By Michele Brannon-Hamilton

Keywords: writing samples, freelance writer

When you begin a writing career, it's often hard to showcase your skills because you probably have no samples to show. However, it's important to create a portfolio and add writing samples to your resume. So what's a freelance writer to do? It's similar to the "What came first: the chicken or the egg?" argument. How do you get writing samples if you don't have a writing job, and how do you get a writing job if you don't have writing samples?

Take a good look at what you have written in the past. Writing samples don't have to be paid writing samples. They can include anything you have written. Perhaps you've written newsletters for your child's preschool or contributed an article to the company Web site. These are great samples that show you can write interesting information for a targeted audience. Perhaps you've created a brochure for your church or a flyer for your local community center. These writing samples show your creativity so include them, too.

Don't worry if you don't have any samples at all. You can create some. Take a look at essays, newsletters and articles that you like. Now create your own. You just want to show that you are a capable freelance writer. It doesn't matter that you haven't sold any articles yet. An unpublished article shows the editor the same skills as a published one.

When you are ready to create some paid writing samples, take a look at your local newspaper. Start small and pitch an idea to an editor. Try your local community news outlets as well. Once you have a few small samples, you can try a larger magazine or newspaper.

Just remember, you don't need a great portfolio to get started with your writing career. Gather together a few writing samples and create your own writing portfolio. Before you know it, you'll have so many writing samples, you won't know which ones to include.

Michele Brannon-Hamilton has been a freelance writer for over 10 years during which time she's had articles published in Canada, England and the United States. Her specialties include education, computers and how-to articles. She currently writes educational curriculum, freelances for Writers Research Group and contributes regularly to American teen magazine Gibberless.com. Michele has an Honors B.A. in Sociology from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and currently teaches computer classes at a local school.

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