Bring On the Writing!

It’s no secret that I love writing and my biggest dream is to become a successful published novelist. In a word, duh.

But I’ve also come to the decision that in 2-3 years time, I want to be able to make a living from my writing and my writing alone. Yes, freelancing. It’s a tough profession and means I won’t be driving around a Lexus anytime soon, but when I sit down and think about what profession would make me the most deliriously happy – it is writing. I want to write. Novels, articles, columns, blog posts.

So I spent time last weekend, searching around online and coming up empty with how to get this freelancing career off the ground. I came up with a few blogs and online magazines I would love to pitch an article on, but I felt a little lost on what I needed to do first.

And then it came to me.

I need writing samples.

I have barely any. It’s something that always made me feel a little bad about myself when I was in journalism school. We had articles and reports to write, but I don’t find those good examples of my writing. And I know I have tons and tons of writing samples from blog posts, but when I comb through my archives, there are only a handful I would consider using as writing samples.

So where is that leading me to? Well, I’m taking a page out of Ashley’s book and putting out the request here. I want to guest blog for YOU. I am aiming to write 50 guest blogs this year on a variety of different blogs. Personal blogs, niche blogs, blogs with hundreds of readers, blogs with no readers. If you have a blog, I want to guest post on it!

I have a form to fill out to keep things organized because this is going to be a pretty major undertaking for me. And it’s a bit terrifying. But if I want to be able to write for a living, well, then, I have to get over this fear of not being good enough and just go for it.

You can suggest a topic for me to write on, or I can come up with one myself. Both ways challenge me in my writing abilities. I’ll write about health and fitness, faith and religion, cruising, dogs, social media, past experiences, how-to’s, books, pop culture, travel, sports… just to name a few categories. But feel free to suggest other topics, as I’m open to writing about anything that suits your fancy. (Within reason, that is. Obviously, I can’t exactly write about living abroad or why you should run a marathon.)

Once I see your request on my spreadsheet, I’ll send you an email where we’ll nail down some of the finer details such as topic and due date. I’m really excited about this new venture and I think it’s the first step I need to take to discovering how to live my dream.

And that’s it! Just fill out this form and let’s get this thing started.

Bring on the writing!