Thursday, September 24, 2009

What is the Path to Becoming a Freelance Writer?

By Barry Walls

Freelance writing can be a good way to earn extra income, but you may not know how to become a freelance writer The barrier of entry of becoming a freelance writer is very low. You can't really ever do anything unless you come up with a plan and execute the proper steps to get your desired end result.

Step one if you would like to become a freelance writer is for you to decide what kind of writing you would like to do. Don't overlook the importance of this simple step. If you don't pick the right kind of writing that suits you best you may never be able to reach your ultimate goal.

So, how many sorts of writers are there? Even a cursory glance will expose quite a list - reporters, poets, story tellers, reviewers, advertising copy writers, article writers, to mention a few. The secret is to look at your own writing style and the work that you have already produced and compare it with what has been published by other writers.

A great way for you to showcase your writing abilities if you are serious about becoming a freelance writer is to maintain a blog of your own work. Many people who wish to become a freelance writer often belong to a writing group where everyone submits work and receives feedback about their work, do you generally receive favorable feedback if you belong to such a group?

Whatever sort of writer you want to be, you must already have produced an amount of work that would justify your choice. There is no point at all, for example, in setting out to be a poet if you have never written a poem before and let someone else judge it. You may think that you are the best poet in the world but if nobody else who sees your work agrees with you . . . . . you see the point?

Once you have some pieces of work that you have done and you have received positive feedback on them, you should take your best pieces and put them together into a portfolio. You may think finding work as a freelance writer is the most difficult, this isn't true, because of the internet, this has become quite simple, the difficult task is finding someone who will read your samples. Sending your portfolio to the right person is absolutely critical if you want to get beyond step one.

There is no excuse for you not to get the proper name and email address of the right person to send your portfolio to. The message is very important, be sure that you give an introduction to yourself and your work, but keep it brief; remember being polite is the best thing to do and make sure they understand you would like them to consider you to be a freelance writer and be a regular contributor for them.

If your work is to a reasonable standard and relevant to the content that is usually included in the publication, you will be considered and probably invited for an interview and, possibly, a trial period. Most of the time freelance writers are only paid when their content is published, so you have to make sure you do the best work of your life if you are given a test assignment. - 2364

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