Make a Living as a Freelance Writer

Making a career out of freelance writing is a labor of love. Many writers aspire to one day support themselves entirely with writing, but instead discover that they must work at the local coffee shop or spend their most productive hours answering phones to make ends meet. I get it. I've been there and still regularly occupy that space. Life is a dynamic process and freelance writing is especially thus. It's ever changing.One month, you might have five clients that you're working with and the next, you're checking your email every hour, hoping for a small editing gig. What I've learned more than anything else in the freelance business is that I am responsible for my business. If I'm not generating it, there won't be any.

My partner in crime is a musician and he is a great example of how to be successful in the freelance business. Every day, he works to create his business. He goes to jam sessions to network with other musicians, he regularly stops by music studios to offer his services as a music teacher and he composes almost every single night. I'm often envious of his amazing focus and determination in his chosen field of creativity.

If you're struggling to make writing your full time career, consider some of the tips and resources below to help jump start your June business.

Advice for Freelancers 

• Talk About Your Business: I recently started a new editing project for an attorney. She called me because she knew that I was a freelancer and she couldn't find anyone in her area that she trusted with confidential documents. Her business came as a result of conversations that I'd had with her more than two years ago. The more you tell people about what you do, the more likely your name is going to come up when someone needs writing or editing services. So allow the modesty to fall away for a bit and tell everyone that you meet for a week that you offer writing and editing or other freelance services, pass out business cards and remind your friends and family that any clients they send your way are greatly appreciated. 
• Practice What You Preach: I must admit that I often fail in this capacity. When I work with clients, I spend a lot of time optimizing their content, building a social media platform and finding ways to make their business relevant on the internet. Why do I do this? Because that's how their future clients and customers will find them. This is equally, if not more so, important for a freelance writer. Utilize the internet to find new clients and to let people know that you exist. I recommend Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and any other sites that can advertise your area of expertise. 
• Do Stellar Work: Every client is a connection to future clients. When you create content that someone loves or optimize a website so that your client's business improves, other people will hear about it. It's an overused statement that actions speak louder than words, but it's extremely relevant in the freelance business. You can talk a great game, but if you provide mediocre service, you will lose a lot of word-of-mouth business. 

Writer's Resources

• MediaBistro: This is a great site for connecting with other writers, finding freelance jobs and finding informative articles about writing, publishing and more. 
• NAIWE National Association of Independent Writers and Editors: Though this organization is not free, it is still a great resource for writers. As a member of NAIWE, you receieve a hosted WordPress blog that appears in the associations blogroll in addition to professional level support. 
• All Indie Writers: Freelance writing jobs, writer's forum and writer's markets. 
• Writer's Market Directory: An online directory of paying writer's markets. 

Writing the Short Story

Short stories are a fiction writer's toe in the water. They are short, or can be, poignant and usually must pack a punch if they're going to see publication beyond the tattered notebook in your top drawer. However, any writer who has written or attempted to write a short story knows that those 1,500 words may be the hardest you'll ever write. There simply is not enough space to delve as deeply as you want to - not enough pages to build to climax and then wrap it up in some meaningful way.

I have written and struggled to write short stories for years. I have obsessed over the words, closed the file and then refused to look at it for months afterwards, Eventually when I get some much need space, I can return to the work, edit it and start submitting. I get rejected frequently, but those few journals that say they're considering it and even one that accepted a short story and then later published someone else's - somehow keep the flame alive.

T.C. Boyle, fiction author and English Professor at the university of Southern California, stresses that "there are no rules," when it comes to writing short fiction. Boyle says that fiction is an art (I'm sure we all agree) and that it is merely an individual work by an individual person. Understanding this helps us to let go of a need to mimic greater writers or to drown ourselves in the self-deprecating tendencies that arise when we review and edit our own stories. Boyle, in his courses, advises students to read a lot - and not just the classics, but contemporary writers also. Additionally, he is a supporter of writing what you don't know (not the normal writing advice) because he believes that fiction is a process of discovery. (Read the full article here at Writers Digest.com)

Writing advice is everywhere these days, but read it anyway. Read it because in doing so - you're reading, you're seeing someone else's style and maybe you're gleaning some piece of advice that has not crossed your desk before. Then go for a walk in nature, return to your computer and let the words flow. If you like what you've written - look below for some online journals and magazines seeking submissions. 

Literary Laundry (submit shorts stories, poems and one act dramas) 

Burner (wants blood pumping poetry, short fiction and nonfiction)

Gertrude Journal (accepts poetry, fiction, nonfiction and art)

Inter-rupture (looking for poetry, fiction and art)

Soundzine (seeking poetry and flash fiction on the theme Luck) 

Dragnet Magazine (looking for literary short fiction and art)

Ghost Ocean Magazine (submit flash fiction and poetry)

Red Fez Publications (wants poetry, fiction, nonfiction and art)

Anomalous Press (accepts poetry, fiction and nonfiction) 

Contests 

Echoes of the Right to God - Accepts Essays, Fiction and Poetry - No Entry Fee - Deadline: April 16th

Writer Advice Sixth Annual Flash Prose Contest - Accepts Fiction, Memoir and Creative Nonfiction - Entry Fee: $10 - Deadline: April 15th 

Never be bullied into silence.  Never allow yourself to be made a victim.  Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.  ~Harvey Fierstein