Sure Path to Failure As a Writer

There comes a time when a writer has to face facts. There are only two reasons for a writer to write. For love or for money. This site is about writing for money. If you love to write, that can be a bonus. It can also be a serious drawback. People who love to write are often pleased to write for nothing just because they can.

If you love to write for fun, then just do it. Have a ball. The following is for people who want to make a living writing.

Here are 5 surefire ways to fail as a money-making writer:

 

1. Write for free. If you want to build a portfolio of your writing, blog or otherwise display your writing style. Do not give your writing away for nothing. It sets a price range in your potential clients' minds and it reminds you that your writing is worth nothing.


2. Overbook yourself. You can get so excited at the notion of having people willing to buy your writing services that you say yes to everyone without working out a sensible writing schedule. It's better to say I cannot get to your job until next week (or next month) than it is to take on the work and miss deadlines.


3. Don't keep records. If you don't know where you have been how will you know where you are going? If you don't keep a running tally of how much you earned and how much you worked, you could be working yourself into poverty. If you write for 50 hours a week and earn $100, you're working for two bucks an hour. You either have to up your rates or find a faster way to write. Also, if you don't keep records how do you know who your clients were and how can you get in touch with them in the future?


4. Neglect research. If you rely on your memory for facts or do your research online using blogs and articles for detailed information, you could be perpetuating misinformation. Have your writing rise above the crowd with pristinely pure facts not a mishmash of stale online soft information.


5. Ignore grammar. While people can get away with breaking some rules of good grammar, in order to break the rules you need to know them.

 

So Who Do I Think I Am?

Why should I be telling you this? Because I have made many mistakes in my writing career. The reasons were simple for my beleaguered writing career. First of all, I wanted to be a novelist. The need to make a living lured me into a technical world where my specialty was software training.

I kept on writing as a sideline and teaching people how to use WordPerfect 5.1 (it was a long time ago). When the internet burgeoned, I learned about the need for web content and kind of picked away at writing articles online. I kept no records of my writing or clients or websites. It was something I did for fun and the money came in handy.

I stumbled along writing things I knew how to write and using my research skills and some of the programs I love to use such as Web Content Studio but I never built any momentum. In other words, I know how to fail as an online writer and am using my experience as a dilettante writer who played with web content to change my direction to a more functional and higher performing writer.

It's All About Focus

I focused on my ability to research which was what I learned from my experience as a newspaper reporter -- check all facts twice -- and as a masters student -- dig deep for information. And thanks to three years of Latin in high school, I am really good with words.

The hardest part is avoiding the Shiny New Object Syndrome. I love reading about writing and writing careers and the big bucks people make in writing long copy (for instance). I have written press releases, nonfiction eBooks, fiction eBooks, articles, blogs, emails, and speeches.

And yet I would get distracted by some of the stories about fortunes to be made in other forms of writing. Lack of focus. I could write a book about the problems caused by trying to be a Jill of all trades and master of none. But that would just be another distraction as I struggle to break free of the old ways and finally become the writer I was meant to be: With a plan, dedicated record keeping, and a really good wall calendar.

There comes a time when a writer has to face facts. There are only two reasons for a writer to write. For love or for money. This site is about writing for money. If you love to write, that can be a bonus. It can also be a serious drawback. People who love to write are often pleased to write for nothing just because they can.

If you love to write for fun, then just do it. Have a ball. The following is for people who want to make a living writing.

Here are 5 surefire ways to fail as a money-making writer:

 

1. Write for free. If you want to build a portfolio of your writing, blog or otherwise display your writing style. Do not give your writing away for nothing. It sets a price range in your potential clients' minds and it reminds you that your writing is worth nothing.


2. Overbook yourself. You can get so excited at the notion of having people willing to buy your writing services that you say yes to everyone without working out a sensible writing schedule. It's better to say I cannot get to your job until next week (or next month) than it is to take on the work and miss deadlines.


3. Don't keep records. If you don't know where you have been how will you know where you are going? If you don't keep a running tally of how much you earned and how much you worked, you could be working yourself into poverty. If you write for 50 hours a week and earn $100, you're working for two bucks an hour. You either have to up your rates or find a faster way to write. Also, if you don't keep records how do you know who your clients were and how can you get in touch with them in the future?


