Help! I Want to be a Freelance Writer, But I’m Not Sure I Can

Let’s face facts; writing is a necessary skill for most people.  It is a key way to communicate when it comes to looking for a job from having to create awesome resumes to writing up cover letters that get your resume read.  It powers social media and marketing.  Plus, there are lots of WAH writing opportunities online from creating your own blog or website to freelance writing for clients.  You may think that you suck as a writer and that’s not going to change, but there are plenty of ways that you can improve your writing skills.

• Visit your local library. 

• Reading is just one way to improve your writing skills.

• Take a class.  Many local libraries offer classes on writing and other skills.

• Look for online resources available through your local library.  For instance, some libraries offer Universal Class to their cardholders for free.

• There are classes that you can take for free online:

• Explore Coursera.org for free courses offered by big name universities and colleges.  Here is one offered by Duke University in English Comp 1 starting September 22^nd.

• Poynter.News University is great for beginner journalists with free and low-cost classes.  Check out their list of self-directed courses for those that are free – under $25.  A great free course that would work for any freelance writer on this site is Cleaning Your Copy: Grammar, Style and More.

• Canvas.net is another great platform for free classes.  Check out this Certificate in Basic Technical Writing with a Project Management Emphasis (the course is free, but payment is required to get a copy of the certificate).

• edX.org is another online platform offering free classes from well-known universities.  Check out Academic and Business Writing from UC Berkeley starting April 18, 2016.   

• There are websites with the sole purpose of improving your writing for free:

• Writing Commons is an online text ready for you to study.

• Follow Grammar Girl on social media for helpful tips.

• Don’t forget the dictionary.  The online Merriam-Webster is a dictionary and thesaurus along with a training tool with games and the word of the day.  A perfect source for figuring out if that word is really spelled correctly or finding a synonym to use to avoid repeating words over and over again.

• Tuts+ is a place for free tutorials.  Check out their page for business writing.

• Sign up for a daily grammar email from Daily Grammar.

• Check out awesome articles on how to improve your writing.  Google writing tips or the specific problem you find that you have with your writing.  Here is a great article to get you started from WikiHow.  A hint with these is that articles like this one that have sources and citations can be a good starting place for your search.  Always feel free to check out sources for more information.  Another great article from WordStream.

• Check out this article by Vitaly Friedman, “50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills”.

• Use a service like Grammarly to check your work.  This service can help you to identify common errors that you make, and help you fix them.  It is also useful to check for plagiarism when you do get hired.

• Practice writing!  Create a few writing samples that you can use for applications.  Ask a friend to proofread it (or run it through Grammarly).   You can even leave a comment below to get started.  Hint: tomorrow’s opportunity is all about the comments!

Being a writer is not easy.  It takes a lot to be confident enough in what you write to post it up to where the public will be able to read it.  However, being a freelance writer has opened up so many opportunities for me to stay home with my kiddos and make money.  I’m living my dream.