How to Write for a Living

How to Write for a Living

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How to Write for a Living
How to Write for a Living
10 things I'd do differently if I started over as a writer

10 things I'd do differently if I started over as a writer

...as someone working on making a living from his words.

David McIlroy's avatar
David McIlroy
Jan 08, 2024
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How to Write for a Living
How to Write for a Living
10 things I'd do differently if I started over as a writer
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I’ve made a lot of mistakes as a writer.

It’s because I’m a bit of a magpie. I see something new and shiny, and I go flying after it. That new, shiny thing will solve all my problems, once I’ve stolen it back to my nest. That new, shiny thing’s what I’ve been missing all this time.

Ok, end of weird metaphor.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and there’re a lot of things I’d do differently as someone working on making a full-time living as a writer.

These are my top 10.

1. Spend less time checking stats

Stats are great, but boy are they distracting.

I dread to think how much time I’ve wasted over the last few years staring bug-eyed at my platform dashboards and analytics screens, waiting for the numbers to change.

It’s obviously helpful to know which type of content (yes, content, because a social media post is very different from a novel, but both are audience consumables) resonate with your online community. Once you know what your followers, readers and subscribers enjoy, you can create more of it. That’s what having a strategy looks like, and it’s why some creators succeed while others don’t.

But stats for the sake of stats are pretty meaningless when checked several times every day (or in my case, every few minutes). It’s best to keep away from those dashboards as long as possible and focus instead on producing things your audience want to read, watch or listen to, in the most basic terms.

2. More focused time on social media

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