Professional Writing Help for Your Business

Anyone who can craft a sentence can be a writer. Anyone who can formulate an idea on the page can write a blog post. Yet there are a number of differences between an amateur writer and a professional, not the least of which is what the title suggests: a professional is paid for the work. If you want to join the ranks of the pros, here is some professional writing help in the form of tips and advice.

The most succinct difference between an amateur and professional writer has little to do with talent. But there is an enormous difference in terms of output. Professional writers write all the time, even when they’re not at the computer. It’s their job. Amateurs tend to write piece by piece as the muse hits them. Here’s the first bit of professional writing help that’ll turn you into a pro: show up every day to write.

How You Approach the Craft

Professional artists take their craft seriously. Painters, sculptors and even interior decorators spend time learning how to do what they do. They experiment. They take chances. They learn from their mistakes. They go back at it again and again as continuing education. Amateurs, on the other hand, are weekend artists or occasional creatives. It’s not their life’s focus.

Writing is the same. A professional writer doesn’t — and really can’t afford to — wait for the muse to arrive. There are deadlines, and the next project is always waiting. Professionals work hard to do the absolute best they can do for every project. An amateur, in contrast, may spend an inordinate amount of time on one project “to get it right.”

It has to do with your approach to the craft. Do you focus on goals or process? A professional writer understands that each project has a trajectory: a beginning, a middle and an end. Once you’ve developed a process that works for you, you can employ it for each and every project, regardless of the inherent differences.

How You Approach Success

Even amateur writers can enjoy successes. But they tend to view success as the goal, not a milepost. Professional writers understand that each success is just a feather in an already full cap. You can’t be a successful professional writer without a string of successes. It’s not that each success means less to a professional, but that’s not the end goal.

The opposite of success is failure, and how you approach that outcome is just as important as how you deal with success. Do you give up after a failure or do you consider every failure just another step toward your evolution as a writer? If you want to become a pro, the professional writing help you need is all mental; in other words, approach writing as a job.

Professional Writing Help for Amateurs

Amateur writers are well-served to learn the differences between where they are and where they want to be. Some of these differences include:

• Amateurs often think they know everything they need to know. Professionals realize that they still have a lot to learn, and every project presents an opportunity.
• Amateurs too often take criticism personally. It stops them in their tracks and cuts them to the quick. Professionals, on the other hand, actively seek criticism and recognize the difference between negative and positive criticism. (They ignore the former and value the latter.)
• Amateurs want every word to be perfect, especially at the beginning of every project. Professionals know that it doesn’t matter where they start writing, since the initial beginning rarely makes it into the final cut.
• Finally, professionals listen, while amateurs boast. Yes, this is a generalization, but professionals know that listening is the key to delivering the best results.

If you’re an amateur and find that the road to professionalism is too long for you to bother with and you need professional writing help now, contact your friends at Ray Access.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.