To be a writer...

It may sound odd, but when I embarked on the Writers Bureau course a good few years back, I had no idea what being published really entailed. I honestly thought in my naivety that you could write what the hell you liked and someone would be up for publishing it. Oh, how wrong I was! Writing is a craft like any skill and the world of publishing is a tricky and complicated business. So, I was very quickly going to have to learn how to do it well and how to do it right to even have a smidge of a chance.
First and foremost, throw the ego out the window and write the masterpiece in your spare time. The money is going to come from the hours you spend on targeted articles and other freelance work.
Improve your acceptance rate by researching the markets you want to write for.
Hone your writing skills so the style you use and the content you produce is suitable.
Then, spend the time to review and revise.
It goes without saying - be reliable and professional. The majority of freelance work is recommendation by word of mouth.
Follow guidelines when submitting. There are times to be maverick, but this is not one of them.
Keep your options open.
And finally, be prepared to work and work and work - sometimes at the most unsociable of hours!
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That being said, you must ALWAYS stay true to yourself. As I tweeted earlier this week: "There's a lot of (hash tag)writing advice out there but I believe it's mostly about instinct. Based on that, I'll either win or fail (hash tag)thatisall."