I once said I didn't want to be a health writer...

When I started freelance writing way back in 2008, I got a client writing health-related blog posts and newsletter articles.  It was a really good starter gig, but when I took it, I told myself I wasn't going to let myself get locked in to writing on health-related topics for my career. It wasn't something I had a passion for. It was just a starting place.

Now, as I'm looking ahead to changes in my career, my target market will be small to mid-size holistic health and wellness organizations.

I know, right?

Here's the thing. Health-related writing gave me a start. And as I started focusing more on my own health--from a holistic perspective--I developed a passion for the field. And now it's my career path.

Freelancers are told to find a niche. It helps narrow the field of potential clients, and allows writers to use their expertise to create the best quality writing they can.

When I started writing, I didn't want health-related writing to be my niche. But I used it as a foundation, and the more I wrote about it, the more passionate I became about the topics. I found myself drawn to health-related topics, even narrowing that to holistic health and wellness-related topics. Now I can't imagine writing about anything else.

I'm excited about what is coming next year as I focus on my target market in my niche. 2015 is going to be a good year, and my own health journey is going to get to be a major part of it.

Why it's important to stretch yourself....

I love being a writer. Really really. And while I have spent the last four years as a full time freelance writer, I'm exploring an amazing opportunity that would shift my career in a different (and awesome) direction.

It's different from what I've been doing, but it's something I have experience with. It really is a wonderful career opportunity, and it's the kind of thing that I've been working toward for the past four years. So depending on what happens this and next week, I could very well be headed in a new, amazing career direction, and I couldn't be happier.

So all that was a prelude to the point of this post: it's important to stretch yourself.

When I started out in freelancing, I took a wide variety of work. My first client was in the health/nutrition realm, but after that I found myself writing in the education field (which I still actively do). But I've also written how-to articles on DIY, recycling, and home improvement projects. I've written articles about mixed martial arts gear. As I gained experience and confidence, I sort of honed in on areas of clients, which led me to writing about a lot of health/nutrition/fitness (especially holistic health) and education topics. I enjoy them, and am confident enough in those areas to write more quickly than in other areas. But I have still always tried to push myself to write in areas I'm slightly less comfortable to expand my knowledge base and skills. It sort of keeps me on my toes.

I really believe that because I stepped outside of my comfort zone in some of my writing projects, I set myself up perfectly for this possible career opportunity.

When you push yourself as a writer, you show clients you can and want to take on new challenges. If you have a client that likes your writing skills and style, but you have no experience in the field, showing that you continue to stretch and push could be what convinces the client that you can, in fact, do what they need you to do in order to provide the best writing possible.

It's a good thing to have a niche. You need an area in which you're comfortable writing and can showcase your expertise. But neither should you let a niche become a rut. Staying in that niche can become a comfort zone. And if you're not willing to step out of it, you could lose out on some wonderful opportunities and relationships with great clients.

Great things can happen when you step outside your comfort zone and try something new. And it could propel your writing career in a different direction, but that direction could be just what your career needs.

The freedom of knowing your niche

The process of The Artist's Way has been a very good one for me.  I won't say I've had thunder and lightning changes the way others do, but I have felt myself changing in quieter ways.  My spirituality and creativity are linked more closely, my faith is strengthened, and my writing life has been...clarified...to me.  I know what I'm going to write now.

I don't know that my writing path has a genre name the way some writers can declare Mystery or Young Adult or Speculative Fiction.  But it's what I'm going to write.  Let me explain my plan for the coffee house book.  (And if you steal my idea, I will hunt you down.  Fair warning.)

The coffee house book is a collection of vignettes that are threaded together by the owner of the coffee house and the coffee house itself.  Each vignette will reveal something about the owner, as well as something about the coffee house.

This is how I decided to set up the coffee house book some time ago, and it's what I've been working toward.  But an amazing, wonderful, scary thing happened this past week.  I got about seven additional project ideas that seem to go along with how I've set up the coffee house book.  (Looks like I know what I'm writing for the next seven years or so.)

When I first started getting the ideas, I was afraid it was my brain's attempt to sidetrack me from the coffee house book.  But something else strange happened.  As I was getting these ideas (and they were half-developing in my head), I was excited about them, but I didn't want to stop my current projects to jump into one of these new ones.  Instead, I wanted to finish the coffee house book so I could start the next one.

The ideas came because this is the way I'm supposed to be writing.  This is my niche.  And once I discovered it, my creativity opened up in the form of these ideas, and the progress I'm making on the coffee house book!

It's a wonderfully freeing feeling to know you're on the right path.



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Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net