Guest Blogger: Becoming Carrie Bradshaw

When Carrie said, “I’m looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other love,” on Sex and the City, she could have been talking about her career. Frankly, I already have career-love. I’m a consumer affairs mediator. My job combines shopping, helping people and the occasional entertaining crazy. Bliss.

And yet.

It’s not my dream. Or it’s only part of it. My childhood hobbies included reading fashion magazines and creating puzzle, mystery and Barbie-space-adventure-game books (don’t ask). Also writing my own dot matrix-printed magazine called “The All-round Fun Club”. Let us never speak of it again.

I wanted to be a writer. I want to be a writer. Like Carrie Bradshaw. Specifically, I want to write freelance magazine articles and a non-fiction book.

Cautious by nature, I decided to write part-time and not quit my comforting-like-a-blanky day job (at least, not yet). Freelance writing is not a stiletto-step to be taken lightly.

In considering a career like Carrie’s, I’ve trialled the steps the experts recommend and sorted the flawed from the fabulous. Whether dipping your peep-toe in or aiming to high-kick the door down, here’s the best way to navigate the freelance dance:

• Read Everything: Haunt your town’s biggest bookstore and Amazon’s book tion.
  Your aim: To discover what makes books bestsellers, what designs and titles catch your eye on the shelf, the genres you want to write and what you’d do differently to carve out your niche.
• Read Books on Writing: Consulting a spread of books will indicate what is a matter of opinion and what is a non-negotiable rule. Your aim: Learning how to write articles, books, query letters and book proposals, along with marketing tips, from the masters.
• Start Writing: (Okay, slightly obvious!) Decide which time(s) of day you can devote to writing and get started. Begin with small pieces of writing and work your way up.
  Your aim: Give yourself a manageable goal, like 1,000 words per day each weekday, and soon you will have a portfolio of work.
• Find Other Writers: Join the writers’ centre in you city or state, writers’ groups, classes and online forums.
  Your aim: Sharing you frustrations, constructive criticism and information with other aspiring authors helps you network, make friends and improve your craft.
• Release Your Words Into the World: Once your work is polished to patent leather shininess, submit it for publication, and repeat.
  Your aim: The more chances you give others to recognise your Tiffany-cut brilliance, the sooner you’ll succeed.