Is It A Good Time To Become A Freelance Writer?

October 06, 2010

As I’m sure most writers do, I love reading.

I enjoy becoming immersed in a story and having that feeling where you just want to read one more page, which quickly leads to an entire chapter.

I think part of my love for reading is that I have an interest in others. I like to know about other people and I love to expand my knowledge, whether it’s something that I could utilize in every day life or something related to me as a writer.

This interest in others and what they have to say extends past the written word and into face-to-face conversations.

I was in a bar on Saturday night with a group of friends who are a good few years older than me. The majority of them were part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal music scene in the early 1980s. Whenever I see them, I’m massively intrigued by them all as they have so many stories to tell and I very often find myself not saying a great deal when we’re together, apart from laughing, nodding and smiling as they recite story after story.

The general theme through all of the tales is that they had a blast when they were younger and wouldn’t change that time for the world, but that things have changed considerably and it’s a whole different game now, meaning the experiences they had, why they got into the scene and how exactly the did have changed.

And as so often happens, that night led me to write this post, as on Sunday morning (with a head that was more than a little fuzzy) I began to think about not only how and why I decided to become a freelance writer, but whether there was any specific reason that made me choose that point in time and if I’d have been better waiting a few years or starting earlier.

One of the reasons why I’m interested in knowing how others got into freelance writing is that there aren’t many other occupations that I’ve come across where people working in them today say that they’re better than they where when they started however many years ago.

With freelance writing, though — and bear in mind this is only my view from a modern perspective — it seems that it’s better to be starting now (or at least within the last few years), than it was before the invention of the internet.

I could be completely off the mark here and it might just be my adoration for — and somewhat heavy reliance upon — the internet that makes me think freelance writing would be a lot difficult without it, but from the writers I’ve talked to, the internet makes things a whole lot easier (you might be interested to read Dana Prince’s post here at GetPaidToWriteOnline.com from June this year titled ‘Taking Stock when the Web goes down’, which gives some thoughts as to what can — and can’t — be done without the internet).

Yet although the internet makes things easier once you’re actually a writer, I’m not entirely sure it makes the process of actually becoming a writer any easier than it was a few decades ago. Yes, there’s more information out there to learn from and a broader audience to promote your services to, but add into the equation the fact there’s such a considerable amount of competition amongst writers and it can in fact seem a lot harder today to break into the industry than it did previously.

Whether it was 2 weeks or 20 years ago, when and how did you become a freelance writer? Do you believe then was the best time to become a freelance writer or would you have preferred to enter the industry earlier or later than you did?