The life of freelance writers is not easy. It takes years of hard work and dedication to make a name for yourself in this highly competitive industry. Freelance writing involves everything from taking on seemingly impossible tasks to dealing with some of the nastiest clients you would come across. Therefore, you need to have something extra personality wise apart from being hardworking and dedicated to succeed.
If you think you have following personality traits, you have a bright chance to become a successful freelance writer.
- Self-Discipline:
All the successful freelance writers stress on the importance of self-discipline. As a writer, it is your duty to write as much as possible. You need to follow those people who write, all by themselves, all the day without any boss watching over them in order to meet deadlines. These people are few but they are like a lighthouse for you. Don’t be like people who are left to their devices and do everything possible but writing. You can survive as a writer without other traits but not this one.
- Passion for Learning:
There are very few people who are willing to learn arcane knowledge. And if you are one of those persons, you are definitely on the road to glory. From learning how to write a query letter to how to use Instragram, your love of learning will server you a lot in the long run. It is always fascinating to learn new things as well. For instance, one of my most lucrative projects ever involved writing on HTML and CSS. I had no idea about this stuff but everything happens for the first time in life.
- Believe in Your Skills:
It is important for you to have stern believe in your skills as a writer. An editor’s negative remarks or failure to get a certain assignment should not, in any case, discourage you. Any kind of outer output should not affect your inner belief that you are perfect. For instance, you can always charge as much as you want for assignments without the positive feedback of editors or your previous clients. It is you who must decide how good you are not any so called editor.
- Persistence:
Persistence is the key to success in any profession and same is the case with freelance writing. You must be patient and committed enough to continue. I personally know many writers who went back to day jobs after a dry spell when they could not find any jobs. You must not give up or you will end up doing the day job as well which I don’t think you want to.
- Boldness:
If you are not brave enough to ask questions, you should probably look for some other profession. You will get more work if you are willing to throw difficult questions to top CEOs, ask people in stores about their shopping experience or send query letters to big magazine regularly. On the other hand, if you are shy enough to do interviews in person or talk to people on phone, future might be bleak for you as a writer.
- Curiosity:
You should also have a burning desire to know what is going to happen next. You must try to figure out and learn new things before someone else does. You must be curious enough to find new and more exciting story ideas. It will also help you to find answers to all the questions you have in mind. Subsequently, you will be able to create stellar content and get more clients.
- Good Learner:
You must also be a good learner. Try to learn from other successful writers and do what they are already doing. It is also a good idea to listen to the suggestions of your clients. This way, you will considerably improve your writing and have a long list of satisfied clients.
- Ability to Self Improve:
Writing craft is always changing and you need to improve continuously to climb up the ladder and find more clients. Today, a good writer needs to develop into a great writer to survive. You need to ask a lot of questions, follow other great writers and be open to implementing suggestions.
- Egolessness:
You need to put your ego aside if you want to become a great writer. In order to write content which is really useful to the readers, you need to work in collaboration with editors and clients. You must be open to suggestions from all directions and implementing them. If you are too adamant to make changes to your drafts or writing style, you are up for really difficult times.
- Cool and Calm:
Great writers always remain cool and clam even when they have to deal with difficult clients. Professionalism and inner calmness are the two traits which will help you reduce the gravity of the situation. You should not lose your temper just because the client is behaving immaturely.
Concluding, you can always cultivate all of the above traits if you don’t have them already. They are necessary to succeed as a freelance writer. Remember that freelance writing is not for someone who is undisciplined, snaps at people and has no passion to learn and improve.
Author’s Bio:
Khurram Shahzad is a freelance writer enrolled with https://www.writersincommand.com/. He has special interest in writing on travel and tourism, home decor and photography. He has been writing for different companies and websites for more than 5 years now.
