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Discussion: How can I make a living writing.....stuff?

streetsurfer

streetsurfer

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I am pretty good at expressing myself through the written media and I enjoy it alot so I'm thinking, is there a way I can make a living doing it? Writing articles maybe, thoughts?
 
You might want to get into freelance writing--writing nonfiction articles for magazines. Or, if you're like me, you may want to do straight fiction, which involves shopping around for niche magazines.

I strongly recommend buying the latest editions of "The Writer's Handbook", and "The Writer's Market", as well as getting a subscription from one of the well-known writing magazines. They have tips, markets, and contacts galore.

Best of luck!
 
You should try writing a novle of your own to be published. That way you'll either find out you suck at writing, or have a kick ass portfolio to build some sort of writing career out of.

I'm not saying this is true in your case, but I think alot of people who are 'good at expressing themselves through written media' only think they are good because they have only ever written for themselves.
 
Unless you want to start with small presses, I wouldn't recommend jumping directly into novels; it's a tough market to break into, especially for an untested writer without an agent. If possible, make a name for yourself in short works first; from what I've read, it's the best way to get your foot in the door.
 
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Get a Writer's Market and learn how to knit your own sweaters. Be prepared for lots of rejection and being poor.
 
Get an MFA or something. That way, you may actually like get paid.

Yeah.

Good luck.
 
I know alot of shit about alot of shit, science in particular, motorbikes, drugs, exercise, so I can just write an article and send it into a magazine? Then what happens?
 
It can be hard making a living out of writing. Out of 100 or so people who did my Professional Writing Bachelor degree, only a handful of us actually got paying jobs in a related field.

I went into journalism at first, which is probably the best-known way to write and get paid for it. Although you don't (generally) get to write what you want, and it's a totally different sort of writing than creative writing.

I'm now in Public Relations/Marketing, which involves another type of writing again - writing advertisements, product brochures, press releases to 'sell' products/services/events to the media so they'll give coverage to it.

You could also put Advertising Creative/CopyWriting in this category too - they're the people who write TV ads, radio stuff, print ads. That can pay a HEAP. The whole Advertising/Marketing/PR is the most lucrative way to make money "writing". But you'll be a bit of a sell-out ;) < I don't care personally!

In between these careers I've also freelanced for magazines. Sometimes I would build up a relationship with the magazine editor and she would "commission" a story from me (sometimes I would have to write one for free, to prove myself first). Other times I've been successful with just writing a feature article, say on Latin Dance, or Birth Control, and selling it direct to the magazine. But unless you are 100% committed to this sort of up and down financial situation, very self-motivated and very good at personal relationships, freelancing doesn't pay well at all. There can be long periods of no work at all.

On the other end of the scale, you could lock yourself away for a while and write a novel, or poetry... a long and arduous road, but if you're good, patient, and very lucky, this would be an awesomely rewarding way to live your life. Some people obviously do it!

Or, you could always get your Dip Ed and be an English teacher!

Hope this helps :)
 
streetsweeper said:
I know alot of shit about alot of shit, science in particular, motorbikes, drugs, exercise, so I can just write an article and send it into a magazine? Then what happens?
Click to expand...

First of all, before you send anything anywhere, do your research. Any article you write should be well-researched (that is, if you want to build and maintain a reputation as a quality writer), but another kind of research is just as important. You need to research your market - the publications who could potentially publish your piece. You should be pretty familiar with a newspaper, magazine, website or journal before you send them your stuff. Get to know their focus and what sort of stuff they publish, and what kind of readership they're catering to. The type of advertising featured in a publication usually provides a few clues in terms of readership. ;) You should also become familiar with the type of language their articles tend to be written in (is it tabloid, businesslike, scientific, literary, etc?).

You'll also need to do your research in terms of who you should be sending stuff to, and in what format. I'd recommend contacting the publication by phone or email to find out who the appropriate editor is, and how you can contact them. If you can, find out the publication's requirements in terms of format, word lengths, etc. For example, will they accept submissions via email, or do they prefer hard copy? Small publications might only have one editor, whereas bigger publications tend to have a number of editors who head up different sections - so try to get in touch with the editor of the section where you think your piece will fit.

Having said all of that, I'd suggest that you don't send complete articles to a publication right off the bat. Send them a letter or email, including a summary / synopsis of the article you'd like them to consider. You could also send them an example of another article you've written, and/or a list of prior publications if you have any. If you don't have any, it could be a good idea to start out by writing stuff for smaller websites, zines, newsletters or small circulation magazines, who may not pay you (although they may offer perks), but who will be glad to have the content. And do some networking to see if your friends or acquaintances can offer any leads in terms of publications you might be able to write for. Writing gratis is frowned upon by many freelancers, but as Strawberry_lovemuffin pointed out, it can give you a foot in the door, and boost that all-important list of previous publications. Once you have a few publications under your belt, you can begin to negotiate with editors in terms of payment and rights - which is something you should do as part of your approach to the editor (i.e. before your piece is published!). Again, research is key - find out what the going rates are in your particular market. Payment is often negotiated on a per-word basis. Writers' societies and unions can usually offer advice on payment and contracts.
 
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I really wanna get my stuff out there. I've written hundreds of poems and dozens of stories... I'm not worried though, because I think to be a writer, you just need to write. It's more important to concentrate on improving your skill than getting published. But it would be very frustrating to have a heap of writings no one reads.

However, here's some inspiration as much for myself as others. Many writers, artists, etc. spend their very lonely lives creating mountains of work that no one notices or cares about. Often, years and years later they're "discovered". These kinds of people are remembered a lot longer than folks who get really popular right off the bat, then shuffle down the culture lane. Write for all time and it's a sure thing. that's my attitude for now at least
 
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You may want to check craiglist: every so often (not regularly) freelance writing jobs come up. I wrote an article about pet bakeries once, from a posting in craigslist.. I think I made 50 bucks or something. That'll be a decent way of seeing if you like doing that kind of work. For me, it wasn't worth it, for the time it took to the damned thing. Also, I worked as a technical writer for a bit -- awesome money but you have to have the write (haha) personality for it. (I didn't last long in this occupation).
As for fiction writing, it is BLOODY difficult and I don't recommend it for anyone who isn't passionate about it. You have to sacrifice a great deal to 'make it' and fiction writing pays peanuts. No exaggeration: you pretty much make less then minimum wage writing fiction, and that is after years and years of practice. Probably only like 1 in 200 people who write a half decent manuscript (which is hard to do) manage to get them published and out of these people, probably only 1 in 100 make any more than a better-than-average yearly wage doing it (statistics guess work on my part, but probably somewhere close to right).
 
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