How to Make a Living as a Writer – Part 2

First, let me answer a few questions/comments.

1.  Can you go into more detail about what should be on your website?

Sure.  Put 2 or 3 articles on it – around 400 words each.  The subject matter isn’t really important.  You just want to show potential clients that you can write well.  Make sure that you have no typos or errors in your samples!

You also want to have contact info, as well.  I don’t put a phone number on my site – just an email address.  (Make sure your email address isn’t something like hotmama696969@hotttmail.com.  Be professional, people.)

Put on there what types of writing you offer – articles, press releases, e-books, reports, etc.

2.  How long does it take to make a full-time income as a writer?

That depends on you and what you consider “full-time.”  For me, I was making a living as a writer from the first month I started.  I could make more in a week writing than I could in a month working a regular job, plus I get to sit on my butt at my computer doing it.  Money motivates me.  Like I said before, I’m funny that way.

3.  How much do you, personally, make as a writer?

More than you do.

Okay, now that that is over….

At this point, you should have a site and you want some clients.

Now you start looking.

The hardest part is that first client.  That’s your learning curve.  It’s your goal.

My personal opinion (and feel free to disagree with me) is that your first client is worth settling for a lower-paying job than what you might normally charge.

Why?

1. The whole thing is a learning process.  You’re going to make some kind of mistake along the way.  Giving the client some slack with the rate is a good “Thank you,” in my opinion.
2. This first job is a trial.  From offering your services to delivering the finished product to receiving payment – it’s all a learning process.
3. After the first job, you’ll get a whole lot more confidence.

What’s a typical job?

There is no “typical” job, but I’ll give you an idea of some things you might get.

“I need 10 articles of 400 words each about cats.  Keywords are enclosed.  I need each keyword phrase mentioned once in the title and 3 times in the body of the article.  Need them by Friday.”

“I need a 1500 page report on how to set up a WordPress blog.  I need it in two weeks. “

“I need a press release about XYZ Widget Company.  I need it tomorrow by 4 pm.”

Those are typical jobs.  Basic, straightforward and simple.

Two Phrases to Remember

Once you get that first job – and the client is pleased – say these two things:

1. Can I use you as a reference?
2. Do you know of anyone else that could use my services?

You honestly only need a handful of steady clients in order to make a living as a writer.  Honestly.  Most good writers I know have to turn business away more often than not – good writers are in demand, and there are only so many hours in the day!

Now, what if you want to make a living as a writer, but don’t want to be chained to a desk with deadlines and clients?

Ah, my lovebugs…..that will be for another post….

Questions?  Comments?  Tell me!

Plus, you can follow me on Twitter:  Shara O’ Ryan

How To Make a Living as a Writer

Yes, I know that you’re going to be the next Stephen King/Dean Koontz/Anne Rice just as soon as some publisher discovers your immense talent – but in the meantime, you have the reality of life staring you in the face in the form of an overdue electric bill.

What do you do if you want to make a living as a writer?  Not necessarily have the glamor or riches, but some cash?

Just as actors work as waiters until they are discovered, writers have their bread-and-butter jobs that can pay the bills while still working towards their dream.

First, I want to be clear that I’m assuming two things:

1. I’m assuming you can write. You have good grammar, good spelling, and the ability to string together more than six words in a coherent sentence.   If you don’t know the difference between “two,” “too,” and “to”; or if you can’t figure out when to use “your” and when to use “you’re” – choose another profession.  Seriously.  A misplaced comma here and there most clients can live with (not liking it, but can live with it).   Not knowing basic grammar?  Forget it.
2. I’m assuming you’ll actually have the courage to take action. Clients won’t just come to you.  Your job is to seek them out and make yourself available to them.

Okay.  Now on to business.

Who Are Your Potential Clients?

There are – literally – millions of people who need writers.

• Website owners
• Bricks-and-mortar business owners
• Non profits

To name just a few.

And you can work for any client – anywhere in the world – as long as they can pay you.

What kind of services can you offer?

Honestly?  The sky is the limit.  Use your imagination.  But for starters:

• Website content
• Email campaign material
• Press Releases
• Brochure materials
• Sales Letters
• Newsletters
• Blog Posts
• Forum Posting

And so on.  Seriously – there is a TON of stuff you can do.  If it involves writing, you can offer the service if you have the skill.

