Being a freelance writer, you always need continuous improvement to be successful. A freelance writer is a full-time professional writer who works as a contractor for various clients.
As a freelance writer, you are your own boss and not a staff writer for some company.
In this profession, you may have to work across different genres while writing for a topic assigned by a client.
Your Journey to Become a Freelance Writer
Freelance writers are not restricted to a single type of writing, they have to work upon different kind of write-ups. Some of them are Short stories, creative writing journals, news articles, magazine articles, and editorials. You can even work as a content writer or copywriter for your clients.
Freelance writing: How does it benefit you?
A freelance writer has proven to be such an excellent profession for someone who is a passionate writer. Nowadays, many people are using freelance writing instead of writing a full-time job for a particular company.
If we have a look at freelance writing in contrast with other professions, it has many advantages and benefits.
When you work as a freelance writer, you are not supposed to work under anyone or listen to anyone. You are free to decide your hours of work and can fix your schedule and timetable accordingly. You’ve even got a chance of working from home if you please.
But along with having all those advantages, freelance writing requires hard work, and one must be good at time management. You must be energetic and ready to find new customers and clients, as needed by you.
Although it requires much effort to be a good freelance writer, every profession seems difficult at the beginning. You need to establish a steady and consistent customer base, and you’ll notice that it’s a good career choice.
The returns you receive from this kind of writing can be useful, you just have to become familiar with this field. It is essential to focus on various things for your continuous improvement in the field of freelance writing.
Freelance Writing: Guidelines for Continuous Improvement
1. Opt for your area of focus
You decide the topics that you want to try writing about as per your appropriate expertise. Picking the right niche throughout your freelance career as a writer makes things easier for you, and could indeed prove to be appropriate for your continuous improvement
You should not just write about everything that comes in front of you, instead, it is advisable to dive into some particular writing type or field. Selecting an area of focus makes writing effortless for you.
Once you have begun your career in freelance writing, try writing about multiple subjects and fields in order to understand which one suits you the most.
Try to recognize if you are into medical writing, technical writing or something else and then sharpen your skills for that kind of writing.
When you opt for your area of focus, it improves your writing and makes you feel at ease. This is because you are writing for identical clients or audience every time.
When you master a genre, it prompts the clients to choose you over others.
2. Associate with others in your field
Another recommended way for your continuous improvement as a freelance writer is to associate with others in your field. No matter the field; it is always a good idea to learn from those who have mastered the art.
Though it might appear as if you are communicating with your competitor, it’s necessary for your success.
Whether you get information about the rates in the market or the clients, it always helps to grasp knowledge from those who already know everything. It develops you personally and professionally.
Connecting with others provides you with updates about the recent information and news. Moreover, it helps you be successful as a writer.
If you are looking for freelancer writers to network with, you can search on social networking sites and other freelancing websites.
Getting in touch with other writers helps in the continuous improvement of your reputation.
3. Editing
Good editing skills are complementary when you talk about writing. When there is a writing agency or company, they have a special team of editors.
While working as a freelance writer, it becomes your duty to edit the write-ups yourself because you don’t have any other person to do that.
When we talk about the basic skills one must-have for freelance writing, editing tops the list. A well-edited and error-free article becomes more powerful and helps in the continuous improvement.
Following the right pattern makes your editing more impactful.
a) Editing the composition: The first thing you should do is to check whether your article or content is correctly formed or not. Ensure that the writing scheme and arrangements are correct, and all the sections are coherent.
You write up should be divided into three major parts- introduction, main structure, and an appropriate end.
b) Edit the way of writing: You must look deeper into the style of sentence formation in your write up. Your paragraphs should also be in a good shape.
Change all the incorrect compositions in your written work.Moreover, it’s also necessary for you to follow the client’s desired writing style.
c) Edit the grammatical mistakes: Checking for all the grammatical mistakes in your article is very important as it showcases your fluency and proficiency in the language and field.
4. Generate ideas and ask questions
No matter if you are engaged with some clients presently, you must keep thinking of new concepts daily as it helps in keeping the brain cells running.
You must keep writing as per your field of interest; in this way, you can save your writings for future use.
If you keep generating ideas, you’ll be having better opportunities to find clients. Moreover, you might not generate the same ideas, that you are getting now, in future.
You are not just expected to generate ideas. You should also keep communicating and asking questions from the client, as it contributes to your continuous improvement as well.
Once you start working for someone, you must clear all your doubts related to the kind of written work they ask from you.
In freelance writing, the primary objective is to write according to your client’s expectations as only then you can get a good reputation.
If your content is appropriate, you will become your client’s first choice, and they’ll keep in touch with you even after your assignment is completed.
5. Start Blogging
Blogging is another brilliant way for your continuous improvement in this field, as it is a creative activity that sharpens your skills.
An interesting way to encourage yourself to start blogging is to writing blogs on things or activities you are passionate about (be it cooking, travelling, skiing, or something else).
There are various pros of writing blogs:
Online presence- In the present generation, the internet is a powerful medium, and writing blogs gives you an online presence. SEO strategies can be used so that various clients can reach you.
