Everyone has a story about how they began their freelance writing career. Learn how to do the same from the experiences of one successful writer.
Tips
How to Get Your Work Published in Reputable Magazines
Breaking into reputable magazines doesn’t require a secret power or any sort of special list. What it does require is planning, executing and being aware of what your targeted magazine needs are, outside of their printed guidelines. Learn how to break into magazine writing with this article.
Getting the Most Mileage Out of Your Articles
As freelance writers we all know that the more mileage we can get out of an article or story, the better off we will be. It takes time to write an article or story and you want to be able to get the most for the time you’ve spent.
The Golden Opportunity of Advertising Yourself for Free You’re Missing
Did you know each time you pitch, you have a golden opportunity to advertise yourself for free? It’s your bio- your verbal selfie, a few sentences about yourself that accompany your article and give editors and readers a glimpse of the person behind the product.
The Rewrite: Good and Bad Literary Habits of Great Writers
In order to become a better writer, it’s valuable to look the good and bad literary habits of great writers. Learn about the top habits in this article.
Grow Your Writing Business and Increase Your Income with Subcontractors
If your freelancing workload is too heavy, it may be time to hire some subcontractors to help you out. Learn about effectively hiring subcontractors here.
How Freelance Writers Can Generate More Assignments from Past Editors
Connecting with editors from your past leaves the door open for future assignments and referrals to other publications. Learn these top tips on how to reconnect with past editors.
Full-time Freelance Writing for Full-time Moms
Yes, there are only 24 hours in a day, and some days it seems like there are only four hours. But as a mother who is raising two young boys, ages 4 and 2, and managing a full-time freelance writing and PR business, I’m here to tell you that it IS possible to have the best of both worlds – and live to tell about it.
Game Writing, a Popular Niche for Freelance Writers
Game writing is different compared to writing a script for a movie, a television show or even a comic book because the latter mediums are all linear in structure. Writing for a video game involves giving gamers who play the games a variety of choices
Freelancing Full-Time for the First Time: Is a Writing Career in Your Future?
Is a writing career in your future? In my first month as a full-time freelance writer, I’ve learned to strike a balance between writing articles that editors have asked me to write, pitching my work to new publications, and working on my own fiction manuscripts.
Freelance Writing for the Christian Market
Do you write only for secular publications but are looking for new markets to tap into? The more markets you have to write the better your income can be. Writing for the Christian market may be just what you are looking for.
Freelance Writing for Pet Magazines
Writing for a pet publication can a way to add to your portfolio and your pay packet. Learn all about the different publications and how to write for them.
Freelance Writing for Tech Startups
By providing quality content, startup companies get the boost they require to catch up with other existing companies or startups that have had a headstart.
Freelance Writing for Agriculture Trade Publications and Websites
Learn how to write for agriculture and farming trade publications and websites from a freelance writer who has been doing it for more than 12 years.
A Writer’s Viewpoint about Freelance Writing at Elance.com (and where to make more money elsewhere)
In a nutshell, Elance connects freelance writers with employers from all around the world. As a writer, you can bid on different projects. After you’ve submitted your work, your payment is released through a secure payment system called Escrow. Sounds good enough? It’s not.
Freelance Writing Clients: The Good vs. the Bad
I think most freelancers have some conception of what a bad client looks like – those of you who aren’t yet freelancers, imagine one. It probably exists. But what about the good ones?
Freelance Travel Writing: Finding a Niche Within a Niche
While being a general travel writer can be fun as you get to write, and learn, about a lot of exciting places, the fact is your best work will come from writing about places or areas of the travel industry you know well.
Is Freelance Ghost Blogging A Bad Idea?
In an age where the words authenticity and community are used when talking about blogging, where content marketing has elevated writing to almost mythical status, the very idea of a post written by some outsider and then sold to be used on a blog without attribution seems all wrong.
Making the Grade as a Freelance Educational Writer
Although the nonfiction genres are often popular amongst freelance writers, many don’t consider educational writing as a possibility for generating income. Educational writing takes a special set of skills and some well honed writing techniques, but it can be a lucrative and satisfying field
How to Engage Your Readers with Extraordinary Characters
It isn’t an easy thing, creating characters. It takes patience. You have this story spinning around in your head you want to share; after all, writing a novel is one goal, but getting it published is your ultimate goal.
