Taking it Slow: A Part-time Writing Career

If you have decided to become a writer, but you cannot afford to quit your job and dive in, than you do have another choice.

You can break in to writing while still working full-time in another field, but you must have the dedication. Many writing careers have been forged by those who are will to put in the extra hours.

The problem that many writers run in to when they try to start a career in writing while still maintaining a full-time job is the ability to meet deadlines. Meeting a story deadline is very important to a writing career. If you, consistently, miss deadline you will not be able to land another job.

In order to meet deadlines you will have to budget your time wisely. You may have to make quite a few "social sacrifices," so to speak. Most nights, instead of going out with your friends, you will have to stay home and write.

Starting a career in writing is the same as starting any other business. If you want it to work, you have to put in the time.

Because you are competing with full-time, established, professional writers, who already have contacts and sources, you are going to have to work harder. You may have to use your personal or vacation time from work to meet with sources or cover events, instead of that trip to the beach you wanted.

Getting your first couple of jobs will be the hardest part. If you are writing full-time you can spend your entire day looking for work, making phone calls and sending out query letters. When you are only writing part-time you are often crunched for time.

One of the easiest ways to land an assignment while working full-time is to query a trade magazine in your field. Since you are currently in the field you are probably fully aware of the problems and/or concerns of that profession.

Really think about what you know about your field, and then try to look at it from a fresh angle. This will help to cut down on the amount of time you need to research your topic, as well as cut down on the amount of time you will need to find sources.

This method works better for some people than for others, but even if you work at a fast food restaurant, you can still use it. You might be able to submit an article to your local newspaper or a local magazine featuring profiles of the minimum wage worker.

In the next edition we will talk about how to find writing jobs and what you need to do to land them.