The Renegade Writer Blog

If you know me, you know that the articles I write are typically service pieces with subheads and bullet-pointed tips for magazines like Health, Oxygen, Writer’s Digest , and many trade and custom publications. In my mind, moving up to the next level as a writer would be writing more complicated pieces. And I recently did it: I sold and wrote my first narrative piece for a business magazine on a cage-fighting entrepreneur. To write the article, I learned how to set scenes and how to smoothly move from the business aspect of the subject’s life to the martial arts aspect, without the aid of subheads for transitions. I also learned how to move seamlessly from past tense to present tense, how to drag personal information from a source, how to interview in person while trailing the subject, and lots of other techniques for narrative writing. I was proud of the article I turned out, and look forward to writing more like it.

For some writers, moving to the next level means going from unpaid to paid work, or from a dollar a word to two dollars a word. Whatever it means for you, here are some tips to moving on up in the writing world.

1. Start where you are. My buddy Jennifer Lawler is a very successful magazine writer, book author, and now, and agent. When she started out writing, she concentrated on her expertise: martial arts. She wrote for Black Belt magazine and other fighting titles. When she wanted to move into more popular and better-paying consumer magazines, she sent them pitches rooted in the martial arts; her first consumer magazine piece was an essay for Family Circle based on the mindful aspect of martial arts. She also ended up writing on self defense for Oxygen and Cooking Light. Later Jennifer garnered several clips from Family Circle that were not about martial arts because the editor liked her work. If you have an expertise, use that to help catapult you to the next level. Once you’re at the next level, you can gradually expand your topics.

2. Don’t go all or nothing. Don’t burn bridges with your current markets as you try to make the leap to bigger and better; it makes more sense to drop them slowly as you develop relationships with the more desirable magazines. For example, when I decided I wanted to write more complicated pieces, I didn’t start turning down service pieces — after all, those are still my bread and butter! You may be tempted to drop all of the work you want to move out of so you have time to pitch the better markets, but if you do that you could end up without an income. The only exceptions are magazines that pay nothing or that pay ridiculously low fees: Those you can safely drop.

3. Get help. When I got the assignment to write the narrative piece for a business magazine, I was clueless. So I asked my buddy Elaine Grant (whose e-course Magazine Writing Basics starts on September 14) for help since she’s done many of these types of pieces. I took Elaine out to lunch, and all of those things I said I had to learn in order to write this article? She taught me. She even helped me by critiquing my first and second drafts. So if you can’t afford to take a fabulous e-course ;-> , approach a writer you know who writes for the markets you’re aiming for — and ask for help.

4. Ask. If making it to the next level, for you, means moving up to a higher pay rate, try asking your current editors if they can give you raises. This can be a lot easier than breaking into higher-paying markets, though of course you should try to do both.

5. Help a buddy. When I started earning bigger paychecks from better magazines, I didn’t just drop my old clients saying “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!” My husband was just starting out as a freelance writer, and I recommended him to these editors. They were thrilled to have another good writer, and I still had a positive relationship with the magazines even though I didn’t write for them anymore. If you don’t have an aspiring writer waiting in the wings, you can offer to find writers who are willing to work for the editor’s rates by posting in writers’ forums you frequent.

6. Get moving! So many writers tell me they’ll pitch their dream markets as soon as they build a good selection of clips from [insert name of non-paying magazine here]. Smarten up: You need only one clip to say you’re a published writer, and if you get bogged down writing for free (or super cheap) to build clips — that’s your fear talking, not your logic. Just pitch your dream markets — you lean more by doing and experiencing and making mistakes pitching your A-list markets than you do by stalling with the non-paying markets. You don’t even have to let go of the apron strings of the magazines you want to eventually ditch (see “Don’t go all or nothing” above). Just pitch! [lf]