Is it glamorous to write 10 articles/500 words each about potty training for a website owner who sells baby supplies?  Hell, no.  But somehow depositing a check for a few hundred bucks for a few hours’ worth of work makes it more palatable.  I’m kind of funny that way.

Promoting Yourself

Okay.  You have no clients – so no references.  How do you start?

You need a way to showcase who you are and what you do.  You need a website or a blog.

I got my first freelance job by pointing a potential client to a hobby blog I had.  It had nothing to do with the subject matter he wanted to hire me for, but it showed I could write reasonably well.  Long story short:  I got the job.  I made $300 bucks for 2 days’ work.  I was hooked.

Which is better – website or blog?  To be honest, I’ve found that both have their advantages.  If you’re just starting out, a blog will do.  (I’ll discuss the pros and cons of both in a later post.)

Basic info to put on your website or blog:

• Name
• Contact info
• Samples of your writing
• Pricing

(You can use all kinds of SEO tactics to get your blog or website noticed.  I’ll talk more about this in a later post.)

Finding Clients

There are numerous places where you can find clients.  Here are two to start with:

• www.elance.com
• www.guru.com

You can also search Twitter for phrases like:

• “I need a writer”
• “Articles needed”
• “Ghostwriter needed”

and so on.

Since this post is a novel already – and I’m not nearly done – I’ll post Part 2 next time.

Questions?  Leave a comment.  I’ll either answer as a comment or in another post.

Should You Have a Blog for Your Character(s)?

Characters develop over time.  This is especially true when you role-play a character for months or years.  Even for one of my newest characters – Emerald - she’s already had over 2200 tweets.  That translates into over 40,000 words!  That’s too much for a follower to sort through to learn about a character.

Having a blog for your character – written from the point of view of the character – can be a fantastic tool to help get to know his/her – or a group of characters.  It can also help potential fans of your fiction find you (we’ll talk about SEO for your blog another day).

I also use my blogs to help promote other people’s characters and blogs.

I have a blog for each of my main characters.  I also have a blog that started off as an individual character blog, but now functions as a group blog for my RPG.

I also wanted to show a blog (not one of mine, but I am using it as an example with the author’s permission) that is quite different from the style I use – but I admire the talent of the blog author and truly love her writing style, and I think it’s quite an effective way to write a character blog.

Let’s start with hers first:

Aria Brisard’s Blog -  (Follow her on Twitter:   http://twitter.com/ariabrisard )

http://insidetheempire.wordpress.com/

I like this blog because it’s written in prose form – just like a regular story would be.  I also enjoy her writing style, and she’s talented.  This is an awesome way to write a blog for a character.

Shara’s Blog (Twitter account:  http://twitter.com/SharatheOrion ))

http://sharatheorion.wordpress.com/

This blog is written in more like a diary from the character’s point of view.  It gives plot summaries and updates.

Navaar’s Blog ( Twitter account:  http://twitter.com/_Navaar )

http://navaarstwitterfic.wordpress.com/

This blog started out as an individual character blog, but as people joined Navaar with their own stories and characters, the blog grew into a role-playing group blog.  It contains numerous links in both the posts and the sidebars for various characters and blogs. (I am a firm believer in helping others promote their characters/blogs.)

These are just a few examples.  Use your own preference and your own style to create a blog that displays your character(s) in the best light.

Characters: How Evil Is Too Evil?

One of the benefits of role-playing on Twitter is that you have the opportunity to see how people react to a character.  The other benefit is that you actually get to be “in the character’s head,” so to speak.

Truth be told, in order to have a story you have to have both a protagonist and an antagonist.  As it’s been said before (forgive me, but I can’t remember the person who said it first, and Google isn’t helping):  ”A cat sitting on a mat is not a story.  A cat sitting on another cat’s mat is a story.”

And – let’s face it – for good writing, some cats have to be evil.

So the question is this:  How evil is too evil?

Or is there such a thing when it comes to writing?  Or role-playing on Twitter?

I’ll use a case study on Twitter for my answer.

In our role-playing group a while back, we devised a plot.  In our plot was a villain:  J’rem.  One of our members agreed to create an account for J’rem on Twitter and RP the part.

J’rem had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  None.  He was brutal, sadistic and cruel.  His signature torture for victims was to carve his name into his/her side.  His whole name.   While they screamed.

He also delighted in using psychological torment as well.  He was a piece of work.

