Myth # 1
Writers Are Born Not Made
I used to believe all writers were born, not made. That anyone who had written an interesting book must have exited the womb with that story in their head just waiting to be spit up. And that God would have endowed them with a preternatural gift for punctuation and spelling to support their talent.
Since He clearly skipped over me when it came to punctuation and spelling (along with other things which shall remain nameless), I decided that writing was not meant to be. It took me almost forty years to realize that writing is about more than comma placement.
What, if anything kept you from making the leap into writing?
I just had to realize that I could be a writer for a living. The thought didn't really cross my head until I was nearing the end of high school. I had been writing lots of stories for fun beforehand, but I hadn't thought until then that I could *be* a writer.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years later in college, I'm still working on making a dime off of my writing, but at least I've gotten tons more done.
Location and money.
ReplyDeleteI loved writing short stories and poetry when I was a teen, but I realized that being an author in Iceland is a constant struggle. It's not that terribly hard to get published, but the market is so small. There are around 300,000 Icelanders in the world, and only a fraction buys books. Imagine writing YA books for the tiny Icelandic market!
So I went and got my BS (no, it doesn't stand for Bull Sh%&) in Marketing and Administration. I ended up in an accounting-type job. I got into writing fan fiction in English and loved it. I realized at the age of 30 that money isn't everything and can't buy happiness or life fulfillment (I suppose if I was a billionaire, but this applies to us normal people), so I decided to go back to school, get a BA in English (I'm starting that now), and become a published author in America :)
Easy, right? ^.^
Hi Melissa,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and a coincidence too. My friend and I were discussing this topic on Friday when she told me she was attempting to write a book. I told her that if she could think she could write. I'm not saying that writing is easy, I'm just reiterating that you need to hone your skill like any other skill or hobby you practice. I hate punctuation too. That's my weakness but I figure, why worry when I have editors! right? ;)
Cheers!
what held me back? fear and doubt. I could never be that good or that lucky ;)
ReplyDeleteBut it's true. Writers are made and it takes hard work and dedication.
I would say fear of failure held me back. That, and a general lack of discipline. I'm much happier being a disciplined writer though, whether I fail or not.
ReplyDeleteI'm really great at talking myself out of things. But, you know, since I found you guys (blogs of wonderful writers) I've been leaping into my writing more freely and vigorously.
ReplyDeleteI think the support of the blogging community of writers is really an asset to any writer. It motivates you to do more and work harder. As long as you don't let it be a distraction. But I feel more connected and creative as a blogger than I ever was before I started doing this.
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