You just have to be willing to think outside of the box, and explore your options until you find the one that works.
If you had told me five years ago that I would be making a full-time income from writing, I would have laughed in your face.
And if you had then told me that half of that income would come from writing personal essays about my life and experiences, I would have gotten offended that you were straight up lying to my face and wasting my time.
I simply didn’t believe this would every be a possibility for me.
That isn’t to say I wasn’t going to give it a go — but I did also recognizing that my 'go' and pursuing a possible writing career was a labor of love and passion, and that simply I wasn’t likely to ever be recognized or adequately paid for my writing.
While the “starving artist” idea is romantic in a way, I have a mortgage and student loans to be paying off.
I started my journey of even giving my ‘writing career’ a shot by going the traditional route. Drafted a manuscript for my 'debut' YA fiction novel (which took me five years to complete), and started reaching out to literary agents, hoping one would take a chance on me.
Unsurprisingly, I heard crickets in response.
But that didn’t stop me from exploring other means of building a writing career for myself.
There is a demand for quality writers.
I should have caught on to this when my social media clients were eager to lock me down as their main content writer, and my business started to shift from social to copywriting.
I’ve just always written — scribbling in notebooks in junior high school, typing fanfiction during my lectures in university, and the like. I never anticipated that all of that seemingly unimportant practice, and fine-tuning my writing voice, would be something I could benefit from for more than just pleasure down the road.
But it finally dawned on me that quality writers are very hard to find. In every industry. And locating one to work with who gets your brand and writes well is like striking gold.
From this experience, I realised two very important things:
- I was not born with the natural talent for writing — it was a steadily built skill I crafted over many years, meaning that quality writing proficiency can absolutely be learned of you’re willing to do the work. And,
- Maybe I wasn’t so ridiculous or wild to ever think that perhaps others would want to read my creative writing — there was high demand for my professional writing, and I wasn’t even half as passionate about that. Maybe…
This is good news for prospective professional writers. Writing is a skill, one that can be developed and improved over time with practice and dedication.
While I’ll never win gold in the Olympics for many practical physical limitations outside of my control, I can certainly work to improve and hone my craft as a writer to a point of proficiency — as long as I’m willing to put in the investment of time and energy to do so.
Opportunities will come from the most unlikely of places.
I started out with my eyes only on the traditional route of publishing and creative writing.
Even writing for online magazines was a foreign idea to me that I didn’t really consider as a serious option.
That said, I did have one thing going for me — I had recognized that becoming a published author was about more than just having a great manuscript.
Literary agents and publishers are looking for authors with great communication skills and online visibility. They’re looking for proactive writers who know how to publicize themselves, and have a respectable following on social media.
The only reason I began blogging online, and then publishing personal essays, was to build a presence online as an active writer to make me a more viable option to work with in publishing a novel.
I have yet to be picked up by a literary agent — but my blogging has well and truly blown up.
To date, about 1/2 of my income is a direct stream from royalties I receive from my written work and payment for commissioned pieces.
You don’t know what writing opportunities are out there until you dare to dip your toe into the pool of unknown, and paddle around a bit in the shallow end to get an idea of how the water is looking.
It’s mind-boggling how many opportunities will present themselves exclusively because you were bold enough to take a dip.
Had you not gotten into that pool, you never would have had the chance to see what else is out there.
Which takes me to my third point:
The writing industry is a lot more diverse than we give it credit for.
It’s pretty fascinating what you can get paid for as a writer.
Take a look into the 'nontraditional' or 'unconventional' side of the writing world, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the options you have at your disposal.
Before I started blogging, I didn’t even know what a personal essay was. I was entirely unaware that, not only had I been technically writing personal essays online for years for free, but there was an actual, honest to God market for this style of writing, and I could get paid for it.
As I read more about other writers who were making profitable livings from personal essays, I couldn’t believe it. I legitimately laughed.
But my laugh was accompanied by a beaming smile — I had finally found my perfect fit for my professional writing career.
There are a lot of ways to make a career from writing that many of us don’t realize exist.
For example, ghostwriting blog posts for companies, as I do in my social media and copywriting business. Freelance commissioned writing on websites such as Upwork. Writing romance novels for small publishing companies who sell the novellas on Amazon under their brand name. Pitching to online magazines. Working as a contracted product writer for a marketing agency.
The list, and limitless possibilities go on, and on, and on.
I used to think that the only way I could be fulfilled as a writer was if I became a published author.
Now that I self publish personal essays online, and co-run an online publication with hundreds of writers submitting their work to us, I honestly couldn’t be bothered of I don’t get picked up by a literary agent or publishing company.
I’ve found the perfect fit for me for my writing career, and I can’t wait to watch it grow and continue to build it into more in the future.
And get paid doing the things I love most in the world, which I never thought were possible to make a living off of.
But I obviously stand corrected.
Final word.
The days of traditional and conventional careers are over.
With the expansion of the internet, we now have access to a limitless audience of potential readers and fans, all around the globe.
This is not your grandmother’s workforce reality — this is the time of endless possibilities, and the chance to build our own vision and dreams for ourselves.
We have the power to create our own work, if we find ourselves unsatisfied with what’s out there.
My first choice was always to be a professional writer — but I knew that wasn’t a realistic way to make a dependable income fresh out of school, so right after I graduated from college I went for the next best thing: social media marketing.
For three years, my social media company paid my bills and funded my life. It also offered fuel for my greatest passion of all — writing — and provided security first and foremost so that I could explore my options in the writing world.
It wasn’t until I was nearing my 4th year of business that making money through creative writing even became a possibility.
You’ve got to be willing to pay your dues and put in the exhaustive work necessary if you want to see your aspirations of writing as a career come to fruition.
You must also be willing to exercise flexibility and openness when navigating the writing world, and seeking opportunity.
If you’re only ever looking for opportunities in the traditional publishing world, then those are the only opportunities your limited eyesight will see.
But if you walk into the arena with a willingness to entertain and explore any and all writing possibilities, you will find yourself with an exceptional amount of options in front of you
It’s just up to you to start testing, troubleshooting, and seeing where opportunity will unexpectedly take you.