The followers on Twitter hated J’rem.  Despised him.  Some even transferred that feeling to the person playing the role, thinking he was a total deviant (which could not be farther from the truth).

So – was he “too” evil?

My answer is “yes and no.”

I, personally, loved J’rem as a character.  He was deliciously evil, in my opinion.  He was the stuff that nightmares are made of.  If you had seen him on tv or in a movie, you would have checked the locks on your doors before you went to bed that night.  Seriously.

Would I use a J’rem-type character in a story/novel?  Absolutely.  I would use that type of character uncensored and unfettered, knowing the reader could skip over any parts that made him/her squeamish.

For Twitter, however, it’s a bit tricky.  You don’t want people to “unfollow” the character – you may never get him/her back.  On the other hand, you have to provide a good story.

What my groups have done is a compromise.  We try to push the envelope, but we try not to cross certain lines.  We have a few things that we just won’t do, such as graphic sexual assault, for example.   For something like this, we’ll do a Fade to Black and then allude to it.  (Although I have seen some RP groups that will RP this kind of thing – their choice, and I’m not condemning it.  Just saying that my groups don’t cross that line.)

If we have a character that people hate, I, personally, think that awesome – it shows the person RPing the role is doing a great job of being evil.  But we try not to make the character so repulsive that others unfollow.

In other words, we try to have the villain that people love to hate.

Twitter, Role-playing and Writing

Creating believable, authentic characters is one of the cornerstones of excellent fiction writing.   One way that you can develop characters is by role-playing. Role-playing can be done in many ways – forums, instant messaging, e-mail, etc.; however, my favorite way to role-play is on Twitter.

There are several reasons why I prefer using Twitter for role-playing.

1. It’s free – ’nuff said.
2. Ease – I can have a role-playing account up and running in less than five minutes.
3. Speed – unlike forum role-playing, role-playing on Twitter moves at a very fast pace.
4. Feedback – because you gather followers on Twitter, you can get plenty of feedback.
5. Fellowship – there are hundreds - probably thousands –  of role-players on Twitter, in all genres.
6. Non-intimidating – you are limited to only 140 characters per tweet.
7. Hones your writing skills – you’re limited to only 140 characters per tweet.

There are more reasons, but those are the main ones.

How to Start

1. Choose the character that you want to be.  If you are role-playing an original character, make sure that you have at least some kind of back story.  Characters that have no background can be frustrating for other role players to interact with.  At the very least, have enough background information to fill in your profile completely.
2. Provide a picture - real life or artwork – that is appropriate for your character.  It helps followers to see what your character looks like, of course, but also to help followers relate to your character.
3. Start tweeting “in character” – use the “voice,” syntax, and mindset of your character.  It is hard at first, but gets easier as time goes on.
4. Find other RPers in your genre to role-play with.  It will help you develop your character and see how he/she interacts with others.
5. Start a character blog.  It helps followers and fans keep up with your character’s storyline.  (Very helpful once your character has a long history.  For example, my main character, Shara, has over 45,000 tweets.)  The blog will also give you plenty of story material as it grows.

Real-life Situations

1. Two of my most popular characters were actually supposed to be temporary characters for only one storyline; however, followers liked them so much that I kept them on – and one even became one of my main characters.
2. One character was created because he had been mentioned often as a non-player character (NPC) – and followers asked that he get his own account.
3. In setting up an alien world, questions from followers and fellow RPers helped me flesh out the environment so I could provides more detail and realism.
4. I actually got hate-tweets when one character was killed off.  It made me realize how passionate followers can be about a character (and is a good indication of how well you’ve portrayed that character).
5. Our role-playing group (RPG) will actually do “twitterfic episodes” – complete with cliffhangers.   It is VERY gratifying to get to the part where you “Fade to Black” at a cliffhanger and have followers IMMEDIATELY start sending messages and replies saying “Noooooooooooooooooooooo!”  You know then that you have a good plot and loyal fans.  It’s awesome.
6. Got an idea for a new character?  Ask your followers what they think!  I can’t tell you the incredible feedback I’ve gotten, plus most followers will follow the new character if they already like your original one.

Examples of Twitter RP Accounts

Shara

Navaar

Emerald

Warlocke

Examples of Character Blogs

Shara’s Blog

Navaar’s Blog (also serves as the RP group blog)

Emerald’s Blog

So get started!  Go to Twitter.com and create your account today, and get writing.

~ Shara O’ Ryan