How to Branch Out as a Freelance Writer

Video Transcript

REBECCA SATO: Hi. I'm Rebecca with ExpertVillage.com, and we've been talking about how to take your career to the next level and how to make sure that you're getting the pay you deserve and doing the things that you want to do. Another important thing to consider with that is branching out into fields, of course, and different types of writing. And some people are intimidated with that because they feel like they have to have a degree. For example, if they're going to write about a topic that has to do with biology, they have to be a biologist. Or if they're going to write about space travel then they had better be an astronaut. Well, of course, that's not true. A writer's job is to write about things and they use their imagination. And even more importantly, a writer's job is to research. Of course, even for fiction, you have to do research because people aren't going to enjoy reading your books if they don't have that touch of realism. So you want to make sure that you know what your best friend is, and your best friend is research. It can make you an instant expert in any field. And you'd be surprised at how many writers who will write--people reading it would think that they must have a doctorate in the subject because it's so detailed and it's so good and it's so accurate. But that's not necessarily true. They might not even have a degree in anything. They might not have gone to college, but they know how to research. So regardless of what your background is, just realize that if you know how to research then you can become an instant expert. And a lot of knowing how to research is just having the desire to do the research in the first place instead of just trying to wing it. I mean, if you're writing about a certain topic then make sure you go online or to the library or whatever you're comfortable with and read everything you can about it. I mean, obviously, you want to keep it proportionate with the size of the project and what you're being paid because, of course, if it's a $20 article, you don't want to spend 20 hours researching it. That's not an effective use of your time. But within reason, you want to know as you can about it, and by borrowing from the knowledge, not plagiarizing, mind you, but using the knowledge that you get through your research that you are able to write a convincing copy that--basically you become an instant expert. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's your job. Some writers want to specialize, but a lot of writers don't want to specialize, especially in freelance. You want to be able to have a good sample base from a lot of different fields, a lot of industries, a lot of different writing styles, and they don't want to be pigeonholed. And so I think it's actually a good idea to try and do a little bit from as many different fields and industries and styles as you can because then you kinda market yourself for a lot more jobs than you could otherwise.

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