HOW TO WRITE AND MAKE MONEY!
Join us at 8pm on Monday night for a free teleclass on HOW TO WRITE AND MAKE MONEY with our Big Writing School STAR STUDDED PANEL:
- Oscar nominated screenwriter Shah Husain
- Features editor of Psychologies Magazine Anita Chaudhuri
- Top ten award winning blogger, author and entrepreneur Erica Douglas
- Awardwinning author of over 20 books, journalist and ‘inspirational’ business mum of the year Antonia Chitty
- Journalist and award-winning food and travel writer and correspondent for Monocle magazine, Michael Booth.
In Monday’s free teleclass at 8pm, we will be joined by a handful of our writing mentors from our Big Writing School and you will be free to ask them how do they do that?
- How do they make good money from writing?
- How can you make good money from writing?
- Where’s the best place to start?
- What’s a realistic estimate of how much you can earn from your writing in the first 6 months?
- When can you give up your day job?
- What must you NOT do?
- What are the secrets to getting published – and making money- fast?
- How can you make money from blogging?
On Monday night, you have chance to hang out with and ask the questions that you always wanted to ask but never dared.
The Big Writing School is a 6 months programme designed to give you the support, inspiration and ‘how-to’ from some of the best writing experts in the country on how to make money from writing – be it earning a few hundred pounds a year to fund a holiday by selling your ebook to write a best selling novel, getting a six figure deal and giving up the day job.
Join The Big Writing School if you wish to:
– Build your confidence about your writing.
– Create a daily discipline about getting your words on to the page.
– Create something rather than simply consume.
– Start building passive income versus exchanging time for money.
– Jumpstart a new purpose and meaning in your life as you write your book/blog.
– Engage in life versus be a spectactor.
– Create a concrete, specific writing outcome that makes you feel proud.
The Big Writing School programme starts on LEAP day 29th February 2012.
Make this your big leap year! Join us.
Make your writing dreams a reality in 2012.
http://www.suzygreaves.com/the-big-writing-school
Thank you for all your emails about The Big Writing School.
I’m noticing a theme – along the lines of this email from Nick – “I have a busy, demanding and unfulfilling job in marketing, and I would live to ditch it to do the e-books writing, for example. I believe I can write well – in fact, I’m sure this is my biggest asset. I would give anything to work at home too.
But: I’m paying a mortgage, I have big bills and I’m supporting my family, including my 5-year-old. I need a salary.
So, how can I give up my job to write for a living?”
Here’s my answer.
Most of us Big Leapers don’t have trust funds – and we have to work to support our families. So making a big leap, resigning and writing in our attic is not an option.
The trick is to start blogging/writing ebooks/build your business in your spare time (what spare time, I hear you say? But honestly, once you get started, it’s amazing what you can get done in one hour a day – even 20 minutes a day) and build your confidence in selling your ebook/articles/monetising your blog etc.
It’s baby steps every day versus one big leap that gets you from A to B. At some point, the leap point becomes a no-brainer. (you start earning £2,000, then £3,000, then £10,000 from your ebook) and it’s no longer a risk to give up the day job.
Your ‘inner pessimist’ will always encourage you to stay safe in your comfort zone and the way round this is to take small, incremental steps with no risk so your inner pessimist gets a bit bored of moaning and allows you to play with your idea.
I would suggest that you make a commitment to one small concrete goal in 3 months or 6 months – decide on writing an ebook, take a course on how to market it, write your novel – whatever – and then take the baby steps to make that happen. At the end of 3-6 months, look at what is working and what is not and tweak your strategy.
If you want to figure a way out to earn an income from writing, start by pitching a few article ideas to magazines? Or decide on the subject of your ebook and write the first three chapters?
If writing for cash is your goal – our big writing school may just have the inspiration you need.
http://www.suzygreaves.com/the-big-writing-school
If that feels too much of a leap at this point, then just come to our free teleclass on Monday night and meet some of the award-winning writing mentors and ask them HOW DO THEY MAKE MONEY FROM WRITING? You can sign up here!
I do love an Oscar!
I’m determined that this year I’m going to live my writing dreams. 2012 is a big year in many ways. It is a leap year, an Olympic year, the Diamond Jubilee year: it is going to be a big year for me as a writer and could be for you too.