Improvement in way of writing- “Practice makes a man perfect.” You must have heard this saying, and writing blogs is like practice when it comes to freelance writing.
Writing regularly organises your style of writing in a better way. Moreover, there won’t be any grammatical mistakes and spelling errors.
Helps in reaching the customers and clients- When people will read your blog, they might get hired if they like it. In the field of freelance writing, getting more clients is an important thing, and writing blogs helps you with that.
6. Write good pitches consistently
As a freelance writer, you should keep writing well-crafted pitches on a regular basis. Even if you get to work for one or two clients, in the beginning, you still need to keep pitching because clients will not come to you all at once on their own as it takes time.
It is necessary for you to write pitches, so, think of the customers or clients, newspapers or journals for whom you are interested to write.
You are expected to set your aim for that and try to achieve them, as it is essential for your continuous improvement.
You should search for various sites such as Mediabistro to look for companies and clients to write pitches for, in case there are no clients in your mind.
After you find a suitable client, it’s your responsibility to prepare a good proposal to make them hire you.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea to write pitches, but it surely is important in order to hone your writing skills, as it lets you get customers to write for.
It is used as a kind of proposal, based on which a client decides whether he should hire you or not.
7. Keep Writing to Improve Your Odds
When you do something on repeat, you soon become a pro in that particular activity, which leads to your continuous improvement. It is almost similar in freelance writing as well.
When you write constantly, you gain more expertise in writing. This is why freelance writers with a regular writing routine are more successful as it is excellent for continuous improvement.
You must not make it look as if writing is your hobby by writing occasionally or whenever you please, you must instead, take writing as a profession. You must hone your writing skills in order to attract more clients.
Keep writing about various topics even if you are out of work. It’ll build a healthy writing habit in you that’ll make you more productive and efficient.
8. Time management and keeping the due date in mind
Ability to manage your time efficiently is a key requirement to be competent in the field of freelance writing. When you learn how to handle time, it helps you improve continuously.
Some clients might assign you a week to write a short article, while some might ask you to write a 3000-word article in just two days. You have to monitor your time according to your client’s expectations.
The key to managing your time is to decide how much time you spend on different steps. You must attempt to manage how much time you spend while searching for new opportunities, performing research on the current assignment, and writing your content.
Remember that versatility is a very important feature in the field of freelance writing that contributes to your continuous improvement. Not only that, you must also be good at organising.
You should always be aware of your work deadlines, as late submissions create a bad image and reputation for your clients.
To avoid overloading work, you can start making plans and schedules to complete your tasks and work on that basis.
9. Change in Workspace
The mind of each person functions differently. No matter what sort of job you do, the world around you changes tremendously, and it sometimes needs to improve constantly.
You get the advantage of selecting your working area as per your will and needs while you work as a freelance writer.
It’s pretty cool if you are allowed to work from anywhere. Be mindful that your productivity is enriched by a good workspace.
As a freelance writer, you have to know what the atmosphere is for you, whether you like to work in silence, or at a place with some noise.You should take your time and learn what sort of workspace makes you more profitable.
Find your comfort level, but bear in mind that you should continuously change your workplace as at times environmental change helps produce more innovative ideas.
One day in a busy cafe, another day in a park, you might write fluently. Some days in your own home, sitting alone, you can be more imaginative.
Only pick your workspace and suggest changing your workspace if you can’t compose in a particular setting effectively.
10. Improving Productivity
Time is a precious commodity we all know. It must be one of your key purposes when you are a freelance writer to complete your tasks in time to maximise your productivity.
You can’t just carry on writing a short article of 600 words during the day. You are slowing down by doing so.
It is your responsibility to balance the time you offer to a particular project. Devote more time to the comparatively longer articles.
Ideally, you should split your time by writing and editing to maximise your productivity. As an independent writer, you must be mindful that writing and editing are two entirely distinct processes, so you never attempt to slow down the pace at the same time.
Another important method of increasing efficiency is the Pomodoro technique. It also helps in your continuous improvement.
According to some researches, it makes you more effective and productive if you take strategic breaks or intervals. In accordance with this Pomodoro method, the role must be divided into diverse intervals and short breaks.
11. Develop an impactful writing voice
You must build an effective writing voice to be a good freelance writer, as it helps in your continuous improvement.
Your writing style allows your work to be remembered. Your work would be better if you have a special and sincere writing style.
You might think that an effective written voice is difficult to create, but it is not. You have to write in the voice of your reader, and it is interesting to write.
Your words and phrases affect your speech greatly.You have to write in a manner that it seems as though you speak to the readers directly.
As a career, freelance writing is quite interesting. You absolutely need to know how to develop your skills in freelance writing.
You must use these ideas to be successful in the field of freelance writing if you are a freelance writer grappling to better yourself in the industry. These measures will definitely help in your continuous improvement.
Almost every occupation has ways to perform a particular job more efficiently. This guide will contribute to your continuous improvement, and allows you to achieve freelance writing success.
As you become more efficient and know the right ways to work, you become the first choice for your customers. Not just this, you will get more projects.
