Let’s welcome again Linnea Gradin as she shares with us “4 Suggestions for Making a Writing Portfolio.” Get pleasure from!
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A writing portfolio is a good software to assist construct your writer model, whether or not you’re establishing your self as a contract author otherwise you’re a author trying to purposefully show your collected works of fiction.
Greater than only a abstract of every little thing you’ve ever written, a well-designed and curated portfolio ought to function an introduction to who you might be as a author.
That can assist you put collectively a knock-out writing portfolio, listed here are 4 tricks to set you on the best path.
1. Set clear intentions
Usually, the purpose of a writing portfolio is to construction your oeuvre in an accessible approach and to inform the overarching story of who you might be as a author.
However past that, it’s about exhibiting what sort of author you might be and what sort of shopper you’re in search of.
For instance, you might be a contract author looking for freelance writing jobs within the tech area, or a ghostwriter attempting to achieve memoir tasks, and have two very totally different portfolios.
No matter your purpose is, earlier than you begin placing your portfolio collectively, attempt to image your excellent shopper and what language they converse, each when it comes to precise writing and visible expression.
Finally, every little thing in your portfolio ought to lead again to your solutions to those questions, making a pink thread that guides the portfolio customer on the journey you wish to take them on.
2. Be particular in your curation
After you have your pink thread and goal clearly in thoughts, it’s time to curate your portfolio.
At this stage, don’t be afraid to be selective. Placing every little thing you’ve ever written into your portfolio may be extremely counter-productive because it muddles the story you’re attempting to inform.
Moreover, this may invite all kinds of shoppers — together with ones you’re not excited to work with.
Responding to undesirable presents will take time away from writing, and accepting work you’re not enthusiastic about ought to be a final resort, so it’s in your personal greatest curiosity to be selective along with your portfolio.
Let’s say you’re a sci-fi writer who has been producing work in varied sub-genres however your newest items have all included feminist themes and now you need your portfolio and writer model to mirror that.
In that case, it’s best to lead with the tales the place that is most outstanding.
Relying on how in depth your backlist is, you’ll be able to select to go away some items that don’t help this picture of you as an writer out or you’ll be able to embody every little thing you’ve written, however in a descending order of significance.
Don’t be afraid of placing some individuals off with particular messaging; would you actually wish to work with the kind of one that could be offended by one thing that’s necessary to you within the first place?
You can too spotlight any piece of writing that has accomplished exceptionally nicely.
Maybe you’re an aspiring trend journalist who had a weblog submit on floral materials go viral.
Main with it will assist draw the best sort of shopper in and exhibits that you just’re each educated on the subject and know the place your strengths lie in your discipline of freelance writing.
Curating your portfolio on this approach invitations confidence, because it exhibits that you just put quite a lot of thought into every little thing you do.
3. Deal with useful design
When you’ll wish to contemplate our market area of interest on the subject of design, as a rule of thumb, easy, clear portfolios are often higher than overly stylized ones.
For a portfolio, whereas the design is necessary, it mustn’t overshadow your writing, so take into consideration how one can make the design useful reasonably than purely ornamental.
When you’re internet hosting your portfolio on-line, you’ll be able to select pre-made web sites made for portfolios, equivalent to MuchRack or Clippings.me, which supply some easy however efficient design choices.
You can too get extra concerned and decide a web site host equivalent to Squarespace and even rent a web site designer.
4. Bear in mind it’s not likely about you
As a final piece of recommendation, whereas your portfolio is all about highlighting your previous work, it’s in reality extra concerning the shopper than it’s about you.
What abilities and companies are you able to provide to your shopper?
I’m not saying to vary your self to please others, however it may be simpler to see your self objectively and what qualities you possess {that a} future shopper or reader would wish to find out about once you put the concentrate on the shopper as a substitute of your self.
As a bonus, it may make it easier to recover from any cringe you may really feel about self-promotion.
And there you will have it. Whether or not you’re attempting to flip your pastime right into a facet hustle otherwise you’re placing extra acutely aware effort into your writer branding, a well-curated portfolio may also help you attain the kind of shoppers and readers you’d love to put in writing for. Good luck!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linnea Gradin writes about writing and publishing over at Reedsy — a web site that connects authors with freelancing publishing professionals and provides recommendation on every little thing writing and (self)publishing-related from the best way to design a e-book cowl to the place to seek out the perfect on-line inventive writing courses.