I was reading an article about freelance writing, and one article spoke about odd jobs for newbie writers, like forum posting , erotica writing etc, Wondering how would these jobs be? how to land one such job? the skills required for the jobs, and how is the pay etc And also wondering where can I find some sample writings, to get an idea of to start writing at all.
A link to said article would help in a reply. I'd imagine that any 'newbie writing jobs' would be unpaid. Skills required for writing would depend on what writing took place. Journalism is a far cry from fiction, as is academic writing. Really, you need to think what kind of writing you want to do, and for what purpose.
first of all, if your post is representative of your writing skills, i'm afraid you have a ways to go yet, before you'll be at a level where you can expect people to pay you for what you turn out... no offense intended, just going by what i see... as for where such jobs are found, there are many writing work listing sites you can find with a bit of googling, but i don't see those as a viable way to start a freelancing career... and the pay offered is generally far below the going rates of professional copywriters... forum posting jobs i have to assume involve spamming websites, which i would never recommend that any self-respecting aspiring writer should stoop to...
hello well, no offense would be taken if the criticism, is to the point, exact, a senior, pro writer would know how to do that, so this is definitely discouraging to an aspiring writer, well, I know the intentions behind it, so I am not stooping low, matching your money making intentions. sorry members, but her review was uncalled for.Hope you all would understand. And, I wonder why didn't this free mentor offer/answer my writing samples part of the question, as she is so concerned about my pathetic writing skills, her response to the thread would have been much more constructive,complete,graceful to the dignity of a seasoned mentor & writer. Thanks
Think again, e-lancing websites offer the type of work the OP is referring too. Forum posting you're looking at like $5-$10 and hour, writing erotica 5-10c p/w, the same for ghost writing. Once you build up a folio you can command a higher rate, but you would need to start small. You should also think again, a lot of the writers who work these jobs speak English as a second language and are quite terrible. These jobs are incredibly easy to get, they exist mainly because the employers are lazy, not because it is difficult, or requires any talent. What is it they say about assumption being the brother of all f*** ups? (mother) - Most posting jobs are to make forums that are used as social proof appear active. It's a sales technique. Writers normally get paid by the hour, but the pay will be capped. 10-20 hours a week is common. With that said, I've commissioned people to write blogs and articles in the past. Paid them about $2.50 an hour. I got pretty good material. Needed a bit of a tidy up, but, you get what you pay for. In summary: You are competing with the third world and they work cheap and fast.
eerr... you'd do well to do some research before you speak. Maia's had 20 or more years of experience as a writing mentor and she was paid to write and edit all her life. Now I'm not aware of her age, but judging from the things she says, I'm gonna guess 60-70s (since she often speaks in decades and seemed to have travelled a lot). So yeah, she definitely fits into your requirements of "senior" and a "pro writer". I have been critiqued by maia before via email and the things she points out are quite good and accurate often and I have much confidence in her level of English and consider her definitely a pro editor. Don't be offended because someone was honest. I'm afraid your grammar skills are easy for everyone to see - they're not good enough yet for you to be thinking of any kind of paid writing work. I'm not trying to be mean, but we all need to be realistic with what we can and cannot do. I cannot sing professionally even though my voice is pretty good. You just have some way to go yet before you can think about paid work, that's all. Edit: also, forum posting work - don't do it, it'll drive you insane. I did it once as part of my job and essentially it involves trying to keep the forum alive and active when there're in fact no users around at all. For myself, I ran into the interesting situation of starting conversations with MYSELF. Yes, I was paid for this, it nearly drove me nuts.
thanks for the support, mckk! you're close on the mentor experience, just need to add another decade, as i started helping writers back in '82... i started a writing consultant business then, was paid up to $150/hour and my clients included nestle's chocolates... and yes, i'm 74... good guess... hugs, m
To start, I would recommend looking at misplaced punctuation, unintentional sentence fragments, poor grammatical structure. At this point, you would probably be better off working on those basic skills before diving into the deep end of the pool and trying to earn a living as a writer. Sorry. But Momma is absolutely correct andthere is no sense in offering avenues of pursuit if you are not ready for the chase.
I would use freelance writing for an aspiring writer as a way of making extra cash. Until you develop a portfolio and have a rolladesk of references then you can start making decent money. I would stray away from forum posts because as mentioned above then can me spam or free work. I would look into agencies or specific writing guilds that do offer entry level writing jobs.
Hahahaha. The original poster speaks English as a second language. Regardless of what you all may think, it will be very easy for him/her to find work as a writer. Gotta put bread on the table, the writing s/he is talking about is the literary equivalent of factory work... But pays a lot better. If you have a wordpress website listed by google, you will no doubt have moderated comments from one. Here's my favourite; received two days ago. I once thought they were robots, but I learnt about a year ago that they are people, normally paid $1 or so an hour. The person who wrote this is the kind of writer the OP is hoping to become. ...I'd say the OP has a head start.