Finding Plot Ideas for Your Next Fiction or Non-Fiction Story
Learn how you can spot or create plot ideas for your next story by observing what is around you and what you experience in life.
Engage Your Video Game Readers with These Five Article Templates
As tough as it may seem to break into the freelance game journalism industry, an even more daunting task awaits you once you’ve managed to get yourself published: keeping your readers coming back for more.
Creative Writing: Method and Mood, Sanity and Insanity
Writers produce the best literary work when under the subtle influence of the mood. You can improve your writing skills by observing its method.
Creative Writing Tips: How to Cultivate a Writing Style of Your Own by Jenny Malone
The primary standard of good writing is clearness of expression. The aim of every writer is to convey his thoughts (including concepts, opinions and emotions) to the reader. For this reason, be careful not to use ambiguous words. Use language that is clear, strong and distinct, or else you will fail in fully conveying your meaning
Learn How to Create Quality Website Content by Following Google’s Rules
When it comes to the Panda side of producing Google-happy content, avoid web content that is not original. As a writer, this includes spinning previously published content or duplicating articles that already exist.
How to Create Your Own Freelance Project Contract
The first thing to consider when formulating a contract for a new freelance client is to make sure that the contract can be defended in a court of law. There are six criteria that the contract must meet according to the United States legal system.
A Writing Opportunity: Creating Custom Templates for Clients
For freelance technical writers or writers who have experience with business contracts, creating custom templates for clients could provide a lucrative source of income. Although many websites offer free templates of all kinds, they are generalized, mostly used for common tasks. More sophisticated uses need more specialized templates.
Protecting Your Work the Right Way: Copyright and Usage Rights for Freelance Writers
When you sell your article or other written piece to a publication, it’s important to understand what you’re actually selling. More often than not, you’re not selling the written piece, or manuscript, itself.
Co-Authoring a Book for Fun and Profit
Stephen King did it. So did Anne McCaffrey, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Julia Child did it with two people. They’ve all written books with others. Collaborating with another person can be a great way to help ease a heavy workload
Avoid These 10 Common Freelancing Traps to Run a More Successful Writing Business
The delightful Carol Tice and I conducted a bootcamp titled, Freelance Business Bootcamp, several months ago. In preparing the bootcamp, we put together a list of the top ten ways writers (and many freelancers) tend to get bamboozled, nailed, hammered and generally screwed. These top ten are all too common
How to Conduct an Effective Interview for Your Story
As a freelance writer, it is your job to tell a story that readers are willing to spend a few minutes of their day engaged with. To do that effectively, you’ve got to gather data, do a fair amount of research on your topic, create a few visuals to help enhance your story
Breaking into the SEO Writing Industry
Many writers have freelance success by finding the right niche. If you haven’t considered your own writing niche yet, one modern industry to consider is SEO writing. Search engine optimization is crucial to any website’s presence, visibility, and outreach
Brevity is the Soul of Wit in Writing Poetry and Short Stories
You will notice that writers and poets of certain literary magazines have the privilege of writing at length. These days editors of literary magazines (both online and offline) reject poems exceeding eight stanzas. Even though the Internet allows poets and writers to write at length, our writing style has become more condensed for the benefit of readers.
How Freelance Writers Can Build an Idea Bank to Write Interesting Articles
When people ask me where I get ideas for such diverse articles, I tell them that I maintain an idea bank. I always have my little note pad on hand as ideas pop into my brain; this often happens at unexpected times and places. When I get home, I transfer these ideas onto color-coded 3 by 5 inch note cards, one for each magazine that I want to write for
How to Choose the Perfect Freelance Copywriting Niche
I’ve worked with hundreds of successful freelance writers over my 16 years as Executive Director of American Writers & Artists Inc. One thing these success stories have in common is this: they decided to focus on a specific industry or niche.
Blogging for Business: How to Use a Blog to Get New Clients
No one can undermine the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing and referrals, but nothing equals the effectiveness of blogging as a way to get new business. A blog can attract the attention of prospective clients, impress upon them that you are an expert in your field
Give Your Freelance Career a Boost by Breaking into the Financial Writing Niche
Do you want to know to land high-paying freelance gigs that average $0.10 to $0.20 a word? Consider writing about finance. You can leverage personal trading experience into topical expertise by just knowing how to customize your query
A Writer’s Writing Style: What is it?
