If you’ve been following my blog since the beginning, you likely already know that I’ve been a business content writer since 2014. You may also remember that my background is in creative writing (which led me to my rants about critique groups). These two types of writing don’t really have much in common, so what led me to jump from one to the other, and how do you know which type of writing you should do if you are just starting out? This is a very exciting bunch of questions, so let’s jump in.

Differentiating between the different types of writing

While this is not an exhaustive list, let’s dive into the different types of professional writing that you hear about most, using my own experience as a freelance writer as a central point:

• Content writing: Writing long-form content for blogs or websites, with the main purpose of educating and entertaining readers and followers.

• Copywriting: Creating varying types of copy for websites that are designed to push the brand or company and promote more followers and sales.

• Creative writing: An open-ended type of writing that tends to fall into the genre of prose or poetry.

• Book writing: This is typically long-form content (10,000+ words minimum), and the intent is to do a “deep dive” into a central topic for explanatory purposes.

As mentioned, these are solely the options that I can speak to professionally. There are many other kinds of professional writing, including technical writing, script writing, social media writing, and more.

Understanding what to focus on as a professional writer

So, with that list of choices, how do you possibly determine what is best for you as a professional writer? These are the main points that I’ve used to help choose and adjust my selections over the years:

• What types of writing do I hate least?: While some may disagree with me on this, it makes sense to work with a type of writing that you don’t hate. You may as well spend your day working at something you love.

• What can I see myself spending hours working on?: Some types of writing may feel easier to immerse yourself in than others. Do you love spending hours on a single line of copy? Do you prefer spending your time writing long paragraphs? Think seriously about this part!

• What gives me the best ROI?: I’m thinking more along the lines of financially with this question, but you can absolutely work in things like sense of accomplishment, emotional fulfilment, and more.

As you can likely guess, there may be multiple responses to these questions, and that’s okay. If you see one or two answers popping up most often in each section, then you know that this is a type of writing you can pursue.

What I love most is that you can also adjust and change these as you get into professional writing and see how it works out in your business model. The freedom and flexibility of freelance writing are huge benefits to those starting out, especially.

Did this line up with what you were thinking? Why or why not?