How to become a part time freelance writer

There are two ways to look at this topic. It can be hard to become a part-time freelance writer if you have no track record. Or it can equally be hard to become a part-time freelance writer if you don't have much time. Let's look at both of these situations independently.

Like any career you wish to break into, if you don't have a track record, if you don't have experience and expertise, you will find it hard even to get your foot on the first rung of the ladder. But everyone who wants to make a start is in that position. What you have to do is change your situation. To become a part-time freelance writer in some ways is much easier than trying to become a full-time freelance writer. As a part-time freelance writer you have presumably another source of income. You are not relying entirely on whatever funds you can earn from your part-time freelance writing activities.

How to make yourself experienced

Well the first thing to do is build up a portfolio of work. When you apply for work as a part-time freelance writer, potential employers will want to know what you have done in the past. If you haven't had any paid jobs before, you need to create some material, some work you have written and place it in your portfolio. It could simply mean writing a series of blogs or articles on a variety of topics. Variety is good because it shows you can write in a number of genres. Similarly you might have some essays you wrote in your student days and part or all of those can be added to your portfolio. So immediately you can make yourself experienced. Not fantastically experienced but at least you now have a portfolio with examples of what you can do.

How important is your full-time job?

Now becoming a part-time freelance writer is, as I said, not as difficult as someone who wants to do it full-time. As a part-time freelance writer you are not looking for 40 hours of work a week. It is much easier to find two hours’ work a week than it is to find 22 hours a week. What you need to sort out in your mind is how important is your full-time job. If that is the career you want and you are only doing freelance writing on a part-time basis to boost your income, then it should be pretty easy to become a part-time freelance writer.

On the other hand, if you want to make freelance writing your full-time occupation, then you are going to need a plan to help you build up the number of hours of work you get each week with the goal of being able to swap jobs. Your goal is to resign from your full-time career and become a full-time freelance writer. Hopefully you'll find it's like a snowball rolling down the mountain. The more work you get as a part-time freelance writer, the more work you will continue to get. Success breeds success.