The habit is not easy to establish. Yes, I am one who preaches that you write daily, not when the mood strikes you. That’s for hobbyists. If that’s what you want to be, then fine. Just decide and quit straddling the fence.

Let’s say you’ve never written seriously, or for very long a time. Let’s start with this:

1) Find a way to journal daily. People write about themselves more easily than about any other topic. Do it longhand in some pretty leather thing or some binder with a striking design, or do it online at a site like https://dayoneapp.com/. Do it long enough to where you think about it as something you have to do before the day is through.

2) Write an essay about your life. Look at Chickensoup.com and the like, where you can take a remarkable snippet of your life and do a 1200-word, first person accounting of it. They have themes, so this makes you look at your life in terms of subjects and topics. It is good practice to write to a word count and a deadline. I have a friend who has published 30+ times in ChickenSoup books. (Plus, they pay $250.) So you can journal, but also convert a piece of your life into something marketable.

3) Once you are writing daily, look at markets in your wheelhouse. Your geography, genealogy, profession, education, social life, and the list goes on. Any market that taps something about you is worth the query. Don’t look at what they pay as intimidating. Pick the topic and query the editor. After all, you are querying about what you know, which makes you somewhat of an expert.

4) Once you publish a time or two, consider writing about other people’s experiences. Look at the same publications as yours, maybe writing about people with similar interests to yours.

5) Once you’ve published there, then venture into interviews of people for assorted publications. At this stage, you do not have to have to be an expert in the topic, but instead, you are an expert in writing. See what we did there?

6) From there, you consider writing about current events, intriguing professions, social justice, anything.

Take your time such that the writing starts coming natural to you. Start slow and work up. Freelancing is totally doable once writing becomes second nature and a daily habit.