Writing As A Career: The Many Places You Can Go

So you’ve started a small career as a freelance writer either for a local paper or online for any place like Upwork. Now you’ve found writing to be a passion and something you enjoy doing. However, you do not know where to go from here. There are many routes you can go from one starter point and any of them can bring you happiness, success and hopefully a career you can be proud of to call your own. While not entirely everything you can do when starting out as a freelance writer, here are a few options for you to consider if you’re uncertain about where to go from here.

Magazines and Newspapers

Do you have an article that you’re extremely proud of? Want to get it published in more than one place? You can always send the article to various newspapers and magazines for consideration. If they like what you’ve written it may be published and you could receive money for it. But you know what is better than that? They see this incredible piece of literature you’ve just written and can put a name to it. You never know when they may contact you out of the blue and say, “We want you.” In fact, I’ve seen people go beyond this. A friend of mine has a mother who started out writing in the same way many of us do such as freelance writing and now she runs her own magazine. This is always a long-term goal option that your current writing nowadays can lead up to.

There is a lot of work involved in magazines, especially, so even if this is a long term goal it’s an excellent one. Use the present to hone your ability, work on what you need to fix to better yourself and don’t take every negative feedback received as a personal insult. Take it as a helpful tool if you can and the comment is in regards to bettering your writing talent. IF it’s just an insult and a disagreement about something you write, shrug it off. You’re bound to have those who dislike what you’ve written.

Children’s Stories

I think that writing stories for children can be the hardest literature to write. While it’s a personal opinion of mine, I wrote a book at a writing program when I was younger and it was extremely difficult to come up with material that a small child would relate to and be interested in hearing.

However, for some telling tales to children comes easy. Look at Harry Potter. It is a more child-oriented book in my opinion and spread out to a much wider audience. Why? Because it was something everyone could enjoy.

Short stories or even poems can become elaborate stories if you wish. That’s the most wonderful thing about writing. When you’re still somewhat new at it you can write small prose and later on down the line when you feel you’ve improved, you can add upon it. Change a poem into a story or even spread out a short story into a book. Putting a smile on a childs face is an incredible feeling and don’t ever feel that writing a childrens book isn’t the same as writing articles or anything else you may have done as of now. You’d be surprised at how many authors start out this way.

Novels, Novellas and other books

Just like Children’s stories, writing novels is another direction your writing can take you. This can be like Stephen King or even Steve Martin (who wrote Shop Girl, which was a Novella). If you take writing at all seriously you know how painful a deadline can be to meet and even if you don’t have one you know entirely too well that writing something you can be proud of can take years to complete. Sure, some have this amazing ability to turn out works of art incredibly fast, but don’t feel you have to compete. After all, what you write in your novel, funny satire or any other book is your own words – not someone elses. So you can’t expect to be as fast as they are or even be upon the same level of talent. Remember if this is your path then take your time and be patient. Be sure that what you write and get published someday is something you can be proud of – just like a child.

Poet

Don’t ever think that the only ones who have famous poetry are those dead. Yes, you have Jim Morrison and Sylvia Plathe who are no long amongst the living, but you also have Maya Angelou and even Jewel as still-living poets who are very successful. You can write poetry books and submit them to agencies to see if they want to pick you up and use your material in a book of poetry. One popular way to do this online can be a website called Poetryfoundation.org. Sometimes people get offers to be published in their books and that right there can be your stepping stone. You just have to have a leap point and then before you know it you’re off sharing your view of things with others in a very artistic way.

Song Writing

Maybe you feel your poetry should go beyond words, sort of in a Jim Morrison sort of way. Maybe music is your way of life, but you also have that passion to write. Mix the best of both worlds – become a songwriter. This can be a very fulfilling career to see your words put to music and performed for others to listen and enjoy. While this can be a very stressful path to take it can also be one of the most rewarding. Can you imagine someday someone big expressing interest in your work and wishing to work with you on a song? How proud you would be, right? Not to mention how incredibly thrilled to hear your song being played everywhere. Don’t say it doesn’t happen – it does.

Where you can go from writing is infinite. There are numerous other ways to write and make careers, but here are only a small handful of where you can go. You just need to keep positive, keep working and definitely keep the faith. One day, as long as you keep dedicated and passionate, your cause will pay off. Perhaps in a bigger way than you’d ever expect it to.