I have been writing my entire life. When I was a kid I wrote poems and short stories; one of my poems even won a local poetry contest. When I was in my teens and twenties I kept a journal chronicling the ups and downs of my life, problems with my family and friends and all my hopes and dreams. As a young adult, I continued to journal and sat down on several occasions to try and start a novel, which usually ended up with me writing an outline and first chapter and then getting distracted by life.
But through all that writing it never occurred to me that I could be a writer for a living. I never envisioned myself making any money for what I considered to be a hobby. Then one late November day I found myself laid off from a job that I loved, a victim of the downturn in the economy. As I sat at home in the first few weeks of my unemployment I boned up my resume, sent out hundreds of copies, had one less-than-stellar interview and grew really downhearted about my future prospects.
I was on the computer one day, checking job sites, when I saw an ad for a freelance writer on Craigslist. I sent in a very poorly constructed letter of interest (or LOI) and waited. I ended up landing the job after sending a couple of clips that I'd written for a friends' blog and having a great Skype interview with the client. While I no longer write for that client, that one communication led to a whole new career, one I never could have envisioned from the four walls of my small office in a mom-and-pop business.
Is my career perfect? Far from it. I am still fine-tuning my marketing skills (an entire area that I never considered important when I first started but now appreciate for it's importance) and I am still attempting to grow my client roster, though that is beginning to happen; I've gotten a handful of steady clients amid the one-off jobs. I continue to network through social media and conferences and I have been sending LOI's to several local businesses. Writing every day is something that I love doing. Getting paid to do so is just the icing on the cake.
But through all that writing it never occurred to me that I could be a writer for a living. I never envisioned myself making any money for what I considered to be a hobby. Then one late November day I found myself laid off from a job that I loved, a victim of the downturn in the economy. As I sat at home in the first few weeks of my unemployment I boned up my resume, sent out hundreds of copies, had one less-than-stellar interview and grew really downhearted about my future prospects.
I was on the computer one day, checking job sites, when I saw an ad for a freelance writer on Craigslist. I sent in a very poorly constructed letter of interest (or LOI) and waited. I ended up landing the job after sending a couple of clips that I'd written for a friends' blog and having a great Skype interview with the client. While I no longer write for that client, that one communication led to a whole new career, one I never could have envisioned from the four walls of my small office in a mom-and-pop business.
Is my career perfect? Far from it. I am still fine-tuning my marketing skills (an entire area that I never considered important when I first started but now appreciate for it's importance) and I am still attempting to grow my client roster, though that is beginning to happen; I've gotten a handful of steady clients amid the one-off jobs. I continue to network through social media and conferences and I have been sending LOI's to several local businesses. Writing every day is something that I love doing. Getting paid to do so is just the icing on the cake.
