Freelance Writing: Differences Between Professionals and Amateurs
Are you an amateur or a professional freelance writer? There are various differences between professional and amateur freelance writers. We all start as amateurs but must strive to uphold professionalism if our writing is to gain any meaning. Its time to up the stakes, time to take your pen and write like your life depended on it.
How can you tell the difference between professional freelance writers and their amateur counterparts? There are many differences between the two groups of freelance writers. A look at some of the differences will tell you whether you are a professional freelance writer or an amateur.
- Professional writers do not talk about their writing, they simply write while amateur writers spend all the time talking about what they want to write instead of writing, they spend all the time talking about their work in progress instead of writing it to completion first before talking about their products.
- Professional writers know that writing is serious business, to them writing is actually hard work but to the amateur writers, writing is fun, a mere pass time that shouldn’t be taken seriously!
- Professional writers have great discipline when it comes to writing. They will proofread their work, they will meet deadlines and they write religiously and everyday for that is their work. Amateur writers wait for the urge to write and never bother with proofreading their work!
- Professional writers do not complain when their writing is rejected by publishers. They think of rejection as a stepping stone to better writing while amateur writers react to rejection by calling editors names, they vow never to submit their work again to those editors who turned them down.
- Professional writers take criticism positively; they admit it when they don’t produce their best! Amateurs on the other hand hate criticism and will try to destroy the critic or kill his message. Amateurs are too full of themselves to notice any mistakes in their own work.
- Professional writers never let a day pass without writing at least a sentence or two. Amateurs are more comfortable talking and complaining instead of writing!
- Professional writers don’t moan over pay, they don’t write for money alone but have many reasons why they write, the key reason being they have something to say and must say it through writing. Amateur writers are comfortable with being called writers and will more often than not, moan over how little they earn from writing when they aren’t even writing!
We all start as amateurs but with time learn the secrets of the writing world which then transform us into professionals but some of us are comfortable with amateur writing for the rest of our lives. Do not be afraid of breaking into professional freelance writing, it’s for men and women like you. Are you a professional writer or an amateur?
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July 16th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Nice topic. Though, there must be something missing here. According to your points, I am professional freelance writer, but I am sure I am just an amateur.
Anyway, you made some great points. He who complains about the pay all the time is not worth being called professional.
July 16th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
The one time i got rejected was when i tried to publish top three largest boobs, no one accepted it! As I don’t take rejection too well, I threw a fit and cried nonstop, is that bad?
Nah seriously, i don’t mind. All i can say is I am new and I am young, it doesn’t answer where my current stand is.
I just a dog who self-taught on the keyboard, people don’t expect much from me.
July 16th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Not that i want to brag but honestly, i by some miracle am a very successful amateur writer
July 16th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
With these points, I consider myself a professional amateur.
I do care about what I write and proofread, but I also treat it as a pass time, something I can do whenever there is nothing else to do, more or less. I take criticism because I am far from the best of writers, I’d say I’m more on the lower end of the totem pole compared to some writers. I feel I can express myself better through written word at time, as I can add my own personality into my writing; however, there are a lot of times when I add too much of my own personality, to the point where I lose my original point of argument. But I digress. Nice article mate, you always have some very interesting topics.
July 16th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
You draw a great sketch of difference, good post
July 16th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Good article, I think I sit somewhere between
July 16th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
This is another very creative piece. I totally agree with you on the various points between a professional and amateur writer.
July 16th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Good article! My friend, you always have some very interesting topic.
July 16th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
great article…..
July 16th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Well, first and foremost I write, I like to write, I have most all of my life…. I first put a poem on line 10 years ago I have drifted…. from place to place, this is the first time, I have published on a pay system, and yes its true poets don’t get rich…. unless they marry it ha ha ha cheers, and nice shout once more Leo
July 16th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
I’ve only been in the writing business for seven months, so I guess I’m an amateur writer too. I only see writing as a means to pass time, though I don’t brag about anything I do to anyone in my life. I still don’t think that I’m cut out for this, seeing how much I babble in my work. LOL. Great article, mate!
July 16th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Leo, thanks for giving us so many good tips on heading towards professionalism. I’m a baby in writing. I always tell myself if I come across any rejection, simply rewrite the whole article till it is acceptable for publication. Never give up.
July 16th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Very good one again.
I am not a professional writer for sure, but some of the points you mentioned for professional writer match me also, LOL.
July 16th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
What happened? I have commented on this and it’s missing again? Haha, what did I said just now?
Oh, I was saying that I, obviously not a professional writer, but strange thing is some of the points you mentioned about professional writers, match me too, LOL…..
(don’t complain about the pay, hardly talk about my writing etc etc)
(^_^)
July 16th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Nice share, Silaho. I think as Valz said I’m inbetween. Let me take sincere efforts in becoming a professional writer.
July 16th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Well I think I’m moving up. I don’t talk about what I want to write I write it. I am getting better at writing. I am trying to make sure and put more information in to my articles.
July 16th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Time and practice does it all, i have problems with topics, so i can’t be prolific. not professional yet but trying to.
July 16th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
you know i totally agree with u. it\’s all about falling down, learning from mistakes and taking the constructive criticism you recieve and doing some magic with it.
lovely article!
July 17th, 2010 at 12:46 am
Very good article.
July 17th, 2010 at 2:21 am
I am quite happy being an amateur, but I hope It doesn’t mean I complain or boast about my writing. I’ll have to watch that. You have put over some egood points.
Christine
July 17th, 2010 at 2:59 am
Impressive comparison between amateur and professional writing
July 17th, 2010 at 3:55 am
Very good points revealed by Sir Leo Tolstoy……nice work.. as always…
July 17th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Hmmm. Wonder how long I’ll be an amateur. I write because I have to because I usually have something to say, and for the sake of humor, but I probably don’t take writing for Triond seriously. However, I think it’s a great place to practice. No doubt, this is my playground and one day all of the practice that I get here will pay off. Yes, I see a novel in the future. Something that’s important to me while I’m on Triond is being able to look back each year and in comparing my articles, seeing how my skills have improved. I’ve learned a lot over the last year about writing; some I’ve learned from college and some from reading articles by Triond writers. I’ve learned a lot by reading your articles, so I don’t read them only because they’re interesting. I “study” your articles (for balanced sentences, words, etc.), and your work usually includes all that I’ve learned that writing is supposed to have. And then, I look at my work, and I think…”Hmmm…
…HOW IN THE WORLD DO I FIX THIS?!?!” Hehe
July 17th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
I’m an amateur but I like to believe I behave as a professional.
August 27th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Though all these points aren’t such terrible ones as cookie cuter tips to would-be writers, but I’m a professional writer and I break them all the time. I endlessly complain about how much I’m paid, as anyone who’s paid badly should. I sometimes make mistakes and typos in my pieces, no matter how diligently I may try or not try to proofread them. I’m very comfortable calling myself a writer, cause it was a hard won glory. Sometimes the criticism is good and constructive from editors, sometimes I wonder how they ever got their jobs as editors their suggestions are so asinine and counterproductive.
For writers, like any artists who try to get by on their craft, there are no rules, only guidelines. If you wrote one great novel that took twenty years to write because you were an undisciplined, unprofessional, jerky talker. I’ll take one truly great novel over the thousand of “professional” books written by “professional” writers. For the five or so books written by Thomas Pynchon in fifty years, many think he deserves the Nobel. Being great doesn’t mean being the best at what you do, it means being the only one who does it. And guidelines are broken all the time, by the best.
September 11th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Writing articles that you are interested in, or specialised in, without having to care for traffic is also a professionalism?