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Freelance
Writers: Earn $10 or More for Every Word You Write
Updated:
Fillers
are short written pieces, such as jokes and mini-articles, readers’
letters and household tips. They are required in their millions
every day by publications all over the world. They are easy to
write, they require no special writing skills, so how come so few
people actually earn their living writing letters and manuscripts
comprising as few as 100 words a time?
The answer is probably because
they consider such high rewards are only payable to really top notch
writers, perhaps they consider themselves highly unlikely to
interest any editor with their own very basic writing skills.
Nothing can be further from the truth because few, if any, writing
skills are required to earn a really good living as a freelance
writer of such short written pieces.
However certain writing techniques do apply to filler writing as for
any other writing form.
Writing skills and techniques depend on the kind of filler you
specialise in. Writing letters, for example, involves different
techniques to those used for creating crosswords and verses for
greetings cards. And there’s a certain skill involved in writing
humour and knowing what kind of joke or feature is suitable for your
target magazine.
First task in the filler writing process is research. You must
collect facts for your filler, be it just a sentence in reply to a
letter already published in your target magazines, or a list of
several little-known snippets about dogs or cats for a short article
in some popular pet publication.
Once you have the facts for your filler, they must be assembled in
the order they will occupy in your finished piece. This means
deciding which pieces to include and where to put them in your
filler: beginning, middle or end. Take a few back issues of your
target magazine and turn to published pieces similar to those you
want to write. Study the number of main points included and what
obvious editorial preferences exist. Do most pieces start with
quotes, for example, or does the editor seem to prefer anecdotes?
For longer fillers like personality profiles and mini-articles,
notice how many words there are and what is the most common length
for sentences and paragraphs.
Go back to your research notes and make your selection based on a
careful study of your target magazine. Arrange these in order, again
sticking as far as possible to the format of published features.
Now start writing, concentrating on content rather than style for
the time being. Continue writing until all your research material
has been covered, without unnecessary duplication.
Now check your facts again, making sure everything is accurate and
up-to-date. Count the number of words and check them against the
average wordcount for your target magazine. Where wordcount is too
low, include more facts or look for ways to expand on those already
included. Without waffling or unnecessary duplication!
Careful editing can reduce wordcount considerably without removing
impact or cutting essential data. Editing also cut down on clutter
and ensures that every word does its job.
And that basically is all the skill anyone needs to earn a good
living as a freelance filler writer. Does this sound good to you? Of
course it does, so why not get started on this new and lucrative,
also very regular writing source.
Avril
Harper is a highly successful freelance writer and the author of
How to Be a Five Minute
Writer
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