When I get an idea, I have trouble not following through with it right away. I think that’s why I have so many first drafts and not so many completed manuscripts. I love to follow up on new things. When I get an inkling of something, I get a little obsessed with doing it or finding out more.
I wrote last time about pursuing other avenues of writing, just to see what’s out there. I have a few great friends who make their livings as freelance writers and they’ve been nice enough to share (or plan to share) some of the ways they do it. I’m not looking to write fulltime, yet. If (and when) I do it will be because of my fiction writing, I hope. But in the meantime, I’ve been exploring some options for getting a wider audience and doing different types of writing.
This morning I completed my first web content job. It was writing copy for a few sections of a website. The guidelines were intense and it took me awhile to wrap my head around what they really wanted from me. But once I got into it, it was actually pretty fun. I think I’ll keep my day job and even put my fiction writing first, but it’s nice to know there are writing opportunities out there that pay, if you’re looking.
Some other great advice I got was to volunteer to blog for nonprofits. In those cases you can usually use your own name, which means I can add the clips to my portfolio. So I reached out through http://www.volunteermatch.org and made a connection. The editor liked my ideas for the blog, so I’m sending her some rough outlines this weekend. I hope my next post here will direct you to read another post of mine at a beautiful and important website!
My brain feels like it’s dancing with all the writing possibility and opportunities out there. Are you pursuing freelance work? Do you write full-time? How did you get into it?
My Writing Life 