Expand Your Writing to Grow your Writing Career

Taking the steps to grow your writing career requires that you expand beyond where you are right at this moment. Taking classes and attending conferences can help guide you down that path. At some point you will have to take a leap of faith and jump into something that you may not have known before you made the leap.

“Write what you know.” I heard that phrase almost as much as “Content is king.” They are right. Writing what you know lends an air of authority to your words. Most of us are living in a very small bubble compared to the world. Expanding that bubble and providing the fuel to ignite a writing career often means learning to write. You reach beyond the comfort of what you know and write what you grow into knowing.

Tips for Expanding Beyond Writing What You Know

– Take an assignment for a topic that you may have heard about but where you have no real experience in the subject. It is best to choose a subject that you have some interest in, but it is not necessary. Invest the time and energy to research the topic so that you can expand your knowledge into a new market.

– Step out into a genre that is foreign to you. Write a fiction story for a contest. Tackle the National Novel Writing Month even if you are a journalist by trade. Craft a poem for a newsletter or website. Think completely outside your normal box and you will see the sides of your box expanding to accommodate the new attempts.

– Take a class or course that will teach you knew skills for developing your writing career. Look past the writing techniques. Take courses on website designs, social media or even speaking. You can always write about your experiences, but make a point to experience things that are beyond the normal training for writers.

– Read a book that will make you a better you. Building a writing career goes beyond putting words down on paper (although you will NEVER be a writer if you never write). You are creating the best you that you can become and then presenting that you to the world in black and white. Expand who you are through the written words of others.

– Attend events where others in the industry will be attending. Make connections that can help expand your writing career and push you to the success that you desire. Meeting and greeting others in the industry can help you keep a pulse on what is hot now and what will be hot tomorrow. It may also open doors that can give a boost to your career that might have otherwise been missed.

Grow your writing career by expanding what you write, how you write and who you know. Become a better writer by becoming a better you. Develop the success that you desire by investing time and energy into being more tomorrow than you are today.

How will YOU expand your writing and yourself?

Choose one of the tips to implement in your writing life over the next week. You may not be able to complete the task, but commit to getting started. Be sure that you write about your experiences. You may never publish the words that you write, but those words can help you evaluate your journey and continue on to the next steps.