When I first started writing, fiction was all I knew. I was actually intimidated by non-fiction, because I didn't think I had lived an interesting life enough to be "in the know" with anything but my hobby of consuming fiction novels as fast as I could read them and respond with plot ideas of my own. Poetry was my segue into a more introspective form of writing, and it took being challenged by my youth group leader at church to submit an essay about my Christian experience at school to change my thinking. Not only did my essay get picked up as what became my first article in-print for a magazine (Insight Magazine, 1999), but it led to a whole slew of devotional content which I wrote for several of the magazine's sister publications, all housed under the umbrella of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Shortly thereafter, I landed my first online gig ghost-writing for a website, and went on to do a couple more, with the most prominent being for Petopia, now Petco.com. With the online realm a notch in my belt, I became a viable candidate for a whole new world of clients needing website content. Some paid well, others merely pennies on the dollar. I also had my share of freebies in which I wrote small blocks of content for newsletters, fliers, and office files on an as-needed basis.
But as the Internet gained in popularity, so did the nature of companies needing content. And thus, I branched out to become a contributing writer for several organizations' websites, many of which for whom I still write. Collectively, they all served to my benefit, in that a few readers from those sites contacted me for projects.
Over the years, one thing led to another, and I was asked to return to fiction - at which point I hadn't been in the habit of practicing in years! Never did I dream that I'd have the problem of being rusty at it, either! In what took a painful two years to write, I dared myself and completed the groundwork for my first published novel, and aimed a whole new level of understanding of the craft that is my gift as much as it is my curse.
I've learned that to be any sort of writer, you often have to be miserable, isolated, and yet at the same time, surrounded by life and current events, in order to formulate the right words and put those thoughts to paper (or computer). I've made a lot of interesting new friends, and developed new hobbies and passions along the way. Working from both sides of the writing spectrum, I finally realized how much they go hand-in-hand, and the stories I write are interconnected with my blogs and articles.
I challenge anyone who calls himself or herself a writer to dig deep and write. You've got it in you if you take the time to practice! Honestly, the first few things I ever wrote were not spectacular. And even today, if working with a new project, I can say that my work improves through the experience. I've had to push myself, yet remain patient; I've freaked out, but regained my sense of calm amidst the busiest of days. It's all a juggling act, as no two days are ever the same. But that's life, and when I don't know what to do about imbalances or injustices to my day, I write about them! Not a bad way to make a living, when I know how to take the circumstances and turn them into a vast learning ground where the sky's the limit. How's that for lemons?
