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If you are a lover of words, you may wonder if someone would pay for your writing. This page will help you learn how to become a professional write
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If you are a lover of words, you may wonder if someone would pay for your writing. This page will help you learn how to become a professional write
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Expertvillage: How to Become a Professional Writer : Tips & Advice on How to Write a Manuscript
Rebecca Sato is a full-time freelance writer who has been teaching writing for 5 years. She has a very clear and easy to understand teaching style. She talks about preparing a manuscript and the fact that you may prepare a it and then you are not able to have it published so you need to be prepared in advance for setbacks and be able to continue on. Great tips.
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Introduction
- The art of writing can be a fulfilling career, although it is not always a lucrative one. If you'd like to be a professional writer, you need to be able to write well, to identify an area of writing that will be your initial focus, and to be able to pitch your ideas to publications, agents, and publishing houses.
Step 1: Polish Your Craft
- In order to be a better writer, you need to read, write, and study language.
- When reading, take the time to analyze the writing. Why did the author select that particular word? What literary devices are being used? What else could have been done to draw the reader in or more clearly articulate the ideas?
- Invest in a copy of Elements of Style, and study the rules of grammar and composition. Although sometimes it's okay to break a rule, you need to understand what the rules are before making a conscious decision to take occasional grammatical liberties.
- Write daily. Use a journal, a blog, or whatever works for you, but get words down on paper regularly.
- Consider taking courses or joining a writer's group to help polish your skills.
Step 2: Find Your Niche
- Writers can work in a variety of industries and genres. Although you can work in more than one area, when getting started writing for pay, its best to select on area, and focus your efforts there, to improve your odds of success.
- Technical publications
- Marketing copy
- Novels
- Magazine articles
- Poetry
- Nonfiction books
- Critical reviews
- Short fiction
Step 3: Learn How to Query
- Beginning writers will generally not be sought out by publishers. In order to get an assignment, you'll need to pitch your idea by submitting a query letter.
- Before querying, have a well defined idea of what you'd like to write about.
- Carefully research the publication, agent, or publishing house before sending in the query letter to make sure it fits in with the body of work.
- Include a well thought out description of your idea, as well as a summary of your qualifications.
- Carefully review the letter to make sure there are no spelling and grammatical errors.
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