What Are Your Options For Forging A Writing Career?

This blog uses affiliate links and banners. If you purchase something from them I will receive a commission at no cost to you. I am part of the Amazon Associates program. As such, I receive a commission on qualifying products.

This is a collaborative post. This blog uses affiliate links. If you purchase something through them, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

Many people are good with words, and those who are really good with them might even want to try and make a living out of writing. A writing career is one of those things which, for many people, seem like a pipe dream. But the truth is that there are plenty of ways in which you can make a career writing, and it might even be easier than you think to do so. It is important, however, to understand the different paths as well as possible, and to appreciate some of the things that you need to do in order to make it that much more likely. In this post, we will look at some of the major options that you have when it comes to forging a career in writing. Not all of these will speak to you, but hopefully, you find that at least one of them does.

Journalist

One of the more traditional forms of writing career is to become a journalist. There has genuinely never been a better time to become a journalist. For one thing, the world is crying out for good quality journalism more than ever before, and if you are keen to make a real difference in the world then this can be a good way to do so. But it is also true that the world of journalism is changing – much of it moving online, rather than staying in print, and often with a focus which would have seemed strange years ago. But nonetheless, it is still a vibrant industry to work in, and if you want to try and land a job as a journalist, then you are going to find it somewhat competitive to get those good jobs.

You might find your chances are better if you first get a degree. You can go for a journalism degree, or if you already have a degree in a related field (such as English Literature or Creative Writing) then you should find that this helps you too. Whatever you have behind you, the main thing that your prospective employer will be looking for is a keen eye for detail, the ability to communicate with anyone, and a basic understanding of journalistic integrity and practice. If you do land such a job, consider joining the journalist’s union – this is one writing job where you really want whatever protection you can find.

Novel-writing

For many people, the idea of writing novels for a living is a real dream. But it is not really a pipe dream as such. The world of fiction is alive and well as ever before (book sales having not declined at all in the way that early 2000s doomsayers suggested would happen) and if you have the time and patience, and the necessary talent, there is no reason to suppose that you can’t forge a career in novel-writing. Generally, you will need to have a few ideas for different books, so that you can sign a contract with a publisher for a few books on one deal. But the main thing is that you spend a lot of time practicing your craft – particularly before giving up your day job to be able to pursue this as a career. It can take many years to write a good novel, and even longer to find a publisher, so you are going to need a lot of patience to make this your career. All that being said, it’s perfectly possible, and so something that is well worth considering.

Blogging

This is probably one of the most common writers’ jobs out there today. More and more people are becoming bloggers, and as time goes on it becomes a more welcoming and lucrative industry, with many more opportunities that you might want to make use of as best as you can. If you want to get into blogging, then you will need to make sure that you are able to write to the style of contemporary blogs, which is a whole style in itself, and something that you can easily practice by paying attention to the kinds of blogs that you generally like to read.

In fact, as with any other kind of writing, reading other blogs is going to be one of the main things you need to do if you are going to have a strong education in that kind of writing. Read as much as you can, and you will develop a stronger and stronger sense of what good blog writing is. Blogging is also about running a solo business, so you will need to prepare for that too – and articles like this one on 4 Steps To Starting Your Own Successful Blog are often a good place to start there. Done right, you can make a surprising amount of money from blogging.

Poetry

The common adage when it comes to poetry is that it is impossible to make money from it. This is not really true. It is impossible to make a living from poetry book sales, but there are all sorts of things that poets do to keep on forging ahead and ultimately generate enough income to live from. Poets often teach and lecture, they give speeches and talks, they read their poetry at events and festivals, and they help students work through dissertations and the like for quite a lot of money sometimes. If you are keen on becoming a poet and trying to make it a career, there are plenty of things you can do – and that’s not to mention winning the occasional award, grant or prize to help see you through too. The only real thing that you need for a poetry career is an inexhaustible love of the art form itself, and the passion to practice it as much as you possibly can. Do that, and you should get there before you know it, and build one of the most interesting careers out there today.

Copywriting

If you want to start earning money in writing today, then there are some careers which are much quicker to get into, and one which is particularly likely to be a target in such cases is copywriting. This is a world that is growing all the time, and it is a great way to make some money writing. Often, these positions are home, freelance-based ones, which has all sorts of benefits that you can be really glad for. What’s more, you can use such a job to make your money and then supplement any other kind of writing that you might want to do too.

To get into copywriting, make sure that you have a particular niche in mind. It helps if you know a lot about a specific area, as that means that people will want to hire you for your specialist knowledge in that one thing. Then it’s just a matter of developing your contacts and putting your name out there, until you are at the point where you can ultimately make a full-time career out of it. Done right, copywriting can be very rewarding indeed.

Ghostwriter

Lots of people who have their names on books and other material did not really write it, and this is a fantastic opportunity for the budding writer who wants to get some practice in. Ghostwriting is where you write on behalf of other people under their name, and it can be a fun and enjoyable way to make a living. Ghostwriting books for a career is one of the most popular writing careers out there, so it’s something you will want to think about.

There are so many options for freelance writers out there. Obviously, my favorite is blogging.  But I have been thinking about trying some of the others in the future. I love writing, if I could make a career out of it would be amazing.

Take care everyone.