4 steps to start your writing career online
Faith without works is dead — Show Your Work Series#1.
I read somewhere that many people watch the How to reduce your belly fat video on YouTube though not all of them lose weight. Only those who put in effort to do planks and crunches do.
The same rule applies to Writing.
If you dreaming of pursuing a writing career, just watching videos on SEO and reading a bunch of blogs on “How to start writing” is not gonna cut it.
You need to do stuff.
You wanna be a Writer? Then Write.
1. You need a Medium
“In order to be found, you have to be findable” ~ Austin Kleon (Show your Work).
You need a medium to showcase your work to the world first. You can’t keep your work in your drafts and expect them to show up on the best-selling rack at the bookstore.
Find a platform where you can share your work with others.
Want to start your own blog? there is always WordPress and Wix for your aid.
Perhaps you desire to write short posts on LinkedIn/Twitter or if you have a passion for creating content on Pinterest go ahead.
In case you have a lust for fiction and are looking forward to publishing your own book someday. Then I would recommend Wattpad. It is user-friendly and filled with avid readers munching on all types of genres.
Most of all find a place with people sailing the path as you do. Like a community, a brotherhood. You’ll learn from them as much as they do from you.
I’d highly recommend Medium in such a case. This Platform is swarmed with people high on their dreams as much as you.
Here you can write whatever topic you want and read on whatever hashtags that interests you. It is like Instagram for Writers, only with less drama.
It is free to create a Medium account. However, with the premium version only, you can unlock the option to read member-only stories. (Which is worth the cost, to be frank).
So dive into the internet and fish out a platform where you can display your handiworks. In the future, those will shout out your skillset to your recruiters.
Online everyone — the artists and the curator, the master, and the apprentice, the expert and the amateur — has the ability to contribute something ~ Austin Kleon(Show your work).
2. Wear your Amateurism on the Sleeves
Every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than we are now. Students. If they can do it, why not us? ~ Harry Potter.
Okay, you are settled up with a platform where you can let your words bleed on the pages.
But there is this teeny tiny little problem. You are not an expert. Well none of us are when we start.
The first time I tried cooking, I mixed things with a plastic spoon and ended up with a custard dessert topped with melted plastic.
Now I want to say, I am a Michelin-star dessert chef but that would be a lie. Yet I am the starter specialist in my household and I make sure not to melt plastic spoons anymore.
That’s how you learn, it is a process. The same goes for Writing.
When you start your writing career, all you have is a dream in your eyes and crazy ideas piled up in your head. Start with that.
Embrace your Ameturism. Don’t be afraid of it. That is the specialty about being an Ameture, from here you have nowhere to go but up.
Now I know, the Million Dollar question will nag at the back of your head “What if they don’t like it ?” “What if no one reads, what I write ?”
Use those questions to your advantage. If you think no one is going to read it, what is stopping you from pouring your heart out? That is the perk of being an Amature, you have nothing to lose.
In his book Show Your Work Austin writes amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
So true. Screw perfection, let your flaws flood the pages. End of the day you’ll learn something or you realize you need to learn that certain aspect.
Forget about being an expert or a professional, and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve. Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you. ~ Austin Kleon (Show your work).
3. Find your Voice
You found a medium, and rolled up your sleeves to get into action, Now what?
Find what you wanna write about! Your niche.
You can write about anything and everything, but does all of them matter to you?
Let me do you one better, You can surf online and find out the “trendy topic” and try to embroider it in your own words. Nonetheless, is that the same thing that drives you crazy?
Start from the basics — What do you know? / What do you love?
Cooking, baking, organizing, books, Domestic violence, or the things we never talk about in church, or the top 8 male fictional protagonists according to you.
Take your pick. Make it your voice. Have your say.
What disturbs you? What hurts you the most? What gets under your skin? What keeps you awake at night?
Write about that.
Passion is Dangerous. It will run through your veins and set on the ink. Like a magic spell. With one sniff, people will be enchanted by it and they’ll keep coming back for more.
“Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it untill the people that are looking for you find you”
~ Dan Harmon
4. Steal from others
I am not talking about stories, ideas, or their work. Now that is plagiarism. A criminal offense.
The true treasure lies right underneath the popularity rug.
I read an article on G.R.R Martin (The Author of Game of Thrones, if you don’t know), in which he talks about one of his inspirations — Stan Lee. Yup, The Excelsior himself.
Stan Lee changed the way Martin looked at storytelling.
The deaths, the decisions, the consequences every protagonist has to endure, and how they affect the rest of the storyline. According to G.R.R. “That is all Stan Lee” influencing his stories.
Alike, look around. There is a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.
Draw your inspiration from them. Read their stories, watch their biopic, and listen to that podcast. Get Encouraged.
Steal their love for new worlds. Zeal to break the boundaries and the desire to reach beyond the stars.
Study their strategy for capturing the masses. They touched millions of hearts because they had the guts to try and fail.
Steal that.
“Take inspiration from the people who muddled through life before you — they all started out as amateurs, and they got where they were going by making do with what they were given and having the guts to put themselves out there. Follow their example” ~ Austin Kleon (Show your work)
Let me Sum up, I am not gonna sell it to you if you follow these 4 steps, Within 30 days you’ll make money as a writer and get paid with multiple zeroes. This is not that kind of post.
Yet to become one, you have to start somewhere, and for that, my friend these 4 steps will assist you.
So find a medium, and create an account. Publish your work and be consistent. Engage with the other writers there. Take time and actually read their work. Share feedbacks.
In no time, you’ll find a fine network and an increasing number of readers. Keep practicing that autograph because one day you’ll be someone’s favorite author too.
Until then, Write on Soldier!
Show Your Work#1
The Key takeaways of this post are inspired by Austin Kleon’s book “Show Your Work”. Big shout out to him! I highly recommend it if you are struggling to show your work online.
I am reading it now. As promised I’ll be posting what I learned from a Writer’s perspective in the following weeks.
Hope you like the post. If yes? Give me some applause, and share your feedback. Follow my publication for more writing tips :)
