Courses and writing groups
Regardless of where you work, you'll do many training courses. Freelance writing is no different, except that you have to take the initiative and find them yourself.
Writing groups and networks are essential to become a better writer and understand freelance writing.
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There might come a time where you want to quit your traditional desk job and move into freelance writing. If you're going to become a freelance writer, you need to write every day, without getting paid for it.
Accept that freelancing is like starting any new job. On day one, you won't do much except for showing up and setting up your work station. Then you'll go through two or three months of training before you have your first basic assignment.
The 2 - 3 months of training is really 4 - 5 months of training.
In this phase, you will write daily, on any platform, to learn how to write and grow your audience. Now is a good time to invest in yourself to help you get better.
Job boards are a good start, but that is generally not the best place to build a career.
Starting freelance writing is a slow process. You may start with a gig that pays little. The next company may not like your style, but at least you now have experience. With persistence and consistent effort, you’ll be able to make the jump to full time.
Learn how to form a good pitch. You are in charge of finding your work, meaning stepping out of your comfort zone, and sending lots of cold emails.
If you want to write for a publication, you'll want to pitch ideas that the editor will like. If you're going to write website copy, you'll have to pitch your services and write how the company will benefit by hiring you.
If you want to write, you need to read daily.
Suggested books:
- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. This book will help you understand proper sentence structure and grammar.
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott will help you keep yourself motivated and creative.
- The Dip by Seth Godin will help you understand if you're getting into the right profession and when to quit if you're not in the right place.
RELATED IDEAS
When switching from being an employee to a freelancer, you should pay particular attention to the way you express yourself, the words you choose.
For instance, integrating words such as ‘clients’ will come in really handy, as you are now to have a direct connection with your clients, while enabling you to leave behind the traditional boss-worker mentality.
Look at the bottom end of the average salaries of the career you are interested in and ask yourself whether you'd be able to survive on that if you got one of those jobs.
Similarly, look around other, similar jobs, and make sure you're not looking at a job title that's middle-career when you should be looking at something more entry level.
Write down ten ideas every day. They can be for yourself of for someone else.
Most of the ideas will suck, but a few will be gold. Take the good ones, save them, implement them, then double down on what works.
Get in the practice of generating ideas so you’ll become an idea person.