4. Neglect research. If you rely on your memory for facts or do your research online using blogs and articles for detailed information, you could be perpetuating misinformation. Have your writing rise above the crowd with pristinely pure facts not a mishmash of stale online soft information.


5. Ignore grammar. While people can get away with breaking some rules of good grammar, in order to break the rules you need to know them.

 

So Who Do I Think I Am?

Why should I be telling you this? Because I have made many mistakes in my writing career. The reasons were simple for my beleaguered writing career. First of all, I wanted to be a novelist. The need to make a living lured me into a technical world where my specialty was software training.

I kept on writing as a sideline and teaching people how to use WordPerfect 5.1 (it was a long time ago). When the internet burgeoned, I learned about the need for web content and kind of picked away at writing articles online. I kept no records of my writing or clients or websites. It was something I did for fun and the money came in handy.

I stumbled along writing things I knew how to write and using my research skills and some of the programs I love to use such as Web Content Studio but I never built any momentum. In other words, I know how to fail as an online writer and am using my experience as a dilettante writer who played with web content to change my direction to a more functional and higher performing writer.

It's All About Focus

I focused on my ability to research which was what I learned from my experience as a newspaper reporter -- check all facts twice -- and as a masters student -- dig deep for information. And thanks to three years of Latin in high school, I am really good with words.

The hardest part is avoiding the Shiny New Object Syndrome. I love reading about writing and writing careers and the big bucks people make in writing long copy (for instance). I have written press releases, nonfiction eBooks, fiction eBooks, articles, blogs, emails, and speeches.

And yet I would get distracted by some of the stories about fortunes to be made in other forms of writing. Lack of focus. I could write a book about the problems caused by trying to be a Jill of all trades and master of none. But that would just be another distraction as I struggle to break free of the old ways and finally become the writer I was meant to be: With a plan, dedicated record keeping, and a really good wall calendar.

There comes a time when a writer has to face facts. There are only two reasons for a writer to write. For love or for money. This site is about writing for money. If you love to write, that can be a bonus. It can also be a serious drawback. People who love to write are often pleased to write for nothing just because they can.

If you love to write for fun, then just do it. Have a ball. The following is for people who want to make a living writing.

Here are 5 surefire ways to fail as a money-making writer:

 

1. Write for free. If you want to build a portfolio of your writing, blog or otherwise display your writing style. Do not give your writing away for nothing. It sets a price range in your potential clients' minds and it reminds you that your writing is worth nothing.


2. Overbook yourself. You can get so excited at the notion of having people willing to buy your writing services that you say yes to everyone without working out a sensible writing schedule. It's better to say I cannot get to your job until next week (or next month) than it is to take on the work and miss deadlines.


3. Don't keep records. If you don't know where you have been how will you know where you are going? If you don't keep a running tally of how much you earned and how much you worked, you could be working yourself into poverty. If you write for 50 hours a week and earn $100, you're working for two bucks an hour. You either have to up your rates or find a faster way to write. Also, if you don't keep records how do you know who your clients were and how can you get in touch with them in the future?


4. Neglect research. If you rely on your memory for facts or do your research online using blogs and articles for detailed information, you could be perpetuating misinformation. Have your writing rise above the crowd with pristinely pure facts not a mishmash of stale online soft information.


5. Ignore grammar. While people can get away with breaking some rules of good grammar, in order to break the rules you need to know them.

 

So Who Do I Think I Am?

Why should I be telling you this? Because I have made many mistakes in my writing career. The reasons were simple for my beleaguered writing career. First of all, I wanted to be a novelist. The need to make a living lured me into a technical world where my specialty was software training.

I kept on writing as a sideline and teaching people how to use WordPerfect 5.1 (it was a long time ago). When the internet burgeoned, I learned about the need for web content and kind of picked away at writing articles online. I kept no records of my writing or clients or websites. It was something I did for fun and the money came in handy.

I stumbled along writing things I knew how to write and using my research skills and some of the programs I love to use such as Web Content Studio but I never built any momentum. In other words, I know how to fail as an online writer and am using my experience as a dilettante writer who played with web content to change my direction to a more functional and higher performing writer.

It's All About Focus

I focuse