I’m working with writers whose last clips are 20 YEARS AGO, and they’re getting back into it.

And anything IS possible if only you first believe in it… hopefully you saw my post about that last week, What Freelance Writers Can Learn from a Corny Old Movie.

This article is amazing and shows a path so different from mine that it makes me feel that anything is possible. I’m a journalist by formation, but left the career six years ago to work on a multinational and I miss so much the feel of writing constantly, creating, studying, learning! Your blog makes me feel like it’s possible to go back, ever after this hiatus, and still make it, if I am determined

Thanks so much for sharing this!

[...] (though I’ve heard the connections you get from that are amazing). When I first realized I was becoming a freelance writer, I found a few night classes I could take through UCLA Extension. At the time, I was out-to-here [...]

[...] would qualify to write on that high paying level.I know that feeling of unqualification well. Since I got into writing prose sort of by accident from songwriting, I walked around with that anxiety for years.I kept expecting somebody to tap me [...]

Thank you for the wonderful article! Being a pessimist by trade I usually do not partake of such stories, but your disarming honesty made it at least partially digestible.

I fully realize that the reason I have not replaced Hemingway, Keats or King on the shelves of the local Barnes & Noble is because I have failed to market myself as the genius that everyone obviously knows that I am. This will change soon – don’t let my 53 years of age fool you into believing otherwise.

My one and only foray into traditional publishing occurred when Career Press contacted me through my Taijiquan website, asking if I knew of anyone with years of experience to write a book about Taiji for seniors. I looked around my empty school, checked the balance in my bank account and decided that I was the only person truly qualified to create such a world-shaking tome.

After suffering the humiliation of submitting a first draft with the handwritten title “Tie Chee 4 Senors” I decided that, to truly warrant the pittance I was promised, I needed to learn the art of writing.

…this response shows I gave up on that idea, but somehow I was still published and the book seems to be doing well in all the usual outlets.

Thank you again for this article – it comes at a critical time for one considering entering the wordsmith trade.
Philip Bonifonte recently posted..Dr Seuss Gives Up Women

Really. Awesome. Writing.

In this business, you write yourself to where you're going. Great writing opens the doors.

I think a lot of new writers don't realize how much effort goes into buffing and polishing great writing, and how much time it really takes. I recently had a chance to interview a top blogger, and he told me he spends 8-10 hours on each of his blog entries! He's taking the time to take his posts from OK to brilliant, which is why he's at the top of the game.

This road is harder than I thought it would be, but it is also intensely satisfying and it is great to know things will keep getting better and better. That is why I have stuck with it.

I used to believe in luck, but I don't so much these days. I think there is some mysterious force out there that makes some people have it easier than others, but I also think you create your own luck. I think it's all a mindset!

Whenever I meet writers who tell me they aren't earning well, inevitably they are not aggressively marketing their writing services.

I love reading success stories, and I enjoyed yours. Your story supports my premise about success: I believe luck is the BIGGEST ingredient in what I believe are the three necessary ingredients for success: Luck/Opportunity, Hard Work, and Talent. You clearly are blessed to have all three.

I hope you know how blessed you are; there are plenty of people with the second and third who never get anywhere. If you try to put in the work and force something without luck or opportunity, nothing happens. And we all know how many talented people are out there unable to use it.

Thanks for sharing your story. It provides hope.