So, You Want To Become A writer
Not sure if it’s a statement or a question? Well, there’s no question mark at the end so it must be a statement, possibly even rhetorical. Certainly, no one has ever asked me if I want to become a writer and it’s not something I consciously remember saying to myself.
Even now I’m not sure if that’s the path I want to trudge down, it looks kind of lonely and long.
Why has this surfaced from the depths of my inner quagmire? (Giggity giggity) I am subscribed to Evan Carmichael’s YouTube channel and for those of you who don’t know who that is, as I didn’t before a couple of months ago, he’s all about creating self-belief.
He puts out a ton of content and it has caused me to fill up numerous pages with hastily written notes, in the hope that some of them might translate into content worthy of sharing.
Each day I have two notifications sent through to my email inbox, both of them are part of a series of videos that will conclude when the total figure has reached 254, or 508 collectively.
The number isn’t arbitrary, apparently, according to a 2009 study, it can take between 18 and 254 days to fully form a habit, who knew?
Each daily clip is usually no more than a couple of minutes long, one will have something to do with ‘billionaires’ and the other is called ‘Writer’s Wisdom’. It’s the latter that piqued my interest the other day.
I do have a confession at this juncture, although I must have read well over a thousand books, I wouldn’t consider myself as ‘well-read’ in the broader spectrum.
This means that I haven’t heard of most of the authors that have words of wisdom. This was the case a few days ago when the message was imparted by Anne Rice, who I believe, would be widely recognised by many that have read ‘The Vampire Chronicles’.
Anyway, her opening line was,
“What makes a writer is writing, you have to write. Writing to a person like me and asking for advice is, in a way, a waste of time. You have to sit down and you have to write the book of your dreams”
So simple and yet it struck a chord, as is quite often the case when something is taken down to its most basic level, the fundamentals if you like.
Another one that gets bandied around is ‘just do it’ obviously bought to fore by Nike, though I am sure it was already a coined phrase before they picked it up and ran with it, no pun intended.
In all seriousness though, it really is a case of sitting down and just doing. I know the word ‘binary’ is used in a somewhat different fashion these days but it is a word I like to use when describing life in its simplest form, or at least when it comes down to making decisions.
Let’s face it, much of life is about the choices we make, moreover, we either do or we don’t, simples. Whatever the baggage associated with the various vicissitudes that encumber our journey, everything comes down to choice.
Don’t get me wrong, there are occasions when we are sat in between a rock and a hard place and whatever we do is going to be the wrong thing but for the most part, it comes down to us making a decision.
So, if you want to become a writer, just do it, if you don’t, don’t. Or, you can be like me and spend a couple of years writing a million or more words but still deny that you are a writer.
On second thoughts don’t be like me, embrace it and do as Anne Rice suggests, write the book of your dreams.
Have a good one.
Twack Romero