Tips for New Writers
Angela Booth has posted Write for Money - Five Easy and Fun Steps for New Writers.
I don’t know if I’d call all of her five steps easy and fun, but they certainly are doable and by the time you finished all five you’d have a website and be in a good position, probably, to write articles for websites and, maybe, magazines.
That’s certainly a good start, but if you want to become a full time freelance writer earning a decent or more than decent income, it’s only a start.
What other tips for getting started in freelance writing would you be willing to share?
Write well and often,
Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.
http://aboutfreelancewriting.com/store/books.htm
Image from http://www.sxc.hu
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POSTED IN: Freelance Writing Tips and Ideas
2 opinions for Tips for New Writers
John Clausen
May 4, 2008 at 5:58 am
My advice for new writers is to beware of “articles” that claim to have the secret to making buckets of money online and turn out to be nothing but “landing pages” full of teasers and links that offer to let you into the “bonanza” for $49.
Instead of wasting time and money on questionable advice sold to you by online “experts,” use that time to hone your writing skills and study the market. If you’d like to write for magazines, for instance, get back issues of the ones for which you’d like to write. Put together a lot of query letters (I always say to strive for 100 query letters, but I’ve never had anyone who didn’t get significant work long before getting to the 100 mark.). Get a copy of Strunk and White (The Elements of Style) and the Associated Press Stylebook. Study grammar and diction. If you’re interested in commercial writing (and you should be if you wish to make a living at this), get a copy of Peter Bowerman’s The Well-Fed Writer. It’s a lot less expensive than $47 and Mr. Bowerman knows whereof he speaks.
A website is a fine thing to have, but don’t rely on it to sell your writing for you. I’ve heard from several editors who absolutely do not want to cruise your website looking at your samples. Sure, some will, but the best thing to do is get a publication’s published writer’s guidelines and follow them to the letter. Then you’ll know exactly how to approach the buyer.
Writing for the web seems like a no-brainer; just look at the volume of stuff published via the Internet. However, if you are to be successful at that kind of writing - or any other - you’ll have to have the necessary writing skills. There’s no $47 shortcut to that…you’ll have to practice and pay attention to what’s happening in any field of writing. “You gotta know the territory,” is more than a line from The Music Man; it’s essential advice for beginning writers in any genre.
Anne Wayman
May 4, 2008 at 10:06 am
Hey John, thanks… made it into a post: http://www.thegoldenpencil.com/2008/05/04/beware-of-promises-a-guest-post/
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