From journalists and bloggers to authors of fiction and advertising copywriters, Australia is home to a diverse range of writers. While some pen content to answer their personal passion, other undertake articles and essays to earn a regular income writing from home. However, whether you’re looking to get hired for writing jobs or simply seek to perfect your craft, a firm foundation can help you achieve your ambitions.
An important part of establishing this base camp before reaching the heights of success is creating a writer’s toolbox. From accessing encouragement and support to improving your skills so you can earn money from home with writing jobs, this kit comprises of a lengthy list of useful resources. In this blog, we’ll run through some of the most vital assets available to Australian writers today.
Of course, every writer’s needs are different so not all these options may be applicable to your current pursuit, but read on to find out which resources are a match for your needs.
Keep reading
Great writers always come from reading. Read as voraciously as you can and as widely on every topic that intrigues you. Read books, blogs, magazine and news articles, advertisements, and documents. Examine how they’ve been constructed and critique whether they are effective in achieving their purpose. Study why they work or don’t and ask yourself if you are engaged. If so, why? Look at the language and grammar used and see whether you can apply styles and techniques to your own efforts to improve them.
Join writing groups
Not only can connecting with other writers be helpful to morale, but it can also allow you to share what you’ve learned with others. Being able to discuss your successes or stumbling blocks with other writers who understand the struggles you are facing can be invaluable.
Offering the chance for friendly feedback and an opportunity to spend time with like-minded individuals, local writing groups can be found all over Australia. While small groups can help you connect with and receive support from other amateur and professional writers in your area, established institutions are also available for you to sign up to, like the Australian Writers’ Guild and the Australian Society of Authors.
Sign up for writing workshops
While writing groups are great for networking, writing workshops allow you to carry out the same process in a learning environment. From access workshops to get you started, to classes that allow you to target specific styles of writing or improve areas in your work you feel are weak, these events can be exceptionally useful. Offering a chance to get practical, workshops enable you to get hands on and learn new writing abilities that can help you hone your craft.
Study writing blogs
Reading daily blogs about writing can help you pick up useful tips from other writers. Many working writers pen regular blogs to assist others with guidance based on their experience. From common mistakes to avoid, to ways to find work as a writer, such blogs can be an excellent source of helpful information.
Take writing courses
While you don’t always need formal qualifications to become a writer, you will need to have excellent English language skills. This means sound spelling, grammar and punctuation that can help you create professional writing samples to acquire work or get your draft novel accepted by a publisher. If you feel you writing isn’t up to scratch in this area, a short writing course can boost your abilities and bolster your confidence.
Basic English skills are not the only writing courses available, however; from creative to technical writing, you’ll find courses on tackling different styles. Study classes that help you structure articles and larger documents can also be extremely useful, explaining opening and closing paragraphs and the use of subheadings to break up longer texts.
Today’s use of digital technology also demands different types of skills from writers, and you’ll find courses and classes that target search engine optimisation (SEO) writing, explaining how to use keywords, meta tags, links, and html.
Use writing apps
There are many free writing applications online to help you improve the quality of your writing, like Grammarly and the Hemingway app. These technical solutions can help you streamline your work, making it more web friendly, or might simply double-check your spelling, grammar and punctuation. By studying the suggestions of these applications (be mindful that they’re not always right!) you can learn from them and deliver work with fewer errors that often reads far better.
Online dictionaries and thesauruses are also a crucial resource. Use browser bookmarks and favourites on your device to keep these apps and online reference materials always a single mouse click away, so you can access them whenever required.
Reach out to mentors and editors
Having a second pair of eyes look over your work is an important tool in improving it. Finding an experienced writer who is willing to mentor you can be helpful to gain a sound understanding of your field and an unbiased view of your work. While you might not always agree with the suggested comments, they can offer fresh insights on your work and add a sense of objectivity.
Professional editors can also be extremely helpful for similar reasons. Being unfamiliar with your text, they provide you with an authentic reader’s review, which can often highlight areas and ideas which are unclear. Focused solely on editing rather than writing, they can also identify errors far more easily and show you how to enhance your work.
Write professionally
As mentioned earlier, it is possible to write for money without a degree or even experience working to produce writing. Writing professionally is among the most useful resources available for a writer’s toolbox, as you will find you are constantly learning and stretching your abilities while benefiting from advice from experienced editors.
While signing up for courses, classes and hiring an editor can help you achieve the same goals, they all cost money, whereas writing professionally will see you earn while you learn. As a freelance writer, you will be given a diverse range of topics to cover, which will help you learn how to research and produce original work that has been fact-checked effectively. Articles will have different audiences so you will get a chance to perfect writing in different styles and tones of voice.
An extensive selection of writing jobs is available due to the high demand for online content. Companies are under pressure to keep the copy on their websites current and the information they offer accurate. As a result, they are often revising their web copy or creating regular blogs that promote their products and services while delivering relevant content to their site visitors.
Blog writing is often considered the meat-and-potatoes of online content writing. Busy enterprise owners don’t have time to create a continuous stream of content aligned with the services they provide and pay writers to produce news and non-news articles related to their industry. Blogs may be short or more in-depth, ranging from 250 words to over 1,000. Companies that sell product via ecommerce platforms and online catalogues often require writers to pen product descriptions that showcase specific features and target different demographics.
Writers are usually paid by the word, which means you get paid fairly for getting hands-on with a wide range of content writing opportunities broadening your skillset. Every piece of work you complete must be submitted on time to meet your deadline and pass a copy check that proves it is an original article and not simply copied from an existing blog or product description. Your work will then be reviewed by a professional editor who will provide feedback where necessary. While positive comments on your writing can offer you encouragement that you’ve selected the right career for yourself, criticism can be more beneficial in the long run. Take this free advice to heart and use it as part of your writer’s toolkit to improve the work you produce.
Applying for writing jobs will require you to write a sample or pass a test. This process can also be an excellent resource that help you challenge your ability and put your skills to the test.
Are you interested in getting paid for online writing?
If you have excellent English skills and would like to add professional writing to resources, we can help. At Words of Worth Australia, we can offer a wide array of writing work that will help you build your skillset and a achieve your ambition of becoming a professional writer. Along with abilities in English, you’ll also need a device to work on that can run writing software and dependable connection to the internet. We hire reliable writers who are committed to improving their work and offer editorial support and useful resources to help you enhance your abilities.
To start earning while you perfect your writing style and fast-track your learning journey, apply to write with us here at Words of Worth Australia today and add us to your list of essential resources.