Achieve Your Childhood Dreams: How to Become a Writer

Have you always dreamed Writer of publishing a book and making more money than you know what to do with?

Does the thought of being able to make money doing what you love: writing–and being able to do that from anywhere in the world, excite you?

If you’re curious about how to make money as a writer and how to get your dream book published and on the shelves, you’re in the right place.

Read on to learn the demystified steps on how to become a writer.

Build the Habit

For many years, you talked about your childhood dreams: being a writer, but perhaps, you didn’t know how to go about the route of writing and publishing. You may have dreamed of writing a book that would instantly sell out, but success doesn’t happen overnight.

You must understand, a book doesn’t appear out of thin air. It takes time, effort, and energy to choose and put together each word, sentence, and chapter of the book.

There are steps to this writing journey that you have to take before you get to the point of publishing a New York Times bestseller.

Let us tell you now that the first step is the most simple but often overlooked by many dreamers. The first step is to build the habit of writing.

There’s no doubt that those who dream of becoming a writer have a natural affinity and gift for storytelling and language. But, it takes more than being good at writing to become a writer.

It takes discipline.

Becoming a writer means exercising your writing muscle day by day. Each sentence you craft and each story you tell gets you one step closer to writing that New York Times bestseller. More importantly, each writing piece you produce reinforces your identity as a writer.

You are not what you say you are, but what you do. Your actions must back your proud declarations of being the writer you’ve always dreamed of.

Here’s a question to leave you with: how do you spend your days?

Learn and Refine Your Skills

You have a way with words–you’ve been told. Your parents, friends, and teachers all noticed the way you told stories that kept them right at the edge of their seats. This all came to you with ease.

While having talent certainly helps you to become a writer, you must still build a solid foundation of skills. These skills will help you to refine your writing so that you are better able to express your thoughts and ideas.

Here is a list of some basic writing skills you should have in your arsenal:

• research
• data analysis
• storytelling
• language
• grammar
• logic
• outlining
• writing
• editing

If you think about it, writing is a mere means of communication. Your writing is what your thoughts and ideas look like in words.

So, organize your thoughts. Say things on purpose. Back your ideas with data and research. Incorporate all these moving elements of writing in a seamless way that still aligns with your writing style.

Soon enough, you’ll have the skills and experience of being a writer and you will be able to get paid for what you’re worth.

Some additional skills you may want to learn are:

• copywriting
• content writing
• SEO
• advertising
• digital marketing
• content marketing

The digital world has created tons of opportunities for those learning how to become a writer. These are only some skills you can learn to make yourself an even more valuable writer.

Get Paid to Write

While being a writer is an identity that you adopt–an identity that needs no validation from external sources–it doesn’t hurt to get paid for your craft.

There are a few different sources to land paid writing gigs.

Content Mills

Although most writers will advise you against writing for content mills, content mills do give you access to paid writing opportunities at the start of your writing journey. This is by no means, a full-time income, but it does compensate you and it gives you experience.

Private Clients

Another avenue of paid writing gigs is to reach out to potential clients on your own. This requires marketing and pitching yourself to people and companies that need your writing services. Here, you have a higher chance of bringing in more income as you set your rates and prices with private clients.

Writing Platforms

You can also get paid to write on content and writing platforms that pay you for distributing your content on their site. You are their content creator, supplying their platform with new and interesting content.

Two top writing platforms you might want to check out are Medium and Substack.

Your Sources of Income

While freelance writing salaries differ from person to person, your first-year income might be less than what you imagined yourself to make. For example, this writer made $10000 from her first year of freelance writing. Although that was in 2002 and you have to account for inflation, the point still stands: you might not make as much as you intend to.

If you’re jumping into freelance writing head-on, consider supplementing your writing income with additional sources of income so that you never go hungry trying to pursue a writing career.

With your love of language and grammar, you might want to become an editor on the side.

Or, consider teaching! A survey on childhood dream professions found that teacher was #2 on the top 10 list of dream careers.

Anything helps to support your writing journey while you build the necessary skills and acquire the experience needed to become a reputable writer.

Write For Passion

As you embark on your writing career, do your best to hold onto your passion for writing. You now get paid to write, but don’t forget to write for fun!

It’s easy to put our personal creative projects aside when going through the motions of life. But, there’s no better time to write a book than now. Because if not now, you may never write that book.

Writing and creativity must be protected and nurtured. Make sure you feed that fire.

How to Become a Writer: The Steps Demystified

You’ve done it! You’ve made your childhood dreams come true. You learned how to become a writer and you cemented your identity with hundreds of thousands of words in practice.

Now, it’s time to guide other new writers on their journey.

Our site serves as a rich resource for teachers, writers, and students alike to practice, teach, and learn grammar. Check out more from our site to hone your English and writing skills!