A writer’s most prized possession is his or her own unique writing style. Our purpose in writing a story (either fiction or non-fiction) is to trigger certain ideas to emerge in the readers’ minds.
Achieving Success in Journalistic News Writing
What is the difference between journalistic writing and other forms of writing? Journalistic writing is not a special literary gymnastic that requires a special talent and a expansive vocabulary. Some writers speak of it as a special genre of writing, like screenwriting, short story writing, or copywriting. In reality, news writing is the plainest, most reserved form of English composition
Powerful Pointers on Becoming a Better Freelance Writer
To choose freelance writing for a profession, you should have the literary temperament and some ideas of business methods on which to base your hopes. Let your inward impulse for expression help you overcome the many obstacles that will try to stop you.
The Best Times to Apply for Freelance Writing Jobs
When you first start freelancing, it can be hard to get your foot in the door. All the jobs seem to be taken as soon as you hit, apply and you still have to scour the Internet trying to find other opportunities. By learning when sites refresh or when new jobs are posted, you have a better chance of being one of the first applicants, and a better chance of landing the job.
PART 2: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT SECRETS – 7 STEPS TO DEVELOPING REAL PEOPLE WHO BRING YOUR FICTION TO LIFE
The quality of your characters will form the foundation you desire for a strong story. In this four-part series, we’re looking at ways to develop three-dimensional, dynamic, story driving characters
A CLOSER LOOK AT CROSS-GENRE ADVENTURE WRITING
The action/adventure genre is most often defined by a protagonist that takes on some sort of heroic quest, where they must prove their own worthiness
Comedy Writing – I’m Funny You Just Lack a Sense of Humor
In humor writing, the first person that has to think something is funny is you. If you don’t think what you’ve written is funny, probably no one else will either. Still, that’s no guarantee others will enjoy your comedy
Comic Book Scripts – Technical Tricks and Troubleshooting
Do you have a story you want to develop as a comic book script? You might think the writing process would be the same as scripting movies, television, or plays, but the medium has very unique needs
Freelance Writers: Compose a Query Email That Actually Gets a Response in Five Straightforward Steps
Not all emails will generate a response. The majority, in fact, will be politely ignored. Your job is to appeal to the companies who may be interested in what you’ve got to offer before they get bored and trash your email.
Copywriting Choices – Specialist or Non-Specialist?
Property sector copywriting, for instance, is hugely different from writing for the IT or telecomms sectors, whilst financial copywriting requires a totally different grounding from, say, travel copywriting.
Cover Letters for Short Stories
When I first began submitting my short stories for publication, I had no idea that cover letters existed until I’d chosen to submit my story to a publisher whose submission guidelines required that a cover letter accompany every manuscript.
Creating a Fantasy Realm
Fantasy is, perhaps, the genre most associated with the untamed imagination. It’s that place of no boundaries, a generic construct out of which you can create
Creating Target Market Profiles Focuses Your Copywriting
One client sells a car-care product. They told us that their target customer was a guy in his mid-twenties who loved his car. The overall picture of who we were writing to, however, really didn’t click until we got down to the nitty-gritty and developed a complete profile.
Creative Writing For Analytical Minds
We mean that people with the right kind of minds and the right interests can write interesting poems, stories and plays.
Crime Fiction – Ten Cliches to Avoid
Crime fiction is big business at the moment, but there are certain situations that have been overplayed so much that they have become genre cliches and everybody knows what to expect next. Here are ten cliches you should try to avoid
10 Snazzy Ways to Cure Writer’s Block
Writer’s block is a legitimate illness afflicting all pens at some point of time or the other. A writer should ideally be in control of the situation and never let THE BLOCK get to him.
Develop a Killer Plot
Some writers fly by the seat of their pants, not knowing where they are going or how they will get there, whereas, other writers would never dream of writing a story or a novel without some initial planning
Do You Want to Become a Journalist? Follow these rules…
Many people who desire to write professionally usually look toward journalism as a way to launch a respectable writing career. They envision themselves going to exotic locales to cover stories or winning a Pulitzer prize. While these things do happen to journalists, it takes a long time to build credibility before any news organization will send you on any interesting assignments.
