Build Your Writing Career from Small Beginnings

Would You Go Straight from a Moped to a Ferrari?

Sometimes writers get discouraged early on in their writing career because they expect to achieve too much too soon. They think that their very first short stories or articles will be snapped up by national magazines and they'll be raking in the money.

Some people might be very lucky and have their work accepted by the big boys very quickly, but most of us need to work our way up. Would you expect to go straight from riding a moped to driving a powerful Ferrari? Expecting to have sizeable pieces published or commissioned by one of the nationals is just as unrealistic.

A few people might be lucky and hit the big time straight off, but for most of us it's better to progress slowly and surely. Not so much moped to Ferrari, but moped to motor bike to mini to hatchback to family car to Ferrari.

Readers' Letters and Tips - a Good Place to Start

One of the easiest ways to start seeing your work and your name in print is to write letters to newspapers and magazines. It doesn't take long to write a piece and you may even be able to submit them by e-mail to some publications, so it wouldn't even cost you the price of a stamp.

Useful Market Study

Studying a publication and trying to figure out what sort of letters it usually chooses to publish is a very good way of learning to study your prospective markets. You can put the knowledge you acquire to good use later when you eventually start submitting fiction or articles. Your name will start to become familiar to the editors, which will be very useful when you want to stand out from the thousand other writers whose work is in the magazine's pile of unsolicited manuscripts.

Publication Means Prizes or Payment

It will really give you a boost to see your name and your words in print, and often there are quite good rewards for readers' letters, tips, and photos. Some magazines will pay £50 just for a tip which lasts one or two sentences, which means you'd be getting an excellent rate of pay per word! Others offer prizes for letters published or the letter of the week.

I remember getting all sorts of things when I was starting out, including a caddy of tea and a very handsome Schaeffer pen, which I still use today. I had all sorts of things published, anecdotes from my family or odd things that I overheard when I was out and about.

You don't even need to buy the publications regularly to check whether your letter is in. I used to spend a little while browsing in a big newsagent's and look at the letters pages of the magazines I'd sent things off to. Then I'd buy the magazine if my contribution had been published that week.

How to Work Out What Gets Published

The important thing is to study three or four recent copies of each publication you are targetting so that you can identify the readership of the magazine and the sort of things they like to publish. Some magazines love little anecdotes and pictures of children and grandchildren. Others like to publish letters in which the reader says how much she identified with an article in a previous issue because they'd had a similar experience.

One more thing to remember is that you mustn't send the same letter to more than one publication at a time as editors hate it if they publish something which ends up in another magazine around the same time.

But if several months have passed and your letter still hasn't been printed, you'll be safe to send it somewhere else, possibly adapting it slightly for your new target publication.

So get writing - and good luck!

Time or Money? Can Writers Have Both?

Two Stages in the Writing Life

It's a well known fact that there are two sorts of writers:

• those writers who are just starting out and don't have any big projects commissioned or anybody beating at their door demanding material for a deadline
• those writers who are earning money from having big projects commissioned and people banging on their door demanding material for a deadline

The one who don't have commissions and deadlines think that their life would be perfect if only they could have something commissioned and some deadlines to meet. Then they wouldn't have to mess around sending things off and trying to get them accepted.

The writers who are earning a decent living look back to the halcyon days when they were starting out when they could sit and write whatever they wanted, with no one to answer to, and no deadlines piling up. To them, being able to sit down and write what you feel like writing rather than what you have to write is a luxury they can no longer afford.

I suppose what would be perfect is to have plenty of money to live off - perhaps a large, guaranteed writing income but complete freedom to write whatever you feel like.

How to Be Happy as a Writer

So who's happiest? Who should we aspire to be like?

There's no easy answer to this one. All we can do is change our attitude so that whatever position we're in as a writer, no matter how far we have or haven't managed to travel along the road, we're grateful for where we are and what we've achieved.

Enjoy the Journey

The thing is, writing is about the journey, not the destination. Once the journey is complete, then another one comes along to take its place. Finish one book and you're desperate for a second book deal. Write one Oscar-winning screenplay and the following year you'll be eager for another commission so that you can prove that your success wasn't a fluke.

Think about your writing as an adventure, whatever stage you're at in your development. Be grateful for the time you have available to spend on it and for the sheer joy of writing. If you're trying to earn a living through your writing and you're getting stressed because you keep getting knock-backs, take the pressure off yourself by finding a part-time job.

Above all, if you do have the luxury of time, but not money, make the most of it. The day may come quite soon when you'll wish you could still sit down and say, 'I wonder what I shall write about today.'

Being a 'Professional' Writer

Lots of people write but would hesitate to describe themselves as writers. They think that the term 'writer' can only be used by professional writers, those who write full-time and depend on it to earn their living. But is there such a clear-cut divide between those who write for a living and those who earn their keep from some other job and write for pleasure or pin money?

Perhaps we can find the answer to this if we reflect on what both types of writers are aiming to do. Both are aiming to be creative with words, whether it is by educating or informing through non-fiction writing or by creating new characters, new worlds and new settings as fiction writers.

Both categories of writer want their words to be read, whether it is by their family, friends and fellow class members or by thousands of strangers. I imagine both groups would be pleased to be paid or rewarded for their labours, though full-time writers would feel more pressure to make money from their writing so that they can support themselves and pay their bills.

Showing 'professionalism', the desire to be businesslike, efficient, and reliable in their work is another area where the full-time writer may appear to have the edge, but really, it's a good idea for all writers to demonstrate that they are serious about their writing and that they take the sort of care that editors and agents will be looking for.

Being accurate, editing one's work to eliminate errors and sloppy writing, thinking of how the needs of the target publication and its readers should be the concerns of everyone who aspires to write, at whatever level.

So whether you're a 'professional' writer or someone writing for the joy of it, do your best, show you mean business, and make sure that your writing shines. As you develop in your writing, you'll start to feel that you deserve the title 'professional writer', even if you do have a different day job.

Writing for Profit or Writing for its own Sake?

Having begun to publish on the internet has made me focus on the financial rewards of writing. Of course, everyone needs to earn a living and the workman is worthy of his hire, but that isn't the only reason why I write.

In fact, it isn't even the reason why I've been so delighted at having my work accepted by Triond this past week.

I've been enjoying the buzz of writing what I feel like writing and seeing it accepted and put out into the ether for everyone to read. It makes me feel as if I have a sense of purpose. I'm doing what I love to do and there is a prospect of being paid for it too. How lucky is that!

That's more important than any amount of money, as far as I'm concerned. There are lots of jobs I could do that would guarantee more money in the short term, but enjoying what you do and feeling passionate about it is priceless.

This week I've had the satisfaction of seeing my work in print . I've also had the thrill of seeing my writing class reach the end of their certificate course, to great acclaim. Teaching them to write isn't just my bread and butter - it's my soul food. Verily my cup runneth over.

Yes, it's been a great week.

I hope you are as happy in your vocation as I am in mine.

By the way, if you would like to read my latest article, you can find it on www.telewatcher.com/Reality/Big-Brother/Why-I-No-Longer-Watch-Big-Brother.150309