Blunt Writer Advice for Newbies

I came across a post on Reddit recently where somebody quite new to writing was ̶w̶h̶i̶n̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶ asking for some advice on whether or not he should continue writing.

His points were that he’d been rejected from Content Mills (you know, the holy grail of writing that all writers aspire to work on someday), he wasn’t sure whether or not he was good enough because he hadn’t been getting much freelance work.

He wasn’t sure if he enjoyed writing enough to put up with the rejection.

So I gave him some blunt advice, and now I’ve decided to turn it into a post (no, YOU’RE out of ideas!) for all the newbie writers out there wondering whether or not ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶e̶t̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ pursue their dream of using the written word to make a career out of.

1. You Need Thick Skin

Okay, you pitched to a few people. You wrote your best damn cover lever yet. You’re perfect for the role…it’s in your grasp, it’s in your grasp, it’s in your-

You got ignored.

You can’t let being turned down bother you this much. Listen, we all lick our wounds, we all walk away from the PC and moan to our partner and friends that we’re great at writing and should have had that job. But for whatever reason, you just didn’t get it this time.

Maybe your pitch wasn’t ‘pitch-perfect’.

Maybe someone else who applied was slightly more qualified than you.

Maybe you just got unlucky.

Either way, you need to have thick skin if you’re going to try this freelancing business. Heck, even this writing business. Even writers who have a healthy list of clients and are making good income still get turned down quite a bit when pitching to strangers.

If you’re calling yourself a writer, you need to activate that ‘IDGAF’ attitude when you’re rejected, improve your pitch, take a few minutes to curse the nature of putting yourself out there and then…well, put yourself back out there.

2. Your Self-Belief Should be Unshakeable

My self-belief is so great that I call myself a writer and I don’t even care enough to check if unshakeable is a word. I’m a writer, it’s practically in my job description to create new words. Just look at Shakespeare.

(Ed. I am in no way comparing myself to Shakespeare. None of my relatives have ever been executed.)

The point is — you can’t let rejection, or criticism for that matter, affect whether you think writing is for you. I don’t want to tell you it IS for you because t̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶’̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶e̶t̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ I don’t know you, but what I can say is that I have been writing my entire life.

Fanfiction, essays in my personal life, essay competitions, poems, rap songs, reviews, blogs, CVs for people, affiliate blogs, articles, social media posts. You get the gist.

I’m 23, and I’ve been writing since I was 7. I have never, ever let my lack of earning make me think writing isn’t for me. I know it is for me. I just haven’t made enough money yet (you never can).

In fact, writing every single day across many different subjects and types of writing for 16 years…I’ve made £152. That’s all since December of last year when I decided to take it ‘seriously’.

Pro tip: Never take writing seriously. That’s just something writers who have been paid like to say to forget about the fact the cyclical nature of freelancing is a bit of a joke.

“While we can’t offer you any payment for writing at this time, we can offer you a lot of exposure.”

“That’s great, my landlord will be thrilled.”

3. Some Projects You Just Won’t Fit

I once wrote for a film reviewing blog, a pretty popular one at that. I’d been writing TV show/ game/ music/ film reviews for at least 4–5 years at this point, mainly for myself, sometimes for other reviewing websites.

I worked with an editor on this particular blog, and it was one of the most simultaneously frustrating and yet enriching experiences I’ve had as a writer.

Every single review I gave him — he made me re-write it twice. Then edited it himself, and then finally was barely happy with it. Enough to publish, but not enough to be raving about my future there.

Eventually, as I think we both saw coming, he said he didn’t think I was a great fit for the style of the project and that I should consider trying again at some other point in the future.

So, I thanked him for the opportunity, and I left. And I didn’t let it bother me. Okay, I had an initial reaction of ‘Oh my god, I’ve been doing this for years…but I’m awful?!’ but that faded very quickly.

I did feel a little disappointed that I couldn’t seem to grasp what he was looking for, and that did cause some self-doubt. But I never once thought ‘writing isn’t for me’. I simply saw it at what it was: I was not a great fit. Either it was a stylistic difference, or my skills weren’t quite as refined as I believed at the time.

Nothing could take away the fact I’m a writer though, not even that.

Plus — failure teaches you more than success ever will. I’m lucky that I got the experience to work with an editor, it was a way bigger source of motivation and help to my career than handing in a review to someone who automatically published it and praised me was.

If rejection is enough to make you think this world isn’t for you. Maybe it just isn’t…? It probably is. But if your faith can be shaken that easily, you’ve got to reassess whether you ARE a writer.

If you’re not — great, ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶e̶t̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ you’re that much closer to discovering who you are.

If you are — even better, why are you letting somebody else’s opinion and low self-esteem get in the way of that?

4. You Need to Have Passion

Two years ago, I tried being a rapper/ producer. I’ve always loved hip hop. My lyrics were solid, always got praised. My delivery/ flow was average, but not great, my production of instrumentals was awful.

All of these people online had been grinding FOR YEARS making mediocre beat after mediocre beat after mediocre beat. They never let it stop them.

Same with the rappers.

After 20 songs in, one Spotify feature, and a lot of ridicule from my co-workers in my day job at the time, as well as a general lack of passion on my part, I realized something.

I’m just not a rapper. It’s not my path. And that’s a shame, in the same way that me not being a professional footballer is a shame.

I very quickly got over this when I realized it was really only the writing part I loved, and that producing instrumentals/ performing takes of my raps were often a chore and I felt like I had to muddle through them.

If you feel the same way towards writing, and have a general nonchalant attitude — I don’t think it’s going to work out for you.

Conclusion

If you do want to be a writer — forget money for now. Write articles on LinkedIn/ Medium. Read books daily, study literature, study anything you could bring yourself to read. Notice what they do — and the complexities within their writing.

And then write.

Every single day. Write. Write more than you do the previous day, every single day until you’ve hit a threshold you can’t pass because you can’t physically type any faster. You don’t even have to post any of it — and you shouldn’t be asking for advice on how it was by people either (you can occasionally), you should be writing for you.

Eventually, you’ll realize you’re much better, I’d wager not even that long if you truly follow this advice. We’re talking a couple of months. If you get the thought of ‘I don’t have the time to chill and learn to write better first, I need to be getting paid’ you’re approaching it wrong.

Get a factory job or something to make ends meet. You need to nail down whether you actually enjoy writing or not first. Although in my opinion, it shouldn’t even be up for debate. It never has been for me.

The only thing that may not be for you is content mills and particular niches that are out of your comfort zone. There’s so much more you could do. Writing social media posts that are short & snappy, affiliate marketing, reviews on Amazon of products you like, poems, etc etc.

Anything!

It doesn’t matter, if you find something you enjoy writing at, getting better will just kind of happen gradually — and then you’ll be able to reasonably approach making money.

If you’ve read all this & you’re not motivated as hell to be a writer — chances are you’re not one. Just my two cents. I hope you find something you love waking up for. It’s truly a very liberating feeling.

You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter, and you can also (if you feel like it) follow me right here on Medium if you’d like to see me bang on about something else in the future. Half the time it’s actually good as well, at least that’s what my mum tells me.