How I started my career as a Writer - A Journey that can help you build yours!
Some individuals begin writing at an early age and know it is what they want to do, while others are led down this route by fate. I count myself as a part of the latter set of people.
I have no recollections of my first stint with writing, although I can assure you it was some form of creative writing. I have faint memories of watching the Disney Princesses’ movies and writing their stories in my words. I still have the collection of those writings. Post that, I did try a hand at poetry writing. But never once did I think I’d want to pursue the path as a part of my career. Writing to me has always been a stress reliever and a joyful place for me... A hobby of mine that made me happy. So, when was it that I decided that I could do more than just writing for myself?
I had a passion for exploring the cultures and psychology of people. I developed characters for my stories and weaved them into storylines. It sparked my artistic side. I was in 11th grade when I told my best friend about this. She loved the story so much that she forced me to pen it down. I took her words lightly at that time and just randomly said “I will become a renowned writer someday and pen my autographs too.” I don’t know how much I meant it then, but I do hope I can make those words come true.
So, I participated in 2 inter-school story writing competitions that winter – one in English and one in Hindi. Bagged 1st place for the Hindi Story Writing and 2nd in English. It filled me with a new sense of motivation and encouragement. I said to myself “Maybe, I can actually write.”
As strange as it may seem for someone so focused on academics, I hadn't read any novels or books (other than those specified in our syllabus) up until that point. Or maybe just a few of the Secret Seven series. That’s all. I wondered how one could start writing when they didn’t even read books. After all, you see and you learn. You write and you improvize. So, I started reading books. I remember that this was during my 12th-grade board exams. People who know me won’t believe it, but this is the truth. In the little time I used to get after studying, I read books. I would love to dig deep into the lives of the characters and figure out the intricacies of writing. In that year, I read around 70 books of different genres and started writing the first book that I wanted to publish.
Although I haven't published the book yet for various reasons, there's more to it. I started a page on Instagram, penning mini-stories that went inactive after a while. I didn’t feel the desire to share these stories with people anymore. With a busy schedule, I stopped reading and writing for a year.
1.5 years back, I participated in a Bootcamp, where I had been asked to write blogs on the topic in consideration. It was then that I wrote my first technical article. I was learning blockchain and tried to describe it in simple terms so that even a novice with no knowledge of technology could understand it. All I did was tell a story about the concept. Now, this article gave me a lot of appreciation from the Bootcamp organizers. It was this appreciation that motivated me to write more for the public.
I first asked myself why I wanted to write. The answer was simple – If I could help someone learn and impacted their lives in some way or the other, it would mean the world to me.
Moving on to the next question: what is it that I want to write? Writing had always been close to my heart. It didn't matter to me what I wrote as long as I was learning something new and making a difference in people's lives in some manner.
So, I kept writing. I participated in competitions, did internships and part-time roles and everything that helped me enhance my skill. I wrote for marketing campaigns, blogs for NGOs, fintech companies, technical blogs, websites and other areas. I even wrote blogs on therapy animals during one of my internships. Every time I gave a talk, I decided to pen down the contents of the talk in the form of an article so that it would help the participants after it. One such article that I wrote got immense praise from people all over the world.
I had been writing all through my student life and now as a working employee with a full-time job that is not in the writing domain, I decided that I would not let anything come in the way of my love for writing. Today, I not only write on my blog but also do freelance technical writing for different organizations.
If you are a beginner who is interested in pursuing writing as a career, here are a few things to do:
Ask yourself why you want to write – This is the most crucial question you must ask. You need to know the purpose of your writing. You could write for any of the following reasons:
- As a passion
- Because you are good at it
- Because you can earn through it
- Because you aim to impact people
- To gather a larger network/following
- Any other reason
Ask yourself what you want to write – When you know the why, you need to ask yourself what. You can either write articles on various topics or select a niche. Selecting a niche gives you a more focused audience and more chance of success.
Get started – Write anything. Most often, the only thing that stops us from starting our career in writing, is that we fear writing our first article. If we write it, we don’t publish it for a long time. Get rid of that inhibition and just get started. Your first article might either be loved by people, or it may not. But one thing is for sure – it will help you learn a lot.
Promote your article – Share your article with family, friends and on social media. Personally request people to read and review it honestly. The critics might hurt you but if taken positively, it helps you to grow and write better.
Read – Read a lot on the topic under consideration. Review articles similar to yours and try to jot points on why one should choose your article over the others. Read on SEO and use keywords and synonyms which upgrade your article.
Keep Writing – It’s pretty normal to face writer’s block during your career. I faced it a lot many times too. We writers tend to seek perfection and that might cause us to discard ideas and articles that we are writing. In such cases, look out for writing prompts, trending topics and content that your circle wants to read about. If there is nothing, then write about your daily learnings or tasks that you do. You could choose one of the following topics too –
- Things that you googled
- Things that you learnt in the day
- Things that you ponder upon
- Learnings from marketing stories of a company
- Dissection of products/companies that exist
- Niche-related content that you see from a different perspective. Seek inspiration on Instagram and Twitter.
Seek opportunities and apply – “Am I good enough?” Impostor syndrome hits most of us. Procrastination hits the rest. There is no dearth of opportunities in the writing sector. If you have the skills and desire to be better, then all you have to do is apply. You can apply in various ways – social media job applications, cold emails to probable recruiters, or publishing a portfolio of your work that would help you generate leads. There’ll be a lot of failures, but when you succeed there would be no looking back.
Take a break – Writing is a healer and de-stressor. Sometimes, all we need is a break to let the healer work better. A break can help you energize and perform better. Give your body the rest and love that it deserves.
With that, here are a few skills apart from writing that I learnt in my journey that helped me be a better writer:
Research – The more you read, the better you write. I will never get tired of stressing the importance of research. That’s how important it is in anything that you do. Research could be reading books, articles or journals or even conducting surveys and talking to readers about what they like and dislike. Research helps you optimize content. The learnings acquired are immense.
Search Engine Optimization – The search engine is an ocean of resources. People look for the ones that save their time and gives them accurate answers to their questions. If you want people to read your articles, you need to rank at the top. Writing better headlines and making proper usage of keywords helps you achieve this. If you are getting started in writing, then SEO is the one skill that you NEED.
Storytelling – Would you like reading content written in jargon that you can’t understand, or would you like to understand the process in detail with examples? Most people choose the latter. Storytelling is another skill that you will get better at as you write more. This skill will not only help you reach more people but also progress in any career that you pursue.
Marketing – The one thing that you will learn while writing content is marketing. If no one reads what you write, then you are diminishing the impact that the article would create. You are depriving people of the learnings that they could get. On my first stint as a paid Content Writer, I learnt about marketing content and how to generate sales from it. And that’s not all, this skill will come in handy at all phases of your life.
Empathy and Customer Experience – As a writer, understanding your reader is a skill that you need to ace. If your audience comprises more amateurs, then write in a language that they can understand. This is what makes a writer even better. This skill that I learnt as a writer helped me in the technical projects that I worked on. There’s nothing better than getting into your reader’s shoes and understanding the problems that they face.
What are my goals as a writer?
I have been continuously posting tweets and blogs and writing at least 4 articles a month. I aim to keep that pace up and write even more soon. I am currently working on a fiction novel that I aim to publish online by the end of this year. One of my goals has always been associated with learning. I want to enhance the quality of my articles with every article that I write, i.e. I aim to be a better writer. I also plan to start a newsletter in the first half of the coming year.