At the time of writing this, my writings mostly encompassed taking notes in meetings, excerpts from books, jotting down ideas I didn’t want to forget, journalling and so on. Nothing extraordinary, just the bare minimum I needed to carry out the day’s activities.

However, I have tried writing articles in the past - the kind of ones that require you to do some research - I wrote two last year and I remember writing one in my first year as an undergrad.

My experience writing those articles left me with a sour taste for article writing. In both cases, I struggled with writers’ block, didn’t have a decent outline to follow and I mostly relied on willpower to see me through.

And as a result, I had unconsciously relinquished the thought of ever improving as a writer and I kept procrastinating and pushing back on writing ideas that came up in my mind.

Today, considering the rewards I stand to get from creating valuable content for the right audience like personal development and money, I have decided to give (article) writing a second chance.

Writing and Writing

Basically, writing is the ‘inking’ down of ideas, information (whether on paper or digitally) for different purposes.

Going by this definition, everyone is a writer - or at least a prospective writer. We have all had ideas and (or) information at various times that we took down in writing as part of work or for personal reasons, whether actively or passively.

However, only a few are intentional and conscientious writers. It is this quality of intentionality and conscientiousness that separates those writers who churn out really valuable writings from your everyday prospective writers.

Why Write

I have read quite a number of nicely written and valuable written content which have had positive sentimental and pragmatic effects on me. And I know the desirable outcomes that (good) writings can have. Hence, choosing to write is a no-brainer.

Some of my reasons for writing are:

Substantiating my ideas

I love to read non-fiction books - my favourites are in entrepreneurship, technology, productivity and finance. I often encounter lots of great ideas and I also generate some while reading which I occasionally write down.

Writing gives tangibility to my ideas, keeping them safe and secure from my fallible memory.

Improving my communication skills

I have found that writing my thoughts down gives me clarity and helps me think better which in turn makes me a better communicator.

Writing is a means to improve my communication skills, as the ability to pick just the right words to convey my very idea is a skill that only gets better with consistent writing.

Creating personal connections and building community

I read a lot of written content on the internet and I have observed that the ones I had a personal connection with were quite conversational and written from the heart. And I can only imagine the number of people that had a similar experience.

Indeed, writing if done right can help me scale my reach and let people connect with me personally. Consequently, building out a community (with the help of social media) around our shared experience in the process.

Making money

Of all the reasons I have stated, my major incentive to write is the potential to turn it into a significant source of income. And this is where freelance writing comes into the picture. I have been researching about this and I figured I should get into it.

Why freelance writing

Freelance writing involves getting paid to write for other people or businesses based on some contract. It is popular among writers that value flexibility and control over their time and earning potential.

I love the flexibility and control that comes with freelance writing and I believe I have pretty good writing skills. So, I am giving it a shot.

Here are some of my reasons.

Low starting barrier

I pretty much have all the requirements to start this - a PC (or mobile phone), good internet access, subscription to writing tools like grammarly, Hemingway (which I believe is optional), a couple of hours every day and an environment void of distraction (and lest I forget, good writing skills, and of course — your brain). Asides the subscription (which I don’t have yet), the other resources are most likely what an average person already has.

More control

I love the flexibility and control that freelance writing affords you. I get to decide my pay, choose when I want to work, who I want to work with all from where I most comfortable working from. I even get to set my working terms with clients (people or businesses). A 9 to 5 doesn’t give this many options.

Lots of money to be made

There is really no upper limit to how much I can charge for my services. And as I keep improving as a writer and gaining more experience and credibility, I can revise my rates and earning models to reflect the value I provide.

Personal interests

I am interested in AI, programming, software development, the internet and technology in general and I enjoying writing about them. These areas of interest happen to be part of some of the most lucrative writing niches I discovered in my research.

I could choose to be a technical writer, explaining complex concepts in AI or software development using simple words or a content writer, writing about the internet and technology for businesses.

My goals for writing

The outcomes I am looking to achieve are:

  • turning this into a steady source of income so I can quit my 9 to 5 job.
  • getting better at expressing my thoughts and ideas and improving my written communication skills.
  • building credibility and authority in whatever domain I decide to specialize in.

Barriers to overcome

Although, I know I should keep writing, However, I am often held back by a couple of habits and notions that I need to break,

They include

High scale of sacrifice

I have a tendency to make single-handedly large ambitious goals that often leave me burnt out. For instance, when I started writing, I challenged myself to make my first writing a high quality long piece. Believe me, I could not finish that piece of writing which led to my giving up writing for a long time.

Scale of sacrifice refers to the magnitude of habitual change you choose to undergo to achieve some desired outcome. If it is large, you may experience burn out or get discouraged and quit.

To avoid burn out or quitting, I should learn to set a low scale of sacrifice. In other words, I should take baby steps. Just think of how babies learn to walk. They learn to sit first, then proceed to learn to crawl, after which they learn to stand before finally learning to walk. And they do all of these in small, gradual steps. I should take a similar approach to writing too.

Lack of writing plan

Not having a writing plan leads to my writing having no definitive structure. A writing that lacks good structure would have the writer jumping around from one idea to the other without any clear connection and flow between ideas. To prevent this from happening I should always make outlines for every writing. An outline will guide my writing and give it structure.

Inconsistent writing

Many times, I seek internal motivation to write and to be honest, I occasionally find that motivation which often makes me inconsistent.

The truth is internal motivation and willpower whenever available are often limited and they get depleted pretty quick. Hence, if I let them determine when I choose to write or not, I may never reach my full potential as a writer.

I should be more intentional about writing consistently whether I feel like it or not by setting weekly (or monthly) goals, coming up with a clear process to achieve these goals and taking baby steps.

Perfectionism

I can credit the writers’ block I have had in the past to waiting for the perfect idea or sentence to pop in my head before penning down a thing, while arguing with myself that this must be how remarkable writers come up with their stellar writings. I would often find myself editing and re-editing a sentence for various (flimsy) reasons till I get fed up and quit.

However, I have learnt (from reading books and articles on writing) that my first draft isn’t meant to be perfect, it will in fact be full of errors. And that my goal for my first draft should be to flesh out my outline without stopping to do any editing.

Once my first draft is done, then editing should follow and I should have a reasonable standard for when the final draft is good enough so that I don’t get stuck in ’editing hell’.

Trivialising work to be done

Writing requires some hard work. It takes time and effort to come up with content ideas, carry out research, generate outlines, flesh out the details of outlines, edit and publish.

I often find myself downplaying the amount of work to be done only to start a writing and realise that it would take some time and work to get the writing to the intended quality. Most times, I end up procrastinating the writing after realising this (yeah, that’s laziness).

If I am really going to get better at writing, I will have to be honest to myself about the cost in time and resources needed to produce quality writings.

Conclusion

Writing can be a fun and rewarding activity or a challenging and mundane task, depending on how I play my cards. And yeah, I have made my choice.

I am looking forward to writing more in the coming months, posting here on Medium and improving my skills. Also, I have started making moves to develop my writing portfolio with regard to freelance writing.