By Hailey Bishop, Currier Times Correspondent//

Breaking into the freelance writing industry can be intimidating when starting out your career as a writer. Ultimately, when creating, your ideas and inspiration behind a topic are all up to you. As a freelance writer myself, I have learned a few tips and tricks on how to succeed in the business of creation, making your work the best that it can possibly be for publication. Listed below are my personal tips and tricks within the world of writing.

• Establish your niche – Find something in society you excel at and use it as a personal profession for yourself. Your passion in your personal project will prove a powerful statement to your audience. Establishing your niche will work as a navigating tool throughout your career as a freelancer.

• Visualize Your Vision – Visualizing your vision for yourself and your business is essential to starting your side hustle. Visualization provides a better visual for what you imagine your ideas to be long-term/for the future.

• Network! Network! Network! – Networking within the industry is essential when starting a new creative career. Over the past year LinkedIn has become my new BFF for finding new business connections and greater opportunities for myself online. You never really know where a connection can lead until you pursue it.

• Start Your Side Hustle – Starting your side hustle serves a greater purpose for the beginning of your journey as a writer. Starting the process is the hardest part. In the end this will be the most rewarding to see how far you’ve come throughout the entire process.

• Work on Framing Your Image As a Writer – Finding and framing your image as a freelancer is fundamental in finding a functioning position writing for a company. Frame your image to be what you see yourself as in the industry for the long-haul. This will become a reflection of your reputation as a writer going forward.

• Begin Your Business Ventures -Beginning your business ventures and never looking back is one of the most courageous things a person can do when just starting out in the industry. Beginning a business in freelance writing can later become a baseline for where you want your business to take you.

• ALWAYS HAVE CONFIDENCE! – Confidence will carry you through every up and down, twist and turn of your journey. With any amount of confidence you can be sure to conquer the world wearing a bright smile to match.

Breaking into the industry six years ago at 15 was the scariest, yet most rewarding risk I have ever taken thus far in my life. Still today, I would say that it was one of the best decisions I have made. I know myself creatively as a person, and I knew at that age I had a dream to share with the world, but in words. This dream has carried me through the darkest roads and brightest pathways of my life, while still remaining my passion project to this day.

At 21, my dreams of becoming a freelancer have come true! Today I am working for various magazine publications in the Boston and New York area, while becoming a client to Gal Media Group in Los Angeles to further my career as a creator.