How to Become a Writer
Do you love to write? Can you form coherent sentences? Congratulations, you’re a writer.
Fine, I’m kidding. There is more than that. But that’s the beginning of how to become a writer. Then there are more questions to ask yourself: do you want to be a writer as a hobby or professionally? If you want to be a pro, there’s more you need to do. But I’ll start with writing in general.
I’ll skip the cliches that you need to write to be a writer, but I will say that it needs to be a consistent practice if you want to become any good at it. And reading is critical. You don’t need to choose a genre or a type of writing to start. If you feel like writing a short coming-of-age story, great. If you want to write a poem about death, go for it. If your inclination is to blog about your work, good for you. I recommend starting with smaller projects before taking on big ones. Writing a a long feature article, a book, a play or a screenplay requires a commitment of multiple weeks and months. Anything else, you can generally get a draft done within a week.
I won’t go into writers’ block because a million other writers have done that already. There are plenty of resources out there about that. But I will say that the difference between hobbyist writers and professional writers is the commitment to putting in the time and the work even when you don’t feel like it. Taking it seriously, making a regular practice of writing will in many cases solve the block and keep you at least closer to the zone where you want to be to write.
If you can make an investment in your writing, that will take you farther faster — learning the craft. Writers’ conferences are great. Online workshops. Courses at community colleges. Writers’ groups. Anywhere you can have deadlines to write and someone experienced to critique your work will make your writing better and help you build a system for feedback — and a thicker skin. Because you will need that along the way, as much as you need the pure writing skills.
Next up: getting published. Keep in mind, it’s not the same as being paid. It’s not as difficult as you might think to find someone to print your work (especially online) if you are willing to do it for free, or for the exposure to get started. Anyone who wants to be a pro wants to get paid, but usually getting published comes first. It’s a bit of a catch-22 but just focus on the published part first before the pay. If you’ve come out of college with a MFA or a journalism degree, you’re in a better position to get paid and published pretty quickly, but even in that case, you have to show your work and build a portfolio over time.
The first thing you get published in any genre or type of writing will be more difficult. Once you’ve gotten an article in a newsletter or a poem in a literary magazine, then you’ll have an easier time with the next one, but maybe not as much as you think. So keep at it and feel free to experiment early and often. The more entrenched you get in one type of writing, the less apt you’ll be to try other types, so it’s best to play around, have fun with it. Most writers have vast files of unpublished works they wrote while they were getting started (and even after they were established). Accept you will too. Part of the gig.
Skip ahead a few months (or years, if you’re working full time at something else and this is a side hustle) and you’ll be ready to start pitching for pay. That’s when you need to get really good at writing bios and query letters. Selling. This is where the professional part comes in. It’s a business. Treat it like one. Plan out what you want to pitch. Research where you want to pitch it. Find the publications you like and read them, study them, follow the editors on social media. Build a network, put yourself out there, go to writers’ conferences.
Treat pitching like its own project. Track your work. Whether you use project management software, a spreadsheet, or some sort of note system doesn’t matter as long as it’s something you’re comfortable with sticking with consistently. Give yourself a goal for the number of rejections, so you have something to look forward to… rather than thinking of them all as a drag. Then press forward. Keep getting feedback on your work. Keep writing, and don’t give up. When you get that first paycheck, relish it, go out and celebrate, then get back to writing.