Freelance Writing – Effective Tips For Writing a Bid Proposal
You can start your freelance work by registering with Freelance job providing websites such as Elance, Odesk, GetaFreelancer etc. Sign up, make your profile and there you are, ready to bid
Elance Vs ODesk Review – A Freelancer’s Perspective
As a freelancer, there are numerous sites to choose from on which you can bid on projects. Two popular sites today are Elance and oDesk. From the homepage, you might think that these two sites are pretty similar. After all, they both state that there’s guaranteed work with guaranteed payment.
Top 10 Myths About Entering Screenplay Competitions Demystified
We all wonder what really happens when we put our script out there to be judged in a competition. And then we wonder: what if we could just understand the process a little better to make my entry stand out from the heaps of other submissions
Estimating a Writing Project – How Long Will it Take?
Assume you have to distill a 5- to 10-page report or article into a succinct piece with a couple of links. You are fairly familiar with the content. (Note: Sometimes being too familiar with it is a killer because you have a harder time figuring out what to leave out!) It might take about 2 hours to figure out your main points
Business Writing – Discover 6 Challenging Steps to Excel at Business Writing
In this type of writing, there are so many factors that you need to take into consideration just to get your message across
Write to Excite, Delight and Entice
When you do your business writing, consider incorporating the principle of Excite, Delight and Entice. What this means is that you emotionalize your writing
Extreme Branding in Fiction
There is nothing better than a good biography and there is nothing worse than a book which poses as biography, has a smattering of truth in it and then sells itself as fact – pseudobiography, usually with conversation.
How to Avoid the ‘Fatal Coincidence’ When Writing a Screenplay
There are a large number of pitfalls you can make as a screenwriter, but few are as glaring and as easy to avoid as the: Fatal Coincidence
100 Days of Poetry: How to Use the Power of Poetry to Enhance Your Writing and Life
I decided that I wanted to expand and enhance my writing – and my life — by including more poetry in what I write and in how I live. To make this happen, I decided to read and write poetry every day for 100 days
Want to work in TV News? Embrace Backpack Journalism
If you’re falling asleep each night to dreams of TV news stardom, you need to pick up the skills involved with ‘Backpack Journalism’.
6 Steps To Becoming A Powerful & Persuasive Writer
Do you have a favourite writer – someone whose books you love to read? And when you buy their books do you sit spell-bound while you mentally absorb page after page of their writing
Beginning Screenwriting – Commit and Start Writing!
A lot of people have a desire to write but just don’t know where to begin. There are often unhelpful thoughts, ideas and feelings that plague us when we want to start a new regime
Freelance Writing – Top 10 Tips to Boost Your Income Today
Want to boost your freelance writing income? As the saying goes, if you do what you always do, you’ll get what you always get.
Six Tips to Help You Break Into the Children’s Magazine Markets With Your Non-Fiction For Kids!
It’s no secret that one of the best ways to break into the children’s magazine markets is with nonfiction. So follow these 6 tips to have the best chance of acceptance with your short articles for children
Breaking Into Sports Journalism
The Internet has opened up incredible opportunities for wannabe sports reporters and journalists. Choose a topic, sport, or team that you are a passionate about and start a blog; it is a great way of beginning your reporting career.
Bring Emotion Into Your Description to Grab Your Reader
Description is what writers use to colour in the basic elements of a story. It gives the reader a mental picture which they can carry that with them as the tale unfolds.
Freelance Writing – The Importance of Building a Professional Writing Portfolio
As a freelance writer, part of your job is to sell your services. After all, if you really want to be a full-time freelance writer you need be paid. No money means no job. Starving artists are not freelancers. There is a difference.
Getting it write: The ten most common business writing mistakes and how to avoid them
How many business documents do UK companies produce each week? Think about the countless emails; the proposals for clients; the reports for management
Can You Earn a Living As a Freelance Writer?
If you could have any career you wanted, what would it be? Think for a moment and don’t worry how you would achieve it. Just Imagine a magic wand being waved and immediately, you have that new occupation
7 Reasons Why New Copywriters Should Start With Catalog Copywriting
One of the fastest and easiest ways to break into freelance copywriting is with catalog copywriting.
Challenges of Travel Writing: Sharing My Experiences
As a passionate writer myself, I discover the pleasure of travel writing relatively later in my writing career. In comparison with other projects I was involved – as diplomatic journalism, such as – the challenge of putting in writing my very own travel experiences
Writing Fiction – Character Creation – 10 Questions to Ask Your Characters
You’re building a character. His name is Eric Cruz. You’ve established his age, his family history, his looks, his profession.
5 Design Techniques to Create Marketing Masterpieces
In today’s market, your customers and clients are influenced more than ever by the visual presentation of your marketing pieces. Learn design techniques here.
Screenwriting with Impact: 6 Tips for Vastly Improving Your Scripts
The screenplay you’ve pounded out on your trusty word processor is finished at last! Here are 6 ways you can improve it immediately.
The Seven Secrets of Successful Freelance Writers
Think you’ve got what it takes to become a freelance writer? Before you get started, perhaps I could share some secrets with you…
The Bible: The Source of all Copywriting Secrets
Simply put, every copywriting strategy can be found FIRST in the Bible. Think that’s a strong statement? See the proof inside.
The Joy of Journaling: How to Get Started
Don’t be surprised if during your next visit, your doctor hands you a prescription for a journal with instructions to write a minimum of 30 minutes a day!
Where, Oh Where, Has My Creativity Gone? 5 Steps to Bring it Back
Creativity is the key to every writer’s craft. Without it, we are nothing more than people sitting at desks with paper and pencil, or blank computer screen.
Word Frequency Analysis: A Method to Improve Your Writing
A word frequency analysis is a tool with several uses, that can help you improve as a writer, and help you to edit your pieces for clarity and richness.
5 Tips for Writing a Good Narrative Essay
Writing a narrative essay is an essential talent for field research. It presents your experience and allows audiences to draw their own conclusions.
Two Keys to Writing Effective Dialogue
Writers expend a great deal of creative energy developing a story line and limning well-balanced prose with evocative sentences. Here are two helpful tips.
A Powerful Journaling Tool – The Unsent Letter
Putting our thoughts on paper can be a powerful experience – especially so with a journaling tool called Unsent Letters. Read more inside.
A Simple Creative Writing Solution: Think Backwards
Here is a neat little trick I have employed all my life in resolving problems, in realizing goals, and finally as a tool for crafting fiction. I call it reverse plotting but it is in effect the act of thinking backwards to arrive at solutions.
How New Authors Can Keep Their Manuscripts Coherent
In the world of publishing, many manuscripts make it to the editor’s desk, simply because they are badly disorganized and downright incoherent.
How to Recognize and Monetize Your Expertise and Passion
Thousands of people have harnessed the unbelievable power of their writing talents to not only enrich others, but literally enrich themselves financially.
How to Write a Love Scene
The most critical lesson in writing a love scene is that it is similar to making love in the real world: when done well, it is messy, chaotic and somewhat animalistic.
How to Write an Authentic Martial Arts Scene
Most fight scenes rely heavily upon the vague, and somewhat inaccurate, public perceptions of how martial artists would use their skills in a real fight.
How to Write a Murder Mystery
An author must first and foremost always tell a compelling story, involving, to one extent or another, recognizable three-dimensional characters.
7 Ways to Increase Your Writing Range and Raise Your Income
Here are seven strategies you can use to increase your writing range and boost your income potential in the process.
10 Lessons That Star Trek Can Teach You About Writing
Star Trek has a lot to teach about writing. We’ve taken 10 lessons you can learn from the crew of the Starship Enterprise.
Fiction Writing: The Importance of Novel Beginnings
The beginning of your novel is often the most challenge part to write. Use this article to help you navigate this difficult, but fun, part of your novel.
Writing for the Web: 6 Master Tactics to Keep Your Readers Hooked
Your main objective in writing for the web is to make your reader’s job EASY. Master these 6 tactics to keep your readers engaged.
How to Make Characters Memorable: Highlight Their Distinctive Characteristics
Readers best remember the characters you create for your novel by focusing in on their mannerisms, habits and traits. Here’s how to write them effectively.
Become Successful Writing Crossword Puzzles: Seven Tips For Newbies
You might not realise it, but the crossword is still one of the most popular parts of many newspapers… with lots of people buying a copy for that reason alone. After the front and back page, the sport and the TV sections it’s high up on the list
5 Tips to Excel in Ghostwriting
If you’re an established and excellent writer, but fail to meet your clients’ needs or expectations, it will negatively impact your business. Your passion may keep your business going as a ghostwriter