A Professional Content Writer is one who can write what a reader wants to read, explain things in the simplest manner, engage the audience, and ultimately communicate the goal of a business.
Emerging as a high-income skill, professional writing has a huge role to play in the coming years. Be it making marketing documents for your business or ad copies for your social media campaigns, a professional writer can decide the fate of how your audience will react to your brand.
Thus, a responsibility so immense, a writer must build its way to becoming professional by following the right means and get trained first to deliver such high value for businesses.
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Let’s just accept one fact before we go any further, scribbling is not writing. It is a skill that needs to grow in time and doesn’t come that handy. Even the greatest of writers have learned and executed and not merely by reading a book of writing rules. No book can teach me how to become a professional writer.
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Different Writing Styles Demand Different Skills
A professional writer cannot be a pro at everything. There are different types of writing and each has a different goal. A writer can pursue script writing, academic writing, technical writing, medical writing, business writing, etc. Thus, based on your interest, you can decide what you want to do.
The reason each style demands different skill sets is that some need creativity others may demand subject knowledge, hence no writer can get involved in every writing style and its best to choose one style in particular to become a professional writer in that field.
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Here are 5 ways to pursue professional writing
1. Build a Qualified Background
There is no specific degree in content writing that you need to achieve, but a degree in English, creative writing, Journalism, etc. will certainly give you an edge. You may see the online courses booming where individual influencers have launched their writing courses, but you may do it if you feel you need to learn but that is not something compulsory. Most companies may hire you as a professional writer if you have an undergraduate degree. You may also freelance as a professional writer and pick projects that you wish to work on. If you are a qualified writer, you can certainly earn more credibility for yourself. Again a qualified background will ensure that you know what things are important to become a writer.
2. Make Sure You Love Writing
Just because you helped a friend with their English assignment or wrote a few poems on social media it doesn’t mean you love writing. A professional writer needs to write continuously. Thus, if you are looking to pursue a career you have to make sure that you love the one thing that’s most important to become a professional writer i.e. to write.
A professional writer needs to be good at researching writing unique content every time, build a pace to write, understand the scope of work, build a strategy to work on writing projects, and most importantly love all of it full-time.
Hence, before you step into writing business or job, here are a few activities that you should do to understand if writing excites you:
- Start a blog in a niche you love
- Write professional emails
- Journal your thoughts
- Build a habit of researching interesting topics
- Track time while writing
- Ask friends to read your work and share their opinion
3. Build A Detailed Work Portfolio
It is the details that valued the most. A portfolio is the complete representation of your work. So, every time you work on something no matter how small or big it is, note where it’s published or get a copy of your work. Also, before you put it on your portfolio do confirm with your client that you can show around.
A portfolio should contain a variety in the type of work you have handled. Also, do include your personal publishing like your article on some good journal or a blog article etc. Include the names of your clients as it clearly marks the impression.
The chances of you getting new projects after seeing a portfolio are high. Use platforms like Canva to build an online and creative portfolio.
4. Choose a Writing Style
With so many opportunities lying around, a professional writer is one who has in-depth exposure in one niche or writing style. Now there are two ways of choosing which niche you wish to work on. Firstly, you can choose based on Interest and liking. For instance, if you have a medical or biotech background, you may prefer medical writing to news writing. Secondly, you can try to write in different niches and see which one appeals to you the most.
This way you can select what you wish to pursue long-term or full-time. Some professional writing styles in the industry are Novelist, TV & scriptwriter, Proposal or grant writer, medical or legal writer, technical or business writer, etc.
5. Approach clients or Companies
A professional writer can be an employee working in a company or someone doing freelance work. Based on the time you can commit or projects you wish to work on, you can choose what way you like to proceed. A company may give you an opportunity to expand your portfolio and get huge exposure while if you choose your own you can develop expertise in a single niche.
Conclusion
Here are the proven methods laid out right in front of you. What’s not mentioned above is how sincerity, consistency, and commitment play a big role here too. So keep going strong, practice, and build enough credibility to stand in the market full of competition.
I can promise you that with hard work and determination, you can develop your skills to become an accomplished writer. So are you ready to follow all the steps above and pave the way for a brand new career?
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