Freelance writer: 6 amazing Skills will make you a proficient

Do you want to become a freelance writer but worried about the golden skills of achieving it? If yes, then you need a specific set of skills that revolve around strong work and communication habits.

Before jumping on the ground to start up your career as a freelance writer, you need to have a deep insight into yourself. This will allow you to figure out whether you possess the necessary skills or not. If you lack the writing adroitness, polish up your skills, and come up as a highly-skilled freelance writer in the race.

Perks of freelance writing

Making a living out of freelancing is definitely not all glorious. You have to spend several hours, nurture your writing skills, and interact with numerous clients to make a golden living in the domain of gig economics. Freelance writing is also girded by many radiant benefits, even the content writers are highly satisfied with this field.

The positive aspects of freelance writing cover a wide range. Some of the perks are as follows:

• It is a great way of earning flexible money. It allows you to scale up and down your writing hours based on your necessary needs. You may use it as a primary income to support yourself with. Supplementary income can also be gained from this field. The bonus point is that it depends on you whether you stick to do freelancing part-time, full-time, or not doing any work for a few days (to enjoy the much-needed break by relaxing and watching Netflix).
• Freelance writing also allows you to work on a wide range of subjects, enabling you to explore something new at every step. Working on so many different subjects is surely a big win for the writers. Innovations never let your writing to get dry and stale. Besides this, time never remains in the drag phase rather it is spent in a quiet pleasant manner.
• Freelancing allows you the liberty to work at any place where you want. You can anywhere, even at home in your super comfy PJs. You can even look for other places to get to your freelancing work such as coffee shops, libraries, or any outdoor place, etc.
• Freelance writing enables you to have a nice work/life balance. If you are smart enough about how to manage your work schedule, then it can work marvels for you. You can arrange your work hours according to your remaining schedule. Once you are done with your work in any part of the day, you will miss the remaining fun and chill activities. The flexible schedule gives you the freedom to willingly say ‘YES’ to many gigs and explore new types of knowledge.

A Free Bit of Advice for Freelance writer!

Before setting forth to the freelancing writing world, have a look at the statements about what will you present to the clients and what you will be paid for. Planning is essential because, without it, you will just shoot the arrows in the air, not on the target. Devise good preparatory planning and take all the inventories into consideration.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Ask some rudimentary questions from yourself such as:

• Have you got any experience in writing?
• Do you feel yourself to be good at condensing the ideas?
• Do you possess any side hobby that you can pin down some words about?
• Do you have any IT skills? Are they sufficient to keep you moving on the track?
• Do you think yourself to be considered a good writer?

Once you have shed light on these aspects, you will gain a deeper understanding of the pros and cons of your writing. So, don’t avoid to have a quick glance at your inventories and writing capabilities.

Some of the skills needed for freelance writing are:

1) Well-built writing skills:

Expert qualities are not demanded from you at the beginning stages of your freelancing writing. It is something that comes with constant reading and practice. Writing skills are not like some rules to be crammed easily. You need to put extra effort to strengthen them up.

The basic demand of this field is to have a good writing ability. You can become a learned person in other skills as well to sell your written content, but you must have sheer confidence in all the sections of writing such as grammar, punctuation, the formal tone, and style, skill to write briefly and smartly, ability to develop new material, etc.

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” – Anne Lamott

Mostly, the freelancer writers lack the grammar knowledge and the formal writing techniques that are needed to make a mark in this field. If the clients get a notion of your not-so-impressive skills, they may probably part ways from you. So, try to keep the basic writing skills as your top-most priority.

2) You need to meet the deadlines:

Hold a realistic approach towards your work by sketching out how much work you can handle comfortably within a given amount of time so you can never exceed the clients’ deadlines. If you continue to submit the work after the assigned time, you’ll lose trust in the eyes of the clients. No one would like to interact with you because of your non-serious attitude towards the work. But if the situation is opposite to the former one, if you meet the deadlines and deliver top-tier work to your clients, it will surely help you in the long run. Moreover, your good reputation as a freelance writer will be secured.

“A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.”― Rita Mae Brown

You are the one to configure the number of orders and the setting of your deadlines, so tread on the wise road.  Never try to impress your client by saying that you can submit a maximum-word post by tomorrow, while in reality, you need two days or more to do adequate research on the topic. It is better not to trap yourself in your own web. Give an honest submission date so that the clients don’t expect the work before it.

3) Accept criticism with a kind heart:

Always leave room for constructive criticism as it is the bright force that helps you to learn from your mistakes and to never repeat them again. A writer has the ability to create a wondrous piece of work which probably leads him to have a feeling of creative pride over his produced art.  It’s quite natural to be super defensive regarding your work which sometimes blinds you not to notice and rectify your mistakes.

“Taking constructive criticism from others is required to get to the next level.”-Wendy Starland.

Don’t take your work too personally. If your client points out some mistakes or wants to add certain innovative elements to the project, give an ear to their recommendations. It will allow you to create satisfactory work for the clients and increase your knowledge by amending your mistakes. Always remain fair and neutral whenever your work is being criticized. This positive approach will open many gates of learning for you!

4) You need to be comfortable while marketing your skills:

Catching phone calls one after another, handling interactive sessions, and sending pitches to the clients can be a tiresome job if you have never been an extrovert. Stay calm! All these are part of a unified WHOLE process of marketing yourself. If you think you can never speak confidently with the people, you can never match their ideas or you can never come up with good content, freelance writing might not be something designed for you.

You should keep aside all the hurdling factors of your personality and put some effort into integrating some confidence into yourself about marketing. Maximum negotiation can prove to be highly fruitful, so never resist to do it. The key quality of the highly efficient freelancers is their ability to market themselves.

5) You have to be a self-starter:

To handle the clients and submit the assigned project effectively, you have to a good self-starter. As a freelance writer, you are all-in-all in charge. This has some bonus points such as determining your schedule, setting up you’re fine rates, and decide about who you work with. It also has some drawbacks, because if you can’t stay loyal to yourself, to your work, to your clients, most probably your work will take the biggest hit.

“Be a self-starter. Do it now! When you don’t know how to do something, start. Beware of the paralysis of analysis. Be a person of action.”-Mamie McCullough

Most of the freelance writers work as independent people, without any collaboration with other freelancers. They try to be self-sufficient and solely responsible for their deadlines. If you feel that you can better work on your own with successful steps, then freelancing is a perfect fit for you.

6) Stay on top of trends and research:

If you are the type of person who loves to learn new things and take on new challenges, then freelancing is something you need to take hold of. New trends in technology come up on the surface and they are changing all the time. Social media marketing comes up with new demands and platforms, it can grow or even face pitfalls. So, in the domain of the online world, content writers have to keep up with the growing trends. If you will lag behind in exploring new things, you won’t be competent enough to make a mark in the massive competition.

So, keep on track and look for innovations!

Freelancing is a game in which the content writer has to be a good juggler:

The freelance writer performs the role of a juggler as he has to throw many balls in the air and keep a balance between them. From polishing your creativity to marketing yourself, freelancing makes you a jack of all trades. You work for clients, try to answer their questions, do adequate research, and try to satisfy their queries. Yes! Sometimes you may feel that everything is ending up in a chaotic jumble… Hold on! It is you who have to efficient enough to function as a juggler and make everything work out in a smooth manner.

Waking on the right track will unleash success in your freelancing career!

If you are a good writer looking for a job, why not try GoDesign.pk. They have an awesome team. Try to register with GoDesign.pk. To read more about how projects work, read more to write for us.