Tip V: Be Versatile

Being a specialist doesn't mean being rigid and unable to write about any other topic or in any other style other than the niche you've carved for yourself.

As a professional writer, you have to specialize in something but be versatile enough to do a broad range of stories. There is, of course, a limit to how diverse a person can be as a writer. But as a general rule, it's a good idea to expose yourself to a handful of genres.

“If you have any talent as a writer, you have to be versatile. I can write a long story. I can write a short story, I can write a feature, I can write a hard news story. You have to be able to do that as a reporter. If you tend to write the same kind of story all the time, you're not really growing as a writer.”
– Russell Eshleman Jr, The Philadelphia Inquirer