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Chidindu Mmadu-Okoli: 8 Tools Every Freelance Writer Needs to Have

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Once you step out to acknowledge yourself as a writer, the world will show up too. A lot of people will want to work with you.

You should have decided what niche is best for you, or the areas you feel you can handle. There are times when you have so much to do that you have no other option than to use tools that will make work faster and convenient for you.

A freelance content creator should have the following the following in their toolbox:

A Dictionary or Thesaurus
An offline/online dictionary helps you look through certain words, synonyms, antonyms, etc. This saves you the time of assuming that you are right, and free of mistakes. Writers must be humble enough to acknowledge that they don’t know everything. A writer must seek to get better in his/her craft.

A Note-Taking App
Microsoft Word is a word processing application that writers should have; others include Evernote and Google Doc. They come with a lot of features that are user-friendly and will enable writers to take down certain points as they go about their normal duties.
Evernote allows you to even capture voice recordings and transcribe them to text, as you speak.

A Website/Social Media Handle
A serious writer should have a website/blog and/or social media handles. How do you convince people that you write wonderful pieces, when they have not seen your work somewhere or anywhere? The easiest thing to do is to send them the link(s) to the things that you have done for yourself or for others.
Websites should also bear compelling bio or about-me pages. It is also necessary that writers choose social media platforms that are necessary for their kind of market.

Automation and Scheduling Apps
What happens when you have so much to do in a day that you almost forget other writing projects for the week, month or year? Automaion and scheduling comes to your rescue, friend. With applications like Hootsuite, Crowdfire, Tweetdeck, Postcron, Buffer, Social Pilot, Sprout social, Zapier on your desktop or mobile device, you can schedule posts to appear on your timeline, on the days you will not be available online.

Editing Apps
It is one thing to write, it is quite another to write a piece that your reader will always talk about. So what if your pieces are filled with grammatical errors and you cannot afford an editor for heavy editing? Hemmingway, Grammarly, After The Deadline, Autocrit, Correct English, Editminion, Slick Write, Smart Edit, Word Rake are editing tools that writers should explore. I use the free version of Grammarly; it comes with its plug-in for the MS Word software. Once installed, you can enable it on MS Word and have it correct your pieces as you type. The advanced version of Grammarly has a plagiarism detector that enables a writer crete unique and original work.

Image Library
It is no news that most people appreciate online articles with pictorial representation. You are writer, but should a writer become a photographer too?

Two options exist for a content creator:
• Create your images
• Use free images on the internet

The first option allows you make use of tools like Corel Draw, MS Publisher or Canva.
The second option allows you to use free images from piaxabay.com, unsplash.com as well as so many other sites that exist for free images.

Community Engagement
A tree cannot make a forest. No man is an island. So, to grow and to keep growing writers, should join writing communities online/offline that would challwnge them to et better in their crafts

Offline communities already exist. The one I know are Enugu and Abuja literary socities. Online communities abound on facebook: Nigerian Writers, Writers Unite, Story Strategists’ Nexus (my community), Pen and Ink Masters, Creative Freelance Writerz, etc. Other online forums include Writers Bereau, The Write Life, etc.

Business Cards
Serious creative writers should show the world that they in for business. It is not enough to have social media profiles that speak for you; have something to leave behind when you do the word of mouth marketing. When you make new friends, attend engagements, offer someone a business card and let them see that you are ready and available to work with them.

Photo Credit: Artem Varnitsin | Dreamstime.com

Chidindu Mmadu-Okoli is a writer, author, digital content strategist and medical laboratory scientist. She writes the most persuasive and purposeful content for health and wellness brands/experts. Her circles of influence are healthcare, entrepreneurship, leadership, personal development and storytelling (HELPS). Chidindu has also been featured on TEDx Abayi, She Leads Africa, Thrive Global, Startup Anambra and Medical World Nigeria. Feel free to read her stories https://medium.com/@iamchidindu. Hook up with her on Instagram, Medium Twitter and Facebook with @iamchidindu; contact her via [email protected].

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