How I Became a Professional Writer With No Writing Degree or Experience
By: Rashida Beal
Tags: Content Writing, Writer, Freelance Writing, Writing Journey, Writers Life

How I Became a Professional Writer With No Writing Degree or Experience

Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash

In the winter of 2016, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Neuroscience minor. Three and a half years later, I am not knee-deep in graduate school or assisting at a lab like I thought I might be, I am a professional writer.

I had no plans to become a writer, and truly thought I lacked the talent. Yet, here I am being paid to write. While I do some other freelance work as well, writing is now one of my primary sources of income. The thing is, I became a writer with no English degree and with no real experience.

Here’s how:

I started out as a young author

I’ve always loved reading, writing, and language. Learning to read opened up an entire world for me, and I was one of those first-graders eager to take on chapter books. Throughout school, language arts was something I enjoyed and that came easy to me compared to other subjects.

From the moment I learned how I began writing. By fourth grade, I attended the Young Author’s conference for a short horror story I wrote. In high school, I took eight English classes voluntarily. I have piles of old journals and notebooks filled with cryptic poems and ramblings.

It’s fair to say I have always been a writer, but I never thought I could be a writer. If you’re looking for a story about how someone who hated writing now gets paid for it, this isn’t quite it. This one is for all of the other young authors who think that they could never make a career out of it.

I scored an entry-level marketing job

Marketing was my first step toward content writing. Following college, I was (and still am) pursuing a professional soccer career. Injuries and family circumstances changed my course for a while. At the time, I was not ready to throw away my dream of playing soccer, but I needed to work during the time I could not play.

I was able to get a part-time job as a content marketing assistant. In this role, I researched content ideas for clients, created outlines, and edited content. I was still not writing, but this is where I first learned about content marketing and began to think that I was more than qualified to write blogs, newsletters, and other marketing content.

My job responsibilities started to include writing

I left my first marketing job to pursue a soccer opportunity and ended up with another major injury that sidelined me for over a year. So, it was back to work. Thanks to my prior marketing gig, I got a (remote) job as a social media manager and marketing assistant.

For nearly the entire first year I worked there, the company had no Director of Marketing. At this time, I tried to bring some of my newfound marketing knowledge to them. I explained the value of consistent blogging, and they responded by asking me to write the blogs.

Me? Write? I was excited to get back into writing and gladly accepted the additional responsibility. For the company, I wrote monthly blogs, crafted social media copy, and corresponded with influencers. This was my first taste of writing professionally.

I applied to content writing positions

After a year and a few months with my social media job, I fell in love with remote work and decided I wanted some additional income. Writing the blogs and social copy for that company gave me just enough courage to apply to some writing jobs.

I scoured general online job boards, like Indeed and Craigslist, as well as some writing-specific boards in search of open positions. I applied to countless content writing and freelance writing positions, but I did not make much progress.

Maybe I really wasn’t good enough at writing to do it as a career. The old doubts resurfaced, but I had a lot of free time on my hands. I figured there was no harm in continuing to apply to these jobs.

I landed my first writing position

After a couple of months of casually applying to numerous remote writing positions, I came across one for a content writing agency that seemed promising. Based on the job ad, I could tell they were a newer, smaller company that cared a lot about creativity, voice, and growth. Still, I did not know if I could make the cut with my lack of writing background.

I applied and submitted a writing sample that I was really proud of. Surprisingly, I actually landed the position as a content writer! I was incredibly excited about the new position. Starting out, I only had about two articles per day that had to be turned in to an editor each evening.

After about a month of writing for the agency, they promoted me to work directly with clients. I use their project management system to manage clients and projects. Most of the time I write blogs, newsletters, web copy, and social content for clients in every industry imaginable.

It has now been a year, and I am still writing for the agency. I have a steady flow of work and can ask to take on more clients whenever I want to. Over time, I have been given progressively more challenging clients which helped me improve my research and writing skills.

Additionally, I consistently write for our own company newsletters and blog. I have learned so much from this content writing position and certainly grown as a writer. But recently, I began to think beyond this agency.

Starting to expand my writing jobs

While writing for this agency and receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback from my team members and clients, I again started to think about the untapped writing opportunities in front of me. If I could write for clients through this agency, what other writing opportunities could I find?

A former client contacted me and ask to work together directly, so I recently acquired my first freelance writing client outside of the agency I write for. While I plan to continue writing for the agency, I am working on expanding my client-based and taking on more freelance writing projects. I frequently browse on numerous online job boards for new opportunities and keep my options open.

I also realized that if I could earn money writing for someone else, I can earn money writing for myself. I started a blog dedicated to my experience as a professional soccer player and a high-level athlete. At the same time, I decided to start writing for Medium as well. Both of those projects are new ventures, and I am always learning as I go.

Writing is now one of my sources of income

While I truly enjoyed reading and writing, it is not something I ever thought I could do as a career. After high school, I did not take a single English class. I excelled in English, but I always knew there were people better than me at writing. I thought professional writing was reserved for them. I now earn money as a content writer while working for an agency, individual clients, and myself.

I may never become a best-selling author, and I may do something other than writing later in life. Regardless, the lesson I learned is that you do not need to have an English degree or years of experience to become a writer. Every writer’s journey is different, mine was unexpected but lead me to exactly what I should be doing for right now.