by Gill Fernley
If you’ve ever read any of those scam sites which promise instant money while sitting on the beach and working only 2 hours per week and you believed them, then I have a very nice bridge I’d like to sell you in San Francisco!
Freelance writing of any kind isn’t an insta-fix type of career, so if you need to pay your bills tomorrow, don’t quit your day job right now and think you can make it work.
If you want to know how to start a career as a writer where you actually make enough money to live, then you need to do some planning first:
1. Where are you right now?
There are so many types of writing jobs, from blog writing and sales copywriting to tech writing and website copy, that you can be overwhelmed before you even begin. And that’s before you get into the plethora of advice that’s out there on how to get started and make a living as a freelancer.
While you do need to do your research, you first of all need to know what skills and experience you already have, and what kinds of writing appeal to you.
Exercise
Before you do anything else, check this list of types of writing and make a list of the ones that sound interesting to you.
Next, get a big piece of paper, or use mindmapping software if you prefer (try the free programme, Freemind), and brainstorm a list of every talent, skill and experience you have. If you get stuck, call some friends and see if they can add to your list.
Finally, write a list of all the topics you are really interested in and know you could write about if you do some research.
Then compare the lists and see what types of writing you think will work for you, and where you have experience that you can reuse in your new career. Not only will this give you a solid starting point, it’ll also give you a massive confidence boost when you see how much you’ve done and how much experience you have.
If you’ve never done any freelance writing before, this exercise is a great way to see that you’re really not starting from scratch.
2. Do your research
Now you have an idea of the ty