by Brian Lamacraft

Created on: October 27, 2010   Last Updated: December 11, 2010

As a hobby writer you may have a fear in the back of your mind of taking your writing a step further. Maybe you want to write online or get an article published. You can take your writing dreams and make them a reality. All you need to do is put your mind to the task and go about it just like you would anything in life.

Writing Online

Maybe you’re a young writer in school who likes to write poetry or short stories. You could take your writing a step further by putting some of your work online. By joining forums and critique groups you could get people to read your work and comment on it. Comments can only help you to get better as a writer. Maybe you have always wanted to write articles but have always been afraid to do so. You could start on site such as Helium and give it a try and see how you do. You will find most writing sites to be full of very helpful writers who will give you tips, suggestions, and ideas to help you with your writing. Writing online is a great way to explore your love of writing and get some exposure without the rejection letters and disappointment, that traditional print media brings you.  With time you can easily turn your hobby into something that makes money for you when you write online.

Courses and General Study

 Another way you can take your writing hobby further is to study the craft and learn all you can about it. You can buy writing books, read online articles about how to write, study grammar texts, and take full-time courses. If you want to take your hobby and make it a career you might want to go to college or university and take more elaborate courses. The more you study writing and how to put words together you better your chances of making money form doing what you love.

Novel Writing

Having an idea for a novel is one thing but putting the pieces together and finishing it is another. If your hobby is trying to write a novel you should finish the novel and then try and get it published. You can buy books and find tons of tips on novel writing online. You’ll even find full courses that will teach you how to go about it. If you write stories you can try to get them published too.  If you have writing that’s just sitting around try and publish it somewhere. If you can do this you will truly be a writer and not a mere hobbyist.

Attend a Writing Conference or Seminar

Take your hobby writing to the next level and talk to professionals who do it for a living by going to a conference or seminar on writing. This can be a fantastic way to break out of your hobby mode and start to thing about actually making a living doing what you like. 

Try Selling What You Have

You may have writing you can sell right now. Try submitting your articles to magazines by sending queries to them. You can buy books that will show you how to do this or you can search online. Websites and writing magazines are a great source for writing contests you can enter. This is another way to take your hobby and try to make something with it.

Summary

You can take your writing to the next level. Remember that it is only you that can make the decision towards your success. Try writing online for some money and be sure to study writing all you can. You may even want to take a full-time course on it. If you’re a hobby novel writer, try to finish and then sell your work. Attend a writer’s conference or seminar for another way to take your hobby a step further.. If you have any type of writing even it it’s just a short story try to do something worth it like entering a contest. You may be surprised about how easy it is to take a mere hobby and make it a goldmine of income opportunities.

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