So I'm currently in the "fun" position of figuring out what to do with my life, made even more "fun" by the pandemic and present realities of the economy. I majored in English and REDACTED, and I'm in the beginning stages of trying to freelance. I don't know *exactly* where I want to go in terms of a career, but I know that I want writing to be a part of it. And, as someone who's into both food and travel, it appears we have a lot of common interests.
Since I have a fairly broad range of interests, it's often difficult for me to hone in on what to write. I don't know that it's an issue of inspiration (though I am prone to severe writer's block); more so, I'm trying to figure out what's valuable in my writing, both to myself and to others. So, to someone who also casts a wide net in their writing: how did you figure out what you were interested in writing about? Furthermore, how did you find a home for your writing?
Your current position really resonates with me: I graduated into a recession, and with the knowledge that I wanted to write but no idea how to make it a career path. I basically took whatever job I could get and applied for grad schools.
At 22, I had interest in travel writing but no idea how one actually became a travel writer, I liked food but thought there was no point in me writing about it as basically a vegetarian, and I was bad with money. Basically–whatever I gravitated toward, I didn't really know how to make money from writing about it, so I did other things for a living.
The topics I write about now overlap with the things I was interested in when I was in school, I've just figured out how to monetize those interests and narrowed down what I can speak on that resonates with people and feels *of use* if that makes sense.
While there are other topics I'll cover, I tend to circle back to LGBTQ, finance, travel and food because my interest and experience are deep and I have a lot to say. It's easier to write on a topic if you have both, but you can teach yourself if you have the interest and eventually you'll have expertise (this worked for me with finance). I tend to avoid topics that I don't like–things that bore me or require more research than I'm willing to put in based on the budget, or just that I don't think I could speak about with much authority (say, farming).
You said you have a lot of interests and don't quite know where to start. I'd recommend identifying your strengths and leaning into those if you can; it'll be easier to get started when you go with your natural interests and skills. This way you can slowly get traction in a few different areas while gradually becoming more familiar with the opportunities that exist to write on those topics. If you try to write about *everything* it can be overwhelming to absorb the knowledge needed to get traction.
If you're not sure what you're best at, be open to any sort of writing work that comes along. See how you feel about it. See how long it takes you. This will help you uncover what types of writing you're naturally skilled at and where you might need to stretch your skills. If you're not sure what resonates with people, it can help to put up a bunch of stuff somewhere like Medium, then track the statistics to see what posts get the most engagement. You'll get a sense pretty quick for what feels like a match and what doesn't. The trick is getting started.
Finding a home for writing is another topic. With both creative pieces and more journalistic stuff, it helps to become familiar with the options for where you could publish something and then develop a schedule for sending things out regularly (whether it's pitches to magazines or completed work to literary journals or posting to Medium). Here are a few places you can identify opportunities and markets, based on what you're looking for.
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I’ll be back in two weeks with tips on the business of writing but in the meantime, f you’ve got a question like this and want my take, send it in!