Starting a Career as a Writer

1. Starting a Career as a Writer There is something romantic about being a writer. If you are a passionate writer you may daydream about the possibilities of writing professionally. The difficulty as you probably see it, is getting over the obvious hurdle of trying to make ends meet. That’s not an unrealistic barrier and one that stops most people from becoming a writer. So while we all have to put food on the table and a roof over our heads, writing as a profession is not as limited as you might think. Today, there are more opportunities and mediums for the written word than ever before. Even novelists have self-publishing to fall back on if they can’t get their work published in the traditional way. Think about the options: Novels - fiction and non-fiction; short stories; scripts; poetry; articles; blogs; websites; advertising - both traditional and new media; eDMs; newsletters; annual reports; white papers; speeches and the list goes on. The real challenge is developing your skills and getting down to writing. And it doesn’t matter if you’re ​writing a novel or and ad, you have to know about technique and principles. That applies to every profession and writing is no different. Courses to improve writing skills are one of the best investments an aspiring writer can make. You can lose so much valuable time if you don’t understand how to write and engage your audience. You can craft the most fluent and romantic sentences but if they are out of context and don’t serve the narrative then they are wasted. These are things you will learn in a writing

2. course. Writers waste years because they don’t understand good writing techniques. Sadly, many don’t realise until they have laboured over a piece of writing, sometimes for years in the case of novelists, only to find out that their work won’t be accepted because of structural problems. Writers are creative souls so it is important that they hit the keyboard when they are at their best. For many, being in a group setting and writing with other writers is how they foster their inspiration. Others find that ​professional writing courses online provide the flexibility that they need to be able to learn and write when they are really switched on. Some writers will say that they create in the morning and edit in the afternoon. Others are night owls. Online courses allow writers to adapt their preference to the course curriculum. The most important thing for an aspiring writer is to learn the art of writing with a great tutor or tutors and to keep writing.