Aspiring writers: build a portfolio of work you can be proud of

As a writer, your calling card is your portfolio. Here’s how to build up a body of work that will get you noticed! Putting Pen to Paper If you want to be a writer, you need to write. All the time. Keep a journal, or write stories on your computer whenever you can. Improve your skills and work on your craft. On top of that, you need to get your voice heard. It’s a good idea to write articles for small magazines and student papers. Keep clippings of the articles you write in plastic folders. Getting Heard Online It helps to find an online platform for your work. A good way to share your talent is to keep a blog. This also helps you to keep track of your work, as you can link other things you’ve written online to it. There are many websites where you can share your writing and get feedback on it, such as Jottify, Wattpad, and Movellas. If you regularly use these sites, you can build up a body of work which is visible to a large amount of people. Experience Get all the writing work experience you can. Write for anyone and anything, about things which interest you. Getting some kind of work experience where you are able to write is always good. Contact magazines and offer to write a column or a one-off piece for free! Putting It All Together Display all of your achievements using LinkedIn. You could even make a website (a good site to use is Wix) to keep track of all your published work. Keep a personal list of all the links to your work, and make sure you back up any Word documents on a memory stick. It is also a good idea to print things out and display them in a physical portfolio so you have something to show to people if they want to take a look at your work. All that is required to build up a portfolio is a passion for writing, and perseverance. Keep writing, and get work published online or in paper form whenever you can. Keep records of your work as evidence of your skills, and eventually, you will have a portfolio which works for you, and gets you the job you’ve always wanted! Naomi Anderson Whittaker is a second year sociology student and aspiring writer who blogs for GKBC.

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