Starting your writing career in 2023

Many of us dream of becoming writers, but many of us … are lost in this quest of a lifetime.

In sharing my adventures each week, I’ve met a lot of writers, tired and disillusioned by their situation.

I’ve been in that poor mood myself, moving from one niche to another and changing ideas after trying others that didn’t work.

It took me a long time to find my path and months of useless work that could have been avoided if I’d had the knowledge I have today.

What I’m writing is that I wish I’d read to that naive me, of a few years ago, thinking that all I had to do was pick up a pen, a blank page and my motivation to succeed in creating an audience and being read.

During those three years, I had twitter threads that exceeded 100k views. I had telegram posts that were widely relayed in big channels. I’ve had a few viral tweets. And some of my posts on medium start with over a hundred comments. I’ve written fiction for myself and for others. I’ve also written copywriting for a few brands, although it’s not my main field.

I’ve been able to learn, and now it’s time to share.

In this first post, we’ll explore the basics, in order, and in the next few, we’ll get into the specific tips.

Before we get started, here are four scenarios: - I want to write because I’m passionate about it. I want to write fiction or non-fiction. I want to help others. I have a unique point of view to share and I want to be heard. - Same as above with a plottwist, I want to do all that but earn money at the same time. - I want to freelance - I just want to make money through writing

All four points are valid. But I can only help the first three. If your primary goal is just to make money, I’m not the right person to follow. You should unsubscribe from my newsletter and stop following me, I won’t be able to help you. I’m not criticizing this goal, writing can be very lucrative if you know what you’re doing and there are many other writers specializing in this niche that you can follow.

I can only help those who are passionate about writing, who want to succeed because writing is one of the things that makes them happy.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move on to the reality check.

Am I sure to succeed? No

Am I sure to make money? No

Am I sure I can build an audience? No

What is the percentage of success? If I look around me and analyze the different platforms, it’s very low. Most medium writers aren’t paid. Most writers aren’t paid and struggle to monetize their content.

Why throw myself into this when the odds are against me? Because you love to write. Because you’re an artist. Because views are just a bonus.

“Yes, but don’t we feed off the views?” Sure, but you can’t expect to make money writing without any experience.

I don’t know what level you’re at but : - competition is fierce - some people work very hard - some have the advantage of being natives

My favorite analogy is: I’m 20 years old. I wake up one morning and I want to be a pro in something? Is that possible? The immediate answer is no. However, if you train hard. By continuing to learn. By being humble. By working hard.

In a few months/years. You could acquire certain skills that will allow you to get paid.

Same with Writing. You can’t expect to get paid because you decided one morning to become a writer. It’s going to take work, sacrifice, bleeding fingers at the keyboard. Time to build a solid following. Then to build your newsletter.

Now that we’ve got that long disclaimer out of the way, and we’re all aware of the task ahead, we need a plan.

1) The Plan

The path I invite you to follow is that of a writer who : - shares his writings - builds an audience - secures it - continues to grow every week - flourishes in his work

It’s a path that’s going to take time to build.

The first step to start is self-analysis.

What do I want to write? What are my areas of expertise? How much time do I give myself to succeed? How much time can I give myself each week to write? How much time can I give myself each week to learn? Which platforms will be the best to share my type of content? What content should I create to build my audience? What will my branding look like? What can I do to make it effective?

That’s a lot, but you’d better define a solid plan from the outset, because even with a plan, it’s going to go astray.

If you don’t know where to start? Think about who you want to be? Look at their branding? Look at their content? That’s a good starting point for finding your angle.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll get lost.

2) Choosing a platform

Once these questions have been answered, it’s time to choose a platform, and … there are many.

I’ve used twitter, medium and substack to build my audience.

Twitter for small content. Medium for longer content and Substack for sending emails.

If you write fiction, you also want to join places where you can find readers.

There are websites where you can publish your work or some specialized subreddit sites.

Every websites and platforms have pros and cons.

If I had to start again today, the pairing of twitter and medium is a very solid starting point. And once i have a tiny traction, adding the newsletter to secure your audience.

I don’t recommend spreading yourself too thin on too many platforms. It’s extra work and that’s been one of my mistakes.

3) Give

At first, you won’t be read. To start receiving feedback on your work, you’re going to have to give attention to those in your niche.

Choose a niche of accounts that are your target, the ones you want to become, and interact with them every day.

To grow on medium, good comments are key (see this article).

To grow on twitter, it’s the same at first.

Your initial goal is to interact 80% of the time and publish 20% of the time. And as your audience grows, these curves will reverse.

4) Routine

You need an effective routine that won’t wear you out in the long run.

There are three routines to have: - routine for publishing your content - audience-building routine - routine for learning

Set a schedule that you will stick to every week and RESPECT it. No need to do more. No need to exhaust yourself.

The winners in this game are those who stay alive as long as possible.

Your three allies are : - analytics - taking care of yourself - LEARNING

It’s not true that you need to publish a lot of content to be successful.

A simple routine on twitter: - 3/5 tweets a day - 1/2 threads per week - 20 comments per day - 3/5 quotes tweets It’s a lot of work, it’ll probably take at least an hour, but you don’t get something for nothing.

On medium : - 3/5 posts per week - 10/15 comments per day

Be pragmatic and like a sniper. Spot an interesting sentence in the article, quote something that adds interest and move on.

You need quality but also volume.

Every week, visit your analytics, recycle your tweets that worked and see which of your stories resonated.

Think about why and replicate that content.

I capitalized LEARN because many writers are arrogant.

They think they’re good enough. They think they don’t need to learn anymore. They sin by hubris and that’s exactly why they don’t progress in their careers.

It’s good to have a strong ego, but a strong ego also means recognizing that you can always be better.

Does Djokovic stop training with the idea that he’s a legendary player? No, he’s had an impeccable lifestyle for years and continues to get better every day. You can always improve. You can always learn new things, new styles, new words… Learning is what will put you on the side of the successful.

The learning routine for a writer is simple: read.

Read books that will teach you how to write. Read the great writers. Read those who succeed and unravel the mechanisms of their success.

Other angles might be : - feedback from other writers - mentoring by a writer - masterclasses created by writers

There are some great free ones on youtube. Brandon Sanderson’s is great. This content is gold. Don’t miss out.

5) Goals

Set realistic targets for the time you spend building your audience. If your numbers aren’t good : - Either your branding isn’t good - Or your content is no good It doesn’t have to be this way, and it can be corrected.

If you want to read more about branding. I can’t stress enough about the fact you need a good branding. Do not skip this step. Good branding with poor content have more views than poor branding with good content. (Yeah, it’s not a fair world)

6) Find your network

You need allies in this game. Find the people who will support you. For example, I often retweet people who interact with me. I follow them, I talk to other people privately about their content. Sometimes, I even recommend them in my newsletter. I’m not the only one, and I stand to benefit from my audience having a larger following. It’s give and take. You help me, I help you. There are plenty of people like me out there, and you need to find them. You have to network horizontally by finding people who are in your situation, but also vertically: - Find mentors - Then find people to mentor We’ll come back to these points in a next post.

This post is already way too long. We’ll stop here for today. To receive all these posts before anyone else. There’s only one way: put your e-mail address here. I’m going to share all the behind the scene and all my best advice. If you are serious on following this path, you’ll love these mails.