Three Tips for Planning your Freelance Writing Future
If you want your freelance writing career to move in the right direction, you need to plan for the future. While there is no way of knowing what the future holds, if you set goals and think about where you want your career to go you will be in a much better position.
Here are three tips for planning your freelance writing future:
1. Set big goals! Although you may not reach every goal that you set, big goals will keep you reaching for the stars day in and day out. It is nice to have small goals along the way as well, but these can only take you so far. What is a big goal, you may ask? This is different for everybody, but a couple common ones may be reaching a certain level of freelance writing income or becoming a full-time freelance writer.
2. Be realistic about where you want your career to go in the months and years to come. As mentioned above, there is nothing wrong with having big goals. But with that being said, you need to stay realistic. For example, it would not be realistic to say that you want to have five novels published by the end of 2008. But it would be realistic to set a goal of completing one novel in this time frame.
3. Plan out the small steps that will allow you to reach your end goal. If you take small steps along the way and can see that you are making progress, you will have a much better chance of staying on track. This is why I suggest that you have a to-do list to work from everyday.
The great thing about a career in freelance writing is that you are 100 percent in charge of your future. When you work for somebody else, you can only move up in the company and make more money if they say so; this is not the case if you are a freelance writer. You can call all the shots, and in turn reach all your goals if you are devoted to doing so.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Another great blog post, Chris! Since finding out about your site a few weeks ago, I’ve been a daily reader and have found a lot of useful information on this site. However, I still have questions about freelance writing that I hoped you, an experienced full-time freelancer, may be able to answer.
Basically, I am only 19 years old and finishing up my freshman year of college. However, despite my age, I am somewhat established as a freelance writer on RentACoder–I had decent part-time earnings there last year. I’m a good writer, not on the level of a professional per say, but all my clients have been extremely pleased with my writing.
Which brings me to now. I took a good year off from full-time freelancing because I got busy with college. Now that I have a whole summer off, I’m looking to put myself back into the game and earn a decent income. I’m talking a $1,000 or so a month, if that. I just need to make enough to cover my expenses. Once I go back to school in the fall, I’d like to continue doing freelance writing part-time.
So my question is, as a student, yet a good writer, how do I establish myself with people who are looking for quality writing and yet might be wary of hiring someone so young for a project? I’ve tried freelancing sites like Elance, GetaFreelancer and RAC, but I’m not finding enough work through them. Especially GAF…..I haven’t won a single project despite bidding on several. And my bids are always customized, not the generic junk that a lot of low-ball bidders post.
Also, do you have any ideas of where else I might have some luck with finding freelance writing projects? Or any other ideas?
Thanks, and I apologize for how long this comment has been.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 am
Michelle - Thanks for the comment! As far as finding freelance writing work, my best suggestion would be to query publications that are of interest to you. To get started, buy a copy of Writer’s Market or join online. Additionally, don’t be shy; contact local businesses and ask them if they ever hire freelance writers. You never know what you will find!