How to Break Into Freelance Writing

Cause everyone is asking me

Ding

“I hope you don’t mind me asking…”

Ding

“I don’t mean to bother you…”

Ding

“Can I become a ghostwriter without a portfolio?”

I joined a new group this week for professional women. After all the connections were established, my inbox began to light up.

I was surprised.

These people have impressive job titles scattered all over the professional career world. They have MBAs, B.S.Ws, and many other degrees in bold capital letters. I don’t even know what most of them mean.

Yet, here they were in my inbox, asking me how to get started in a writing career.

Some people were admittedly embarrassed to ask. Many followed up with, “If you don’t have time, I totally get it.”

I answered everyone.

Starting a new career is overwhelming. Three years ago, I was running retail buildings. I did that for twenty years.

Making a change can be downright paralyzing. I’m down to give advice.

One person said she googled her question and then got bombarded with ads. “How do I know what is legit and what is a scam?” She asked. Exactly.

Here’s what I told them.

Get a Portfolio

Start now. I still think Medium is the best place to do that. You can start today. It’ll cost you $5/month. You get access to this beautiful writing software, you’ll get to read some fantastic writing, and you’ll get to cash in on Medium’s killer SEO.

It’s the easiest starter kit ever.

Write about whatever you want to get hired to write. It doesn’t matter what it is. You can choose food, music, parenting, leadership, or dog training. Whatever you can dream up will find a home here.

Whatever you’re passionate about will have an audience.

Write and hit publish. Write and hit publish. Write and hit publish again. Consistency will get you a portfolio — schedule time in your week to write and show up.

You don’t need to be fast. You don’t need to publish something every day. You do need to write every day. You need to build it into your schedule. It can be ten minutes.

Ten minutes a day is seventy minutes a week. That’s over an hour. That’s a start!

When you have more time, you can expand on the ideas you started there.

Create a place on your phone where you can take down ideas. I’ve created articles from bullet points I’ve taken throughout the day. Thoroughly thought-out articles come from bullet points. That’s it.

Tell a Story

My Medium portfolio landed me my first paid writing gig.

The job was writing about cryptocurrency; I’d never written about it. I was interested in cryptocurrency and Web3 technology, but I never thought it was a topic I could tackle. The editor said, “You know how to tell a story, and that’s what I’m looking for.”

Get to the point. Tell a story. You’ll be able to write about more than you think. That editor gave me only a headline, and I had to write a 500-word article.

Every headline was a mystery to me at the start. By the end, I could explain what the company or this new tech did.

Every article you read on every topic does the same thing — it tells a story. If you can do that, you can write about anything.

A Few Quick Writing Tips

When you sit down to write about your topic, think of it like a brain dump. Write everything you can about that topic. Don’t stop until you’ve emptied your brain.

Close your tabs. Put your phone on do not disturb. Set a timer — sometimes, this helps me stay focused, so I don’t wander off to my inbox.

Don’t think about your intro or concluding paragraphs. Not now.

You can move sentences around when you come back to edit and craft your opening and closing paragraphs. It’s too much to do on that first day. You’ll get stuck on the first line and never finish.

Excellent writing is made great by editing.

You’re Not Writing a Novel

Not yet, anyway.

To build a portfolio online, you must learn how to write for an online audience.

Learning how to write online is a different beast. It’s way different than you’ve ever had to write. Learn it — you can do it. If you can learn to capture the attention of an online audience, you can write whatever you want later.

Your first three lines have to make people stay on the page. If they don’t, your readers will flee.

I wrote an “About Me” piece when I first joined Medium. As I read through other writers’ submissions, I noticed something.

Now, let me show you what I mean. I saw this a lot -

“I don’t really know what to say about myself…”

I’m already gone. Why am I reading it if you don’t know what to say about yourself? Consider beginning your story in the middle. Here’s how I started mine —

“Massive helicopter blades swung around overhead. The Huey had been fired up, and the blades were picking up speed.”

See what I mean? What’s going on with this helicopter? Where is this going? That’s what you want your readers to think.

(I’ll link that article below if you want to read it).

Nobody knows me. They probably don’t know you either. We don’t have the advantage of name recognition, so you need to engage people immediately. Make your first few lines so good that people must keep scrolling and discovering what happens next.

Consistency is Your Bread and Butter

It’s not glamorous, and it’s not always fun, but it’s the only way you’ll be able to write full-time.

You have to be okay with zero likes. You have to be okay with no one reading what you publish. You won’t have an article do well for a while, and that’s a good thing.

It’s better to be a decent writer with a bit of practice and have an article get some traction than just starting and trying to figure out how to recapture what you’ve done.

Consistency is practice. Consistency is education. Your portfolio sits on the other side of consistency.

The Journey and the Job Aren’t Easy

Working to become a full-time writer is difficult. Doing it full-time is a challenge. If it were easy, everyone wanting to write would be doing it.

I don’t earn a living off writing whatever I want.

I earn a living by writing what people pay me to write.

Think about that when you start your writing career.

Writing for clients is different than writing for me. It uses another part of my brain. I continue to write on Medium because I get to do what I want and hopefully help some people out in the process.

So, I commend you if you’re still down to give it a go.

Get a portfolio started, tell a story, learn how to write for an online audience, and stay consistent. Pretty soon, you’ll be sourcing clients and researching topics.

You’ll be creating miracles with your words while you’re in your pajamas.

I’m rooting for you.

Kit Campoy is a freelance writer based in Southern California. She covers Web3, travel, leadership, retail, writing, and more. Connect with Kit on LinkedIn, DeSo, and Twitter. Give yourself a break, and join her weekly newsletter.