The More Hats You Wear as a Writer, the Better

by Sarah Moore

I started my career as a writer by earning a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern.

Upon graduating, I opened shop as a freelance writer. It was hard at first, and I had to be careful to dodge content mills, which are easy to fall into if you’re not careful – and I did a few times.

Eventually, I settled on a 50/50 mix of my own work and working for WriterAccess, a service that hooks up writers with clients. Although this can be a content mill, you can also find really good, academic, forward-thinking and well-paying work there.

I caution anyone who wants writing work to reconsider before dismissing such services; they can help you earn your bread until you have a full client list on your own!

Never Underestimate the Importance of a Current LinkedIn Account

I was trained as a science and health writer. Over time, however, I found that I had a light and humorous tone that people seemed to love.

I continued to hone that by reading humor books and blogs, working on my own blog and creating content in my Free Resource Library devoted to humor. (You can get access to the library by signing up here.)

Now that I’ve been in the business for a while, it’s not as hard as it used to be to get good work. However, I try to remain attractive by maintaining a site that’s always up to date.

I also consistently post about books and working for myself on my Instagram account. I talk about my courses on my account and my blog, and post them to Pinterest as well.

As for getting clients, I let my website and LinkedIn account do the work. Never underestimate the importance of a well-curated and current LinkedIn account.

The More Hats You Can Wear for a Client, the More Invaluable to Become

My favorite work is long projects for one client.

It pays better, it’s easier to do, and it’s fun to get to know someone well by working with them again and again. It sounds pat, but the best way to get repeat business is to go above and beyond on each project you do.

Instead of simply turning work around, I always edit well, infuse humor, and ask if the client wants extras: sourcing photos, planning their marketing strategy, different types of content, etc.

The more hats you can wear for someone, the more invaluable to them you will be.

Productivity Tactic: Give Your Brain Permission to Start Working Before You Do

The best trick I’ve found for being successful in my business is “opening loops.” This is the idea that as soon as you start on a problem or project, your brain starts working on it for you, even if you’re not aware of it.

Let’s say you have a huge project to start on Thursday and you’re anxious about it. I find it’s super helpful to create the Word document on Tuesday, paste in any notes I might have, Google a few quick links for information or research I might need and add them in, etc.

Prepping for a project takes about 10-15 minutes, but it’s amazing how much work your brain will do in the background during that 48 hours before you start. By the time you do, it’s amazing how much easier it is to get into flow, because your mind has been working to fit the pieces together for you this whole time.

This is an amazing tactic for writing articles, planning a blogging or social media strategy, writing an ebook, or even starting a home improvement project.

A lot of us don’t want to think about big tasks coming down the pipeline, but in fact, giving your brain permission to “start” on them before you start is the smartest thing I do each day.

Advice for a Young Writer: Don’t be a Wuss

Don’t be a wuss. This is a really hard industry to get started in, but not because there aren’t clients. There are. There’s great work out there. But there are also other great writers out there.

If you’re not willing to spend a few years cutting your teeth on projects that seem beneath you, then you’ll never earn the skills you need to outshine your competition and get the good stuff.

So when the hours feel long, the money feels crappy or the work feels unfulfilling, ask yourself: Do I want to be a writer? If you do, always keep going. You’ll get there.

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Sarah Moore is a freelance writer and director of communications at a green roofing firm. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and works for science and health clients all over the world.