad as turning up to a job interview

never having researched the company. Know your

market and target your writing accordingly. And

always send a query letter to a major publication

before submitting a completed article, unless you're

submitting "on spec", or you're happy to waste

precious time on an article that may never be

published.

For a newspaper: Send a query letter to the

city/lifestyles/sports editor of your local newspaper

asking if they're interested in publishing an article on

the topic. Include the first paragraph of your article

and an outline of the rest. Call in two weeks if you

don't get a reply. Another approach is to send in a

completed article for them to consider "on spec". In

this case, the editor will read it but doesn't have to

publish it.

Magazine or other major publication: Think of

something you'd like to write about, then send a

query letter to the editor of a pertinent major

publication asking if they're interested in publishing

an article on the topic. Include the first paragraph of

your article and an outline of the rest. Call in four to

six weeks if you don't get a reply.

Online: Check online job boards for columnists,

bloggers, web content creators, and other writing

jobs. Use a query letter approach in an email if it

seems appropriate, or simply respond in a

straightforward manner to the job's description.

For guest blogging, make it clear you have read and

enjoyed the blog in question and keep your

suggestion short and sweet. Good blogs get an an

overwhelming amount of requests and yours needs

to stand out to make the blogger want to even read

it. For article sites, if they require you to apply to be

an approved author, then do so and supply all the

needed background information and proof of your

qualifications. For those sites that don't need

anything more than joining, get on with it and join but

don't rely on these sites to make a living!

11 Write your article. If you haven't already sent a full

article but just the query, then it's time to get started

once the client or employer confirms that they want

your writing. (Congratulations, by the way.) Write in

your own unique and brilliant way and avoid

conforming to the mold of other writers. By all means

conform to the required guidelines of the publication

in question, but try to avoid cliches, hackneyed turns

of phrase, dull prose, and deadly boring content.

You've got that worked out already, right?

Keep a thesaurus, dictionary, and grammar book

with you at all times. If you're writing in an English

that isn't your own dialect, or isn't your native

language, also have a grammar resource for the

English in which you are writing.

12 Find steady freelance writing jobs or even

ongoing contracts. There are plenty of possibilities

in both print media and online media. The difficulty

will always be the competition, so you'll need to keep

your style sharp and interesting, your list of contacts

detailed, and your motivation stoked. Keep

improving your writing skills by reading widely,

attending relevant talks and seminars, and staying

up-to-date in the areas you're writing about. This is

especially important if you're writing in areas that

change rapidly, such as technology and fashion.

Update your portfolio every time you have an article

published.

Learn from your editor's comments. Fix your

grammar quirks, mend your heavy prose, and

celebrate the fact that someone is giving you golden

advice on how to improve your writing skills.

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