So your desire is to Be a Writer, so now What? 2/18/2005 8:48:56 PM
Okay, so you've decided for whatever reason that you really are, want to be, have been called to be a writer. Where do you go from that decision?
My first suggestion is to decide if you're for real or is this just a hobby. If it's a hobby that you could care less if anyone else reads, then you can go about it anyway you like. If, however, you believe this is something you'd like to do for a living, then decide if it's something you would do for free even if you never got paid.
But wait a minute, you're saying. You want to do this for a living. If you do it for free, how is that living? That's how you know when something is running through your veins to do. We all may have been guilty of doing something because we know we're going to get paid. If we don't get paid, we probably won't stay there very long. But a writer HAS to write! A writer can not NOT write. One indication that you're committed (I hate that word sometimes because it does have somewhat a double meaning ;-). Anyway, one way to know you're committed, which is what you must be to walk this journey to writinghood effectively, is to know upfront that it might be some time before the payoff comes from the work you will have to put in.
Search yourself. I say: don't start the journey if you haven't made it up in your mind you're going to see it all the way to the end. Yes, you may have to adjust many things about yourself and your writing to get there. But you must know before you even start: I WILL GET THERE! No matter what.
Next time, I'll go into more things in the journey. That's if you've decided to travel with me.
More Blogs by Vanessa Davis Griggs • The rules to writing - Tuesday, February 22, 2005 • So your desire is to Be a Writer, so now What? - Friday, February 18, 2005
