Writing is not for everyone. It is not everyone’s cup of tea. When you are compelled to write content about anything under the sun, it can be quite challenging. Just ask anyone who’s ever drafted an email, created a presentation, or written a research paper. This is the challenge faced by freelance writers. They have to work with new industries, clients and many more parties on unfamiliar turf. As a writer, you will be asked to write about them in a convincing manner. The problem, however, is how to deal with an unfamiliar topic.
Freelance writer Au Chat Kwan offers four tips for aspiring scribes.
1. Read Read . And read a lot
Yes, reading is quite important if you are aspiring to become a successful writer. What do content writers, speech and debate coaches, and medical professionals all have in common? At some point in their careers, they came to grips with reading. Reading is quite essential if you plan to write comprehensively. From the thesis down to a paragraph of a one-page essay, you need to read before writing – a lot.
A freelance writer’s job is not only to put words down on paper but to put them in the right order. You’ll likely spend about half of your total project time just learning, so don’t try to rush it. The writing part of these kinds of projects becomes significantly easier and faster when you have the right foundational knowledge.
2. Bank on Google, But Sparingly
If you’re looking for quick information on any topic, you already know where to turn. Indeed, Google is your friend in need. Just head on over to Google and type in whatever it is that you want to learn about. Be sure you use a variety of different combinations of keywords to increase your chances of finding the most in-depth articles on the subject. If you want to know more, go ahead and take a deeper dive!
Taking time to read a variety of articles to familiarize yourself with a specific topic is not sufficient. If you want to use your knowledge in a unique way in your writing, you need to pay close attention to what you are reading.
3. Fine-tune Your Writing
Now that you have done some basic research about freelance writing, it is time to figure out what you are going to write about. Chances are that during your reading, you stumbled upon certain interesting ideas. Now, you have to find a way to present it. Since we don’t have time on our hands, we cannot opt for thorough research.
The key thing to remember here is that you are not simply repeating or rephrasing others’ ideas. Instead, you are turning to the available literature in order to form your own thoughts, even if the conclusion that those thoughts lead to has already been well-established. Try to find new and more interesting ways of presenting the most common information.
Paraphrasing a source is a common technique in research papers. This is a good way to summarize varying viewpoints on a topic. Au Chat Kwan’s emphasis is not to repeat what the author underscores. Instead, show that you have engaged with the material and changed it to suit your own goals.
4. Seek a Second Opinion
Seeking a second opinion is important for various reasons. A second opinion is a chance to get another evaluation of what you have written from an expert in the field. You can use social listening as well in order to form a common opinion. You can turn to Twitter as an example. Simply search for the relevant words or hashtags, using keywords in Google, and find out what other people have tweeted and shared on a particular subject. It may even help you find a subject-matter expert to cross-check what you have written.
If you’re interested in browsing opinions on a specific topic, check out the platform that is most often used to publicly express an opinion. Simply search the relevant keywords and you can quickly get an idea of what people have posted about an issue.
Au Chat Kwan is a freelance writer with expertise in different genres. He uses his years of knowledge in the writing industry to help individuals both young and old in their freelance writing journey. If you have ever wanted to write on the side or locate freelance writing jobs all over the web, but didn’t know how to get started, Kwan has got you covered!