How to Make a Living as a Writer

How many times have you been discouraged from trying to make enough money to make a living as a writer? "They" say it's hard to do; "they" say, "sure, if you're Michael Crichton!" (Stephen King, etc.) They say you can make extra money with it, or make a second income, but don't depend on it as a major source of income.

They're wrong and I know they are, because I have made my living as a freelance writer, (I'm semi retired now) and if you can write at all, you can do it, too.

It's anything but a get-rich-quick-scheme, but you can make money at it. It's work, and hard work at times, and just like anything else you want to do, you must get in there and do it.

First of all, write.
Write anything and everything. Keep a journal, a blog, and keep a file where you stash odds and ends and finished pieces. Put questions, ideas, lists, half finished articles, half started articles and everything else.

Write at a certain time every day, but keep alert to inspiration the flits across your mind throughout the day and night. Sleep with a notebook handy. Keep your computer booted up so you can type out notes and ideas and sometimes full articles as they come to you.

Writers write, so keep writing. If you don't have something important to work on, create it. Write for sites like Helium and Gather and Associated Content to keep yourself thinking creatively. Get a blog and update it often. Push yourself to write more and the harder you push, the easier it becomes, until it's second nature to write coherent content.

Secondly, look for markets.
You can't sell anything if you don't send anything out. Don't make the mistake of writing a piece then looking for a market for it. Look for a market and then write a piece for it. You'll seldom come across a market that's looking for exactly what you wrote three months or three years ago. You will come across a market that's looking for something like an idea you had a couple of weeks ago, and you can write the article and slant it to the market.

Third: Follow a market's guidelines to a "T."
Don't fudge, don't skip over things. Overworked editors will reject your material without even reading it through if you don't submit it the way they've asked. There's a reason for those guidelines and it has to do with the way they operate. They just don't have time to make exceptions and do extra work to get your material ready for their publication, no matter how good it is.

Fourth? Don't be afraid to ask for money.
You put in a lot of time working on an article and you deserve to be paid for it. Don't work for free, unless it's for charity. You wouldn't work for free for your boss, would you? You wouldn't take a job, then never expect payment for it, would you?

Fifth, don't set your sites too low.
While you need to write for the markets mentioned above as an every day exercise and a way to build good habits, shoot for the stars. Some writers get paid upwards of a dollar a word; why not you? I'll tell you why. You haven't tried the markets that pay that much..

Sixth, and maybe the most important of all: Consider writing as your job.
Make a commitment to it. Ignore those who think you're just passing time or goofing off when you write. Accept in your mind that you are a writer and your job is to write and make money at it. Then do it.