Getting Started I - Checklist

Most of the people who ask me about being a professional writer haven't ever been published. So this is baby-steps guide to getting started. If you've been writing for awhile, I'll have some posts later that you can check out to see what the next steps are for you.

Bottom line: you're never going to have a career as a writer unless you start writing. I think that's the most effective advice I can give anyone - start writing today and building a reputation and resume. That's the key! You can plan, think, ponder, and research all you want; but until you sit down and start typing you've really not accomplished anything.


So here's a quick check list for getting started with some goals. If you do these, then you will be on your way and you can start leveraging your resume from there. But until you get these few ground-work pieces laid out, you've really got nothing going for you:

The Getting Started as a Writer Checklist

1. Goal: Start a free blog. Go to Blogger.com or Tumblr and start your blog. They're free. It takes a few minutes to signup and you're done. If you do nothing else, get your blog right now and you'll have crossed a major hurdle. Don't worry about the technical side of things like the domain for your blog and the title - you can change all of this later very easily on Blogger, Tumblr, and most other free blogging sites. Just make a blog! 
2. Goal: Write your first post. Ignore the design. Ignore the layout. Just get your first post written. Learn the interface. See what you can edit and change. The key is to get something down on the screen and posted for the world to see. What you hopefully discover is that it's a lot easier than you thought!
3. Goal: Establish your topic. Yes, this came after the first two goals, but it's important to get over the technical hurdles that most just can't seem to do. Once you have a blog and a post done, step back and determine what you want to write about consistently. You can change just about everything regarding your blog later. 
4. Goal: Write one post per week. Most people go out and try to blog too much. They get in over their heads and burn out. It's great to post often, to be sure. But don't go over board. Pace yourself. In fact, try to slow yourself down a bit. You can schedule blogs to post at a later date. So if you write a bunch of posts all at once, schedule some of the posts to go live at a later date. This buys you some time to regroup and recharge. 
5. Goal: Write 10 posts. Yes, this might take you 10 weeks to get to this point, but need several things in place before you can start leveraging your experience:
1. Time to learn - you have lots to learn about blogging and what works, so if you write 10 posts in one day, you're likely not going to have gone through some important experiences I'll discuss in later posts. 
2. Credibility - if you post all 10 blogs in a few days and want people to trust you, it's just not going to happen. Publishers want to see consistency and longevity. Would you invest in someone who only just started something? 

Seriously, if you just get started you are well on your way. And be consistent. After a few months of working at it you're going to learn a TON and know whether or not this is something you want to do.