Last week, over too many cups of tea and hot cross buns, Claire, my writing partner, and I got creative and banged out 45 pages of our new comedy. We met on a screenwriting course over 5 years ago in Cornwall when we bonded over our old commuter stories of falling asleep on a tube trains in London and dribbling on the shoulders of strangers. We had wanted to write together then but life got in the way and somehow 5 years had just disappeared into the ether. Our kids are growing up and we’re no longer on the coalface of toddlerdom so we couldn’t even use that as an excuse.
5 years on, our dream is still burning bright but we still have not written our script. We’re both highly energetic, driven people so why haven’t we done what we said we were going to do? Ok, we’re both working mums and we have faced various challenges in the last few years – from divorce to a new business start-up. But still, five years ago, we were so passionate, so committed. What happened?
One word summed it up. Fear.
Fear of not being good enough, fear of failure, fear of writing it and being rejected (was it better just to have a vague dream? To tell people you were writing a script but never finishing it?)
And then of course, there was the second cousin of fear, excuses. Not enough time, not enough money, not enough inspiration, blah, blah, blah. But the result of that fear has kept us trapped in a dark place – feeling dead, and world-weary at times, envious of other writers, so envious that your lips stick to your teeth when you try to smile, feeling cynical and anxious. (At this point, I think we got the wine out.)
After a week of writing together, we’re like two maniacs again – cackling, alive, laughing, feeling the joy of creating something rather than just consuming all the time. It’s better than any drug. Yes, writing something is great because it will earn us money, may even win an Oscar to display on top of the cistern BUT we realised this week that the real reason we do it is to engage in life, to throw ourselves into the creative flow and feel ALIVE – no matter what happens to the script.
I’ve published two books, and hundreds of articles in the national press and I know there is that nothing that comes near to the joy of getting the words from your head on to the page. In my coaching practice, I’m always banging on about creating an ‘evidence wall’ – real concrete evidence to prove that you’ve done it, that you’ve created something, or built something. There’s nothing like a published article, an award-winning blog or an Oscar winning screenplay to build your confidence!!
And as I’m discovering this week – it’s so great to do with people you like. When you’ve got someone to bounce your ideas off, who wants to read your stuff, who gives you great creative input or a funny line that makes you laugh out loud. So that’s why I’m excited about the next 6 months.
Claire and I are going to have the amazingly supportive Big Leap Writing group to belong to, our mentors to inspire us, a writing buddy to work with – and Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way to ramp our creativity to a joyously hysteria level. (oh yes, only hysteria will do!) The next 6 months are going to be fantastic! Yes, Claire and I will get our script finished, with our Oscar nominated script writer to mentor us, and we will live our dream. Actually, we’re no longer hanging around. We’re living it right now! I really hope you will join us.
Find out how YOU can be inspired to get your writing published when you visit
http://www.suzygreaves.com/the-big-writing-school
Suzy x
Even though we don’t start The Big Writing School until 29th February (yes! it’s a Leap year! is this the year YOU are going to realise your writing dreams?), it’s got me thinking about where does creativity come from? I watched this interesting talk on Ted with Amy Tan talking about her creative process and creating something from nothing.
Are you ready to create something from nothing?
Make your writing dreams happen in 2012.
The Big Writing School is now open.
http://www.suzygreaves.com/the-big-writing-school
My focus for 2012 is CREATIVITY. That’s why I have just launched The Big Writing School
I’ve put together a 6 month programme with the best writers, agents, bloggers and agents in the business – all on tap to advice and inspire us to get your words onto the page – and start to make money from your writing.
Some of you may want to give up the day job to become a full-time writer, others may simply want to earn a little bit of extra cash every month – from monetising your blog and writing an e-book or freelancing for magazines and newspapers.
Whatever your goal, The Big Writing School is designed to give you the inspiration, the tools and the specific step by step guide of exactly how to do that.
Our 6 months programme starts on the 29th February (LEAP day!). If you wish to be mentored, do sign up quickly as our mentors only have very limited availability. (I’ve already signed up with Shah – our Oscar nominated screenwriter to help me get my script finished!)
I hope you can join us.
http://www.suzygreaves.com/the-big-writing-school
Suzy x