2010 New Year's Resolution - Becoming a Freelance Writer

Being able to write professionally has always seemed like an impossible, though highly desired dream of mine. Once I finally got my chance, I became incredibly overwhelmed and seemed to hit a road block every time I started doing well. My 2010 New Year's resolution is to spend 2010 honing my craft into a full time freelance career.

Step 1:

Sort through all possible opportunities and choose at least ten. This will be completed during the first two weeks of January. I've put links to various websites, including writing job lists, in a spreadsheet. Overtime, this has gotten out of hand. By choosing ten, I can guarantee myself plenty of work.

I'll divide the ten opportunities into groups. I'll focus on the highest paying ones first. However, should something go wrong, or work is slow, I'll have at least three opportunities in my second group to fall back on. The third group will focus on random opportunities, such as assignments from Associated Content, Helium's Marketplace and selling articles on Constant Content. The last group will focus on passive income. This includes any articles written strictly for views or ad revenue.

Step 2:

Create a personal website. I've written a blog, but haven't updated in months. Not to mention, I want a more professional site that doesn't restrict self promotion. This site will advertise my skills and any writing products I create, such as books or applications to help other writers and freelancers. The site will include a blog, links to helpful sites and of course, my resume.

Step 3:

Develop a strict writing plan. This will change each month based on my financial needs and which group I need to focus on for the month. On the last day of each month, I'll create a writing plan. This will detail the exact number of articles I need to write each day for the month for which sites and clients. I'll also schedule time for updating my website, promoting myself and finding new opportunities.

Step 4:

Create a notebook of tips and guidelines to reduce rewrites and rejections. I've collected notes every time an article was either rejected or had to be rewritten. Each site has different requirements. The notebook will have a section for every site I submit an article to. For individual clients, I'll create a second notebook of client notes if the client becomes a recurring client.

Tips would include type of writing style required, formatting notes, length of articles, topics, how to research an article, types of references allowed and any other notes acquired along the way. This will increase productivity by only needing to write an article once and writing the correct type of article for each site.

Step 5:

Get creative. I mainly write informative articles. This type of article pays great, but can be extremely boring after a while. Creative writing, such as fiction, poetry and editorials, are fun to write and gives the brain a welcome reprieve. At least three times a week, I'll spend at least thirty minutes on creative writing. This can be short writing prompts, chapters of a book, poems and editorials for one of my blogs.

Within the first few months of 2010, I will take charge of my career and finally realize my dream as something very possible. I encourage any struggling writers to take these steps and use them towards creating your own success story.