I decided to go for it, become an author and write novels to earn a living for a little more than 3 years.
For as long as I can remember (cliché but true!), I dreamed of being a writer. Years went by and I kept dreaming of having my novels published… while writing on weekends… sometimes.
Yeah, no… that’s not how you get a novel published.
Aspiring Author vs The World
Why do you write?
If at first earning a leaving writing novels was indeed my dream job, I didn’t take writing seriously, even though I was constantly lost in stories. All the little things sparked new stories ideas, either I was in the bus, working retail job, then office jobs.
But follow my true nature, follow my dreams and start treating writing like a real job? No way!
For my family and friends, writing was a childish hobby, a childish dream. Being a writer was for incredibly talented, incredibly lucