oDesk is a great place to get started as a freelance writer. I know- it’s where I got started.
What could be better than earning money while you develop your skills?
Unfortunately, there’s a flock of novice wannabes jumping in who can’t write well at all. They think commercial writing is a home business venture anyone with a computer and modem can do. If this describes your circumstances, I can assure you that you will make almost no money and become frustrated. But all of us start out flailing about a bit. Here’s how even the most basic beginner can develop into a decent, competent writer.
Write.
Writers write. That’s the old aphorism, but it’s still as true as ever. Pretend writers talk about writing, read about writing and maybe even dream about writing. But real writers write.
The difference is the one between planning a garden and planting (and caring for) an actual garden. Things happen outside of our wishes and beyond our control. The doing teaches what it means for me as an individual to be a writer. Anyone can sit and dream. I’m lazy, I understand. But it’s the act of writing, of getting your thoughts on paper, revising and rewording and shaping a piece so that it approximates whatever is happening in your head– that process can’t be replaced or skipped. Writers write.
If you aren’t yet good enough to write for money, write for free. There are sites begging for free content. Article mills and pay-per-click sites will take your practice prose while your writing muscles are developing. Write for your church or community newsletter. Write a blog. Learn the craft and learn something about yourself. The only thing you will know for certain before you write regularly is that writing regularly won’t be how you imagine it.
Read.
Any writer worth her salt reads. Because decent writers are readers. Read anything that appeals to you. The classics are great, but any book that transports you out of yourself is fine.
Reading largely trains us subconsciously. The patterns of good prose, the meter and rhythms of it- reading works a subtle magic in our heads. Sometimes you can see it, mostly not. I see it in myself after watching Shakespeare. I get so immersed that for hours afterward, I want to talk in that unique Shakespearian lilt. “Forsooth, he sayeth what no mortal kens.”
I was reading “The God of Small Things” (a book I didn’t actually like), and in a scene describing the monsoon season in India, the author wrote, “Insects appeared in the night like small ideas.” What a great image. I wish I wrote that well.
If you want to make a formal exercise of this, find an author who’s style you really like– fiction, non-fiction, web copy, whatever– and type out a good chunk. Literally copy word for word, space for space and so on. You will find this mechanical imitation gets the flow of the work into fingers, eyes and mind. It seems strange, but mimicry actually changes us a bit.
Learn.
When I said I was lazy, I wasn’t kidding. Sometimes the best thing for me is to have deadlines and expectations to meet. A little push to get me started on a much bigger climb. A climb to my next plateau and some training to get me in shape. This is the value of formal education.
For beginners, there are plenty of free or cheap ways to improve. Beginners have the advantage of remarkably fast gains and dramatic advancement. I’d start with an online writers’ group because most are convenient and reasonably priced. I can recommend Writers’ Village University. The upside of paying for courses is that you get direct feedback about your writing. The honest critiques are priceless for new writers.
If self-study appeals to you, here is a list of free resources on the web:
- News University- Free with registration, loads of free courses directed at journalists in general.
- Steve Barne’s Online Writing Class- Free downloadable 9 week writing course.
- Writing.com- a group participation course for beginners/intermediate writers
- Free-ed- This site has a great technical writing course as well as college level English composition.
Another option is your local community college. Call and ask anyone in the English department to make suggestions. This route also has the advantage personalized critiques and specific, directed help. Writing workshops are not, in my opinion, a good choice until someone is already a fair writer. The material they cover is too advanced.
How will I know when I’m competent?
You will know because buyers will tell you. They will tell you they love your work, and they want to rehire and then rehire you again. You will know because your bank account will tell you. You will know because you won’t worry when someone asks for a sample, and finally, you will know because you won’t even bother to read ads that have a one-digit number as the per article budget.
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That’s a great post Bill. I’d also like to recommend that people try out the forums at Absolute Write as well. They’re at http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums and the posters have a wealth of experience.
I agree completely with the importance of writing. It’s the old saying, “A writer writes.” Ray Bradbury once said that in order to get good you need to write “a million words of crap.” That million words works out to about two thousand single-spaced pages and that equates to a whole bunch of hours with your butt in the chair.
If you’re just starting out it may sound insurmountable, but there is no way around it. In order to get good at anything you have to practice enough that you can completely ignore the mechanics of what you’re doing and focus on the end result. Martial artists and musicians both know this. They practice the basics until they no longer have to think about them. In the case of musicians, they focus on the music, not the playing.
As a writer, you have to do the same thing. You can’t be worrying about the basics of forming a sentence and when to use an apostrophe. You need to be able to focus on converting ideas into words, and that means not worrying about the mechanics. It’s the same reason most good writers are touch-typists: Whatever attention you have to devote to hunting for a key is attention you can’t devote to getting your words across.
I also second just how important it is to read. You should read voraciously, and not just in your comfort zone. Read good books and bad, get a wide experience with what other people have done. The more you read the more you will have a gut understanding of what works and what doesn’t in your own writing because you’ve seen it in someone else’s.
Finally, the thing you should remember if you’re going to take this up seriously is that just because everyone learns to write at school does not mean that everyone learns how to write well at school. Just about everyone who reads this will have a driver’s license, but that doesn’t mean we’re qualified to take a car out on the track in Formula 1 or NASCAR. I’m never going to be good enough to drive for Jaguar at Le Mans.
Writing is the same way, if you want to do it professionally, you need to take it seriously and put in the time.
If you do that, you’ll not only be competent, but you’ll have people asking you to work for them, rather than having to go ask them for work.