The Reality of Freelance Writing

So many people dream of being freelance writers, and these days the internet makes it an accessible career for pretty much anybody who wants to give it a shot.  Often these people imagine that they will spend their days sitting on a beach somewhere, sipping cocktails and writing for high paying travel magazines about the free 5 star hotels or food they’re given. 

Who wouldn’t want a free VIP holiday where you spend all of half an hour writing about how awesome it is?

The reality of freelance writing as a career is massively different from that dream.

To begin with, you’ll get paid basically nothing for hours upon hours of work.  Secondly you’ll have to work.  A lot.  Yesterday I put in a 16 hour day and I still went to bed with unfinished work. 

Whatever your ultimate goals are, the reality is that you will have to work extraordinarily hard to achieve them. 

Rest assured, if you are passionate and committed enough to achieving these goals, they will happen. 

I have been writing for years, but it was all under the title of ‘mental health specialist’ or ‘mental health consultant’.  In my seven years in that career, I wrote hundreds if not thousands of articles on topics relating to mental health (bipolar disorder specifically), medications and psychological treatments. 

In August of this year I decided I had enough of the industry and made the decision to venture out into the freelance writing world, and branding myself just that.  By happy accident, I managed to stumble into a writing niche that has left me absolutely inundated with work and within a month I was able to match the previous wage I was earning as a full time mental health consultant. 

Two and a half months later and I’ve adapted my plans and plan on making the most out of the unique combination of skills I have, which will allow me to completely dominate that writing niche.  I’m also earning just over what my wage was when I was working in mental health. 

So how did I do it? 

I simply marketed my skills and passions in the right way, gave a little and gained a lot, I was realistic in my expectations, diversified and adapted to what worked.

I will go into more detail in other blog posts, but that’s pretty much it.  I truly believe that if I can do it, you can do it too!