Three of the Goal Areas for a Freelance Writer

Whether you dabble in writing an occassional article online for a few extra bucks or you strive to call yourself a full fledged freelancer it is important to have goals. There's a lot of things to consider when setting your writing goals; who you are, what kind of writer you want to be,  how much money you want to make and more. If all goes well you should be able to mesh your goals together and obtain some sense of personal satisfaction as a writer.

While there may be many aspects that a writer could consider, today I am going to focus on these three: production, money, and staying creative. Other goals echo in my mind as well, writing more offline, increasing my quality, writing fiction that sells -- but that will come in due time. First, I need to find my writing rhythm.

So step 1: Production goals.

 Lately, I have been writing mostly SEO copywriting and ghostwriting blogs, with fewer informational articles like I was doing a couple months ago. Some of these are harder than others, and they don't have as much excitement of "learning something" as I did when I was writing more informational stuff. So, my production goal this week is 12-15 pieces, with at least 2 informational articles and one purely creative piece.

Step 2: The money.

Yes, there was a time when I wrote purely for the love of the craft. For a long time I didn't want to branch out into writing for money because I didn't want to feel like I "sold out." But there is a lot you learn by trying to be marketable, and face it, getting paid for you writing is satisfying-- not to mention it's nice not to have your electricity shut off. So, at the moment I am going to say I want to make at least $100 this week. Hopefully, I'll make more, but $100 seems reachable.

Step 3: Staying Creative

As I write this, the current assignment lingering over my head is on postage scales. Wow. How fun can you get? Writing about super practical products can drain your creativity, which is why you need to step away from time to time and mix up your mind. I'm a fiction writer and poet at heart, but right now no one is seeing me as the next Maya Angelo, Stephanie Meyer, or J.K. Rowling, and I need to support myself. This is why I added the "write something purely creative" to my production goals. As much as I would love for creative writing to be my main course, for now it needs to be dessert. My reward for doing everything else I said I would do.