The Path of Becoming a Writer
It’s interesting for me to look back at my life from the time I first fell in love with writing to the moment I began my career as a writer.
Like many writers, I fell in love with writing at a young age. I remember the moment clearly. I was in second grade and we were given a writing prompt. One student picked a place, another picked a person, and the last picked an object. We all had to include those three things in our story, but aside from that, we could write whatever we wanted.
I’m sure I’ve told this story before, because I’ve thought about it so many times over the years. It seems simple to fall in love with something at such a young age and then eventually finding yourself doing it as a career. But, as it turns out, it wasn’t all that simple for me. About the same time I fell in love with writing, I also learned that it was more of a hobby and not something you do as a job when you get older. Thinking of it as a hobby instead of a career derailed me from pursuing it straight on, but as I’ve come to learn, sometimes those detours are not as far off the path as they originally appear.
So I tucked away my love of writing, filing it under things I enjoy doing, while I searched for some other career to pursue.
As I went through elementary, junior high, high school, and then college, writing became something I did with ease and aided my propensity to procrastinate.
I remember a particular project in high school where we had to pick three assignments from a list of items to complete within two months. Easy enough. Plenty of time. I don’t remember the first two items I picked from the list, but I remember the twelve-page short story I wrote the night before all three assignments were due.
I don’t mean to imply I was a slacker in school. Many nights I was up until 10 or 11 finishing my homework as I took several AP and college-level classes in high school. But I’m certain I could have finished the story sometime earlier in that two-month period. And I loved writing fiction, so I didn’t dread the assignment. My guess is that I knew the assignment would be easy for me to complete and so I kept pushing it off.
I received an A on that short story, which led me to believe I worked well under pressure. Boy, was I relieved when I finally realized that I work well when not under pressure too, and it’s a lot less stressful. Although that revelation didn’t come to me until my final semester in college.
I had another experience in college that is vivid in my memory. This one involved a research paper. I’d spent a lot of time researching and preparing to write my paper over the course of a month. But again, I didn’t start writing the paper until the night before it was due. I turned out 20 pages that night and was rewarded with another A.
During this time, while I loved writing fiction whenever it was assigned, it wasn’t a focus. I was often surprised when my friends talked about struggling with writing papers. I thought that sort of thing was easy for everyone. And while the knack of writing made my life easier when it came to writing papers and answering essays, the idea of writing fiction was postponed to occur at some later date. I thought I’d write novels someday, at night, after I finished the work that would pay the bills. Oddly enough, at that time, my love of science held my attention, and medicine looked like the career path I’d follow. To this day, I’m uncertain of how I thought I’d be a doctor during the day and have enough time and energy to write at night.
Halfway through college, I realized that writing was what I truly wanted to pursue, and so I switched to journalism, even though that wasn’t quite the writing I wanted to do. I figured it was a type of writing I could get paid for while I wrote novels in my spare time.
The idea of writing “someday” became a common theme in my life, but the more responsibilities I took on as an adult, the further someday appeared, and the further away from writing my career path led.
At least, that’s how it felt. I’ve been writing full time for five years now, and it’s only been the last year that I’ve realized that the paths I thought were leading me away from my dream were actually giving the experience and tools that are now invaluable to me as a writer.
So, now I enjoy looking back at the path I’ve taken, knowing I found my way to writing and having the hindsight to see that the road was always leading right here, even during those times when it felt like it was getting further away.
What has your writing journey looked like? Are there paths you followed that felt like they were unrelated to writing that have helped you as a writer?
That’s so awesome you’ve been able to write full-time 🙂 I’m hoping soon that I’ll be able to realize my dream of being a writer. It’s a hard road with little pay off, but we have to keep working towards our goals.
Thank you! I think you are already there. You’ve been writing and editing your stories, growing your craft, and you have many people who have read your work.
I may have mentioned my amazing writing group a few times before, but the other day one of the women in my group who used to be an English teacher used to tell her students that when they shared their stories with the class, they were published. The mere act of writing something and sharing it is what most writers are working toward, and they’d done the work.
She’s been published in so many journals that if I knew the total number I’d probably be shocked. Her drive to write and submit work is awe-inspiring, but she has no ego attached to what is accepted or how many people read it.
Her view of writing and what it means to be a writer is much healthier than my own and although I still have some work to do to reach her calm about writing, I try to soak in her wisdom.
And to think she’s just one member of my group, and they are all equally brilliant!
Keep up the writing! It’s a struggle, but I hope one day we all reach the point where we’re not consumed with what we have yet to achieve in order to feel worthy of being called writers. I think if I don’t shift that thinking, I may miss most, if not all, of my writing career.
Some of the oddest conversations I have involve an old High School friend reminding me about my High School writing passion. Through studying physics and philosophy, I had forgotten about much of my earlier writing pursuits, until friends tell me about it later. The seeds are everywhere, and were never realized until I tried to make a graphic novel, and decided that I didn’t have time for all the artwork. I turned to novels and storytelling at that point.
As far as content thought, I have a lot of experience to draw on from a thick history and working in several different areas. It makes some things much easier to write about, and having been there can add depth to characters in my stories.
Great post, Mandie!
That’s very interesting. I like how the seeds were there. Sometimes that’s how I feel about writing too. The signs were always there, but it took me quite a while to realize writing wasn’t simply an interest of mine, it really was a lifelong passion. Kind of always right in front of me, but I didn’t realize how important it was to me.
I have memories of times in my life when I knew how much I loved writing, and memories of periods where it fell off my radar. Looking back now though, it really feels like all roads were always leading to writing.
Thanks for sharing a little bit about your journey. I’ve had the pleasure of reading snippets of your journey through the time we’ve known each other, and I always find it very intriguing.
I didn’t fall in love with writing until very late… I was past fifty and write on my spare time (probably felt that work became less interesting)… at least I know the what I will do the day I retire 🙂
I like this story, Björn. I find it fascinating how many people are drawn to writing, and at different stages of their lives, and for different reasons. When I talk about writing, I find a surprising number of people who have considered or always wanted to write a book. I try to encourage them to do it. And hopefully, some of them at least, will try it sometime.
I learned to play guitar and began writing songs about age 12. I wrote songs and poetry until age 50, then I discovered Patrick McManus inside the back cover of Field & Stream. I thought if he could get paid for writing silly stories maybe I could too. So far, I haven’t made much money or sold many books, but I’ve sure had a good time and met dozens of wonderful people through blogging and attending writers conferences.
My plan was to write two hours a day when I retired. It hasn’t worked out that way due to other chores and hobbies, but still I get in a few hours a week and am making progress on my third book.
That is awesome that you’re working on your third book! I also like how your writing changed direction later in your life. I heard this very good advice several years ago about choosing a genre and sticking to it. It’s easier to market to a specific audience that way and grow an audience. As much as I’ve tried, I find what I write expands. My interests are too vast, and my writing whims take me in many different directions, and I also always feel like I’m learning something from the different genres I dabble in. I might have to write a post about that and call it “The Greatest Writing Advice I Never Follow.”