By Annette Young
The advice given to new writers is often to carve out a niche area and stick to it and they are right…. to a degree. But I remember when I took my first serious steps towards writing, I didn’t know what niche area to focus on – freelance writing or creative writing, frankly, I wanted to do it all. I was brimming over with ideas and just loved the experience of writing and learning. I tried to focus on just one project, but it was impossible.
I tried writing poetry and won some writing competitions so that was exciting and I loved writing fiction, managing to have some of my stories published, I enjoyed plotting and planning novels but, I also enjoyed the research aspect of non-fiction and the analytic approach. So, dilemma.
I couldn’t narrow the remit because I enjoyed it all. I found I had to work on several different projects at a time because it kept my motivation and enthusiasm sharp. It did dilute my ability to quickly complete projects but I was able to enjoy my writing, to learn lots of techniques and to make sense of the whole creative writing process. I believe that working in this way played to my strengths, I was good at organising and juggling my workload on a daily basis anyway and this sort of frantic pace prevented me from getting bored.
Years later, I still work this way. Admittedly, I write full-time so it’s much easier but I have lots of different writing projects through clients as well as my Creative Competitor work, but this is how I work best. I do work feverishly on some of my own writing projects in between others, but I can dip in and out of these niches to suit my needs. Freelance writing gives me the variety I need because I can be working on any number of projects – from articles, books and even scripts and then when I get some downtime, I try to indulge in creative writing because it’s pleasurable and relaxing.
So, from this, you can see it is possible to cultivate a career in both freelance writing and creative writing. I do both professionally and I love it. The variety keeps my brain stimulated, my experiences in life fuel my writing in a creative sense and I get to live where I want in the world. I’m chained to a very portable desk.
You do have to be determined and dedicated to the craft of writing to make this work for you and not against you, but it’s possible. I work very long hours, I’m single, my daughter is grown up, so I don’t have to do set hours and devote time to family needs but I work to suit how I feel. If I feel like taking time off, I schedule it. For me though, writing is more than a career, it’s an aboslute passion. I care about the end result and give 100% to each area of my career. I do think that you have to work to your strengths in life. You may like to focus on one project and learn everything about it you can, that’s great, other people will dip in and out of different niche areas and gradually learn and many will change their focus in time. I just choose to absorb myself in the projects to hand (I often cherry-pick the freelance writing projects so I enjoy them) and dip in and out of the required mind-set.
In short, you can enjoy freelance writing and creative writing if that’s what you want, but whichever writing endeavours you choose, commit to it and give it everything you have. It will mean juggling your writing time if you have lots of projects, but you will learn to be efficient and you’ll learn what suits you. That’s the real secret.
