I didn’t think I’d have time to post a blog entry this morning before leaving town. But here I am. And I have something I want to share.
As a freelance writer, do you specialize or are you open to writing about any topic that strikes your fancy or that’s current? I have friends in both categories. When I was writing full-time for magazines, I wrote on many, many subjects—whatever was trendy, current, needed or just plain interesting to me. I gleaned ideas from the news, eavesdropping, my own experiences, studying a variety of magazines and networking, for example.
Most freelance writers start out writing about what they know. Some of them remain in their area of expertise. I know two writers, for example, who write exclusively about animals and there is a huge market for animal stories and articles. I started my writing career by writing about a specific animal—the horse. One might wonder how in the world you could earn a living writing in one area. Well, here are just a few of my horse article themes: how to care for the backyard horse, what to do with all of those horseshow ribbons you collect, hairdos for horseshows, how to make chaps and equitation suits for competition riding, the life of a horseshow mom, various trail riding stories, stories about horse rescue, traveling with horses, how to raise a foal, how to dress and groom a horse for a parade, how to teach kids responsibility through horse ownership…
Of course, I didn’t make horses my primary focus, or I could have also written about various equine illnesses, ailments and injuries; saddle-making; choosing the right saddle; how to keep your horse’s hooves healthy; when to shoe a horse and when not to; various training tips; interviews with trainers, veterinarians, feed store owners, farriers, etc.; specialty riding (trail, English, equitation, racing, obstacle courses, etc.); interviews with horse owners; psychology of the horse; what to do when your horses get out; using chiropractic on horses…
If your mind is boggling, this is good. Maybe this will give you some idea of the vastness of most any topic you choose to write about and how you can expand on it, mold it to fit a specific magazine format and even change it for other publications by bringing in new experts and fresh material. If you can do this with one topic, just imagine the enormity of possibilities for those of you who want to earn a living or supplement your income writing articles on random subjects. You can pick subjects that interest you and create numerous articles for a wide variety of magazines. How many subjects do you think you could write about, a hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? And how many different angles can you come up with for each topic? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? More?
Now don’t tell me (or anyone else) that you can’t think of anything to write about or that it is impossible to earn a living as a freelance writer. If you can schedule some time for the activity of writing (most of you will have to make a few sacrifices), if you can focus on one topic at a time, if you can come up with several angles and match them to specific publications, it’s likely that you can make some money through your writing.
If you need some help getting started—if you could use guidance related to establishing a business around your freelance article-writing work—sign up for my on-demand, online article-writing workshop TODAY. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm
Questions? I’m always here, PLFry620@yahoo.com.