Fit Freelance Writing Into Your Life
Okay, you've decided you'd like to try your hand at writing and selling some articles — now how are you going to actually get anything written given your already packed schedule? Good question! It can be challenging to do, but it is possible. It just takes a bit of advance planning, and a bit of repurposing.
First, the advance planning. Try to find a consistent time within your weekly schedule that you can dedicate to your writing projects, and set that up as a standing appointment with yourself. It might be a Sunday afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00, or every Friday over your lunch hour at your favorite restaurant. Another option would being during your kids' soccer practices, or during time spent on a commuter bus or train. For some people, getting up an hour earlier a couple of mornings a week carves out needed writing time; others hit Starbucks on the way home from work for a couple of hours of latte and laptop pounding.
The fact is that everyone's different, so you'll want to figure out your own best time and space for your writing — but the goal is to find what works for you and then make a consistent commitment to it.
Second, the repurposing. One of the ways to do as much writing as possible is to think of writing as content that can be revised, reshaped, and tweaked to fit multiple opportunities. So if you write an article, for example, for your state library association's magazine, is it possible to edit and reshape it for another publication? Alternatively, think of repurposing the research you've done for one project — say, perhaps, a guide to resources for online learning — for another audience such as a consumer women's publication.
Do you have a presentation coming up? Why not turn a presentation into an article, since you've already done almost all the work (researching, shaping, determining key points, etc) to do so? Have you researched and then written an especially good blog post? Consider whether it lends itself to becoming an aricle.
Or think about research you've done for your personal life — might you repurpose that into an article? An example of this is a friend who recently went through the process of creating a "road map" for herself and her siblings regarding how to care for their aging parents from afar. She'd done all the research on a topic that's very important to many of us — and is now turning that into an article for the caregiving section of our website.
Freelance Writing and Your Career
Non-LIS freelance writing offers two important benefits to you. The first is an opportunity to practice your ability to write in numerous voices, which can be an important skill when it comes to broadening your career options. Being able to write effectively in business settings, whether it's writing a memo to a CEO, a press release for the community, a marketing brochure, or online content for your website, is always a useful and valuable skill. Practice is good.
Second, freelance writing enables you to create additional income as needed — for example, to supplement an insufficient salary, to create income when you're taking time off to be a stay-at-home mom, or to provide both work engagement and additional funds after you've retired. It's an infinitely portable and flexible skill, enabling you to work — and earn -- as much or as little as you prefer.
Although writing for the LIS professional should always be considered a smart LIS-focused career move, if you're looking to broaden your experience and find venues that actually pay for writing, writing outside the profession may offer just the opportunities you're looking for.