Making a living writing is a challenge. You will earn more if you challenge yourself instead of waiting for the challenges to arise. Many good writers do not succeed commercially because they do not have a game plan and expect luck to send them a break. You will have better luck if you stack the odds in your favor following a personal development strategy for your writing business. Here are seven strategies you can use to increase your writing range and increase your income potential in the process.
1. Develop a written business plan
If you just want to write for fun without earning money, that's fine; But if you want to make a living writing, you should treat your writing as a business. This means that you must develop a business plan for your writing.
Some of the most important elements that your plan should cover include:
+ Revenue Goals: How much income do I need to generate from my writing to reach my overall financial goals?
+ Career Options: What kind of writing can I do to generate that level of income? Some examples of writing specialties: commercial writing, writing of advertising texts, writing of grants, medical writing and technical writing. There are dozens more that could be listed.
+ Job opportunities: What type of writing work do I need to reach my target income level? Will I be a regular employee or a freelancer? If I'm going to be a freelancer, how many clients and projects will I need per year and per month, and what should I charge?
+ Operational plan: How many hours a week do I need to write to reach my income goals? What will be my daily schedule?
+ Job search plan (if looking for an employer) or promotional plan (if looking for independent clients): If I am looking for a regular employer, where will I submit my application, what will I include in my portfolio and curriculum vitae, and what communication tools will I use to approach potential employers? If I go to work on my own, who will I promote? What will I emphasize to communicate my experience? What promotional tools will I use? How much will this cost?
+ Initial capital: What office equipment and other resources do I need to reach my goals and how much will it cost?
+ Training: What writing skills do I need to acquire, develop or improve and how much will it cost?
+ Financing: How will I finance my business writing expenses?
+ Taxes: What tax forms will I need to submit? What do I need to report? Can I claim any deduction?
You will make the most of your business plan if you keep it short and update it periodically. When you write your plan for the first time, you should be able to briefly cover most of the items listed above on approximately three pages or less. You can always expand the points you need to develop (for example, you probably want to add some pages to develop your promotional strategy in more detail). But keep your main points short so you don't feel overwhelmed and not willing to let your plan collect dust once you finish it. Check your plan periodically to renew your approach and update it quarterly and annually to reflect any new information or changes in your situation.
2. Set writing objectives
To implement your plan, it is important to set specific writing goals. Three of the most important goals to set when you start are:
+ How many job applications or possible contacts will I make per week to get enough interviews for jobs or clients?
+ How many hours a week will I write?
+ How many hours a week will I train to improve my marketable writing skills and in what areas?
The rest of this article will focus on the third objective by suggesting some ways to expand your writing skill set.
3. Read inspirational authors
Almost every good writer began as an avid reader and learned by imitation. Today I earn income as a nonfiction business writer, but my original inspiration for writing came from reading things like DC and Marvel Comics, the novelization of Star Wars novels, The Hobbit and Stephen King. Fiction is still my preferred mode, and I periodically return to certain authors to inspire me and study techniques. Read authors who can motivate you, teach you and refresh you when you need a break from commercial writing.
4. Expand your vocabulary
I grew up in a home where card games and word games were war, and a Scrabble board was a battlefield. I don't like losing, so I arrived early at the Official Scrabble Player Dictionary. I set a goal to increase my average score to 20 points per play, then to 30, then to 40. My record before I stopped playing for points was 212 points for one word ("SERVICE", crossing two squares of words triples with the "V" doubled plus a bonus of 50 points for a bingo) and 605 points in a game. Today I play just for fun, so my family now has the rule that I am only allowed to play four cards per turn.
This disadvantage has actually made me a stronger player, because it forces me to be more alert to the word opportunities inherent in the four-letter combinations. I look at the first letter on the shelf and study all the words I can do starting with that letter. Then I move to the second. I continue until I find the word that will make the most points.
+ Playing word games like this is a way of practicing expanding your vocabulary. Other ways are:
+ Reading from ancient authors who used words that are less common today
+ Study Greek and Latin root words
+ Write poetry
+ Make word games
+ Write summaries of others' ideas in your own words
+ Rewriting your own sentences using different words
When you expand your vocabulary, keep in mind that learning new words is only part of the big picture. Learning new words is good, but it is even better to learn to use the tens of thousands of words you already know better. Usually, I avoid using esoteric vocabulary when I write, because in most business writing projects, my goal is to communicate and persuade, not to show my creative writing ability. I think simple English generally works best for this. "SERVICE" is not a rare word. I just used it in the right place at the right time. A large part of your vocabulary expansion is simply detecting more opportunities to use words you already know.
5. Stretch your stylistic range
Just as you can practice expanding your vocabulary, you can practice stretching your stylistic range. This will make you a better writer, and also prepare you better to take on different types of writing projects that can earn you more money.
How do you stretch your style? One way is to practice saying the same thing in different ways by varying each of the elements of the style. Another way is to take each of the elements of style and practice its use.
Style elements include:
+ The characteristic vocabulary he uses, such as repeated words and phrases
+ Whether you rely on nouns or adjectives for descriptions (general rule: focus your descriptions by selecting more precise nouns and eliminating unnecessary adjectives)
+ Use of active sentence structure vs. passive (active is preferred, but both have their place)
+ Write in first, second or third person
+ Write in present, past or future
+ Write statements vs. questions vs. commands
+ Use of format codes such as bold, italic, bullets and numbers
There are many ways to practice each of them. To illustrate how you could expand your descriptive style, take the word "blue" and think of all the different types of blue that exist. Blue sky. Blue ocean. Dodger blue … Actually, there are over 50 recognized shades of blue that the human eye can distinguish. How accurately can you distinguish them when you write? How would you compare cerulean blue with turquoise? Can you make the blue of a calm and clear sky sound different from the blue of the smiling Irish eyes? The more accurate your color vocabulary, the more power you will have to include in your color descriptions. Practicing expanding your color vocabulary and descriptive ability is an example of how you can stretch your style.
6. Experiment with new formats
Another way to expand your stylistic range is to experience writing in new formats. This will also improve other aspects of your writing.
You can experiment with many different formats. Writing poems will develop your sense of rhythm, your efficiency in choosing meaningful phrases and your ability to see symbolic relationships between words, images and ideas. Writing games will improve your dialogue. Writing fiction will perfect your rhythm. Writing classified ads will force you to write succinctly. Direct mail sales letters will teach you how to attract emotions. Academic writing will teach you to appeal to reason.
7. Write about new topics
While expanding your range of style and format, you can also add substance to your repertoire by writing about new topics. One way to do this is to use a topic that you are familiar with as a springboard to investigate a related topic you would like to learn about.
For example, if you are used to reading and writing about exercise, you can take the opportunity to learn about anatomy or diet. You could take this one step further by reading about health and fitness marketing, in the process of expanding your knowledge base from the health and fitness niche to business.
You can apply the same principle by writing new genres of fiction. For example, at the beginning of my career as a fiction writer, I realized that I was coming to fiction from the perspective of a guy who likes action and battle, but most fiction readers are women. To improve my range of fiction, I began studying romantic novels, soap operas and other genres geared more towards the female audience. This added a new layer to my writing, increasing not only its literary depth, but also my ability to connect with new markets. The more you can write, the more readers you can achieve with your writing, and the more opportunities you will have to earn an income from your writing.
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