For any type of writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, you must find your idea. What is your idea? What is your best idea? Keep an idea notebook and write down your best writing ideas. Select an idea first.
For writing, it's not just enough to have an idea. There are many ideas. How do you select a best ideas? Review your ideas. Which of these ideas is your best idea? And which idea allows you to do your best writing?
Suppose you have a couple of best ideas--writing about advertising and marketing and writing about jewelry? Then, you which of these "best ideas" allows you to also do your best writing? If jewelry, then write about jewelry. If advertising and marketing, then write about advertising and marketing.
Write Based Upon Your Best Idea
Next you must write based upon this best idea. Also, it should be an idea worthy of you as a writer. Sometimes writers have very good ideas, but those ideas are not truly their best ideas and truly worthy of them.
Of course, if you are writing on commission or writing for a client, then you can write based upon ideas that the client is interested in, like writing business books. Let's say you prefer writing about jewelry, but your client wants an advertising and marketing article, then write the advertising and marketing article according to your clients commission.
If you have client who wants you to write business books, and you're a professional writer, then you can certainly write business books for that client. However, it's best to write not in your name, since these are client-based books, but in the name of your company or the client's company. Since you are not writing these business books for yourself, but for another person. You can also write in a pen name when writing books on commission. Sometimes poets and screenplay writers write on commission in their names, but usually it's best to write in a pen name or company, since often writers don't want to identify their own names with this commissioned subject.
As for film commissions, for example. If you're commissioned to write a film on a certain subject, then, you don't mind writing the film, but you're not necessarily interested in having your "good name" on that type of movie. Therefore, you can agree to write the film in a pen name and/or in your company name. That's not the type of movie that you would ordinarily write, nor the subject, nor do you want your "good name" connected to that movie. But you are a professional writer, and of course, you can write a movie on almost any subject matter.
That's the same if you are a composer and people want you to compose music for a film. You have to decide if you want your "good name" connected to that film project, not just for the commission. Of course if you're a professional composer, you can compose music for almost any type of movie. Do you want that movie project or not?
However, after you select the idea, then you write the essay or the short story or the film.
Evaluate What You Have Written
Once you write, then you must evaluate what you have written. Is your writing any good? How can you make what you have written better? In addition to reading and rereading the work yourself, you can also ask others, such as editors and other readers, including professional readers to read your works and help you to decide if what you are writing is any good. Again, is the writing worthy of you and the type of person that you are--not just that others like or don't like the work.
Sometimes writers write works that others like but those works are not really worthy of them as writers. They can either write better than that and/or they prefer to write about different subjects that maybe their audience is not interested in. Then they must find a different audience. If you're a scholarly type for example, and you're asked to write for tabloids--should you write for tabloids? Certainly you can do that type of writing just like you write scholarly writing. Again, many professional writers are able to write many different types of genres and many different types of writing.
But do you want to write tabloid journalism and if so, do you want your "good name" on this type of writing? Maybe scholarly writing doesn't pay any money, but if you're truly a scholar, then you should perhaps do scholarly writing and the tabloid writing in a pen name or a company name. Even if editors of the tabloid press are telling you this is great writing, you must decide if it's great writing and if it's the type of writing that you truly want to do. Perhaps you prefer scholarly writing, but you write better tabloid journalism, then you can write tabloid journalism. But continue to read scholarly works,
continue to improve your scholarship and your scholarly writing if that is truly you. In addition, sometimes people prefer a type of writing that others are good at but they are not. Continue to read the type of writing that you are truly interested in, continue to improve your writing, and continue to learn about your favorite type of writing.
Review Your Work Again
Once you write and evaluate, then review your work again, polish your writing, check for spelling and grammar and again review style and content.
After you review and polish your writing, then submit it for publication to a market you think will publish your type of writing.
If the editors accept the writing that's very good, but if the editors reject the writing, review the reasons for the rejection. Do you agree or disagree? If you agree, then revise and resubmit to the same market and/or to a different market.
Find a Market that Regularly Publishes Your Work
However, you need to find a market that regularly publishes your work, along with the new markets that you are trying to write for. The market that regularly publishes your works gives you some consistency as a writer, while you research and try to find new markets.
If you can not find an market that regularly publishes your work, you can start your own blog and you can also self publish. Continue to write, review, evaluate, edit your writing. Continue to read the best writers. Continue to research new market and submit your writing. Publish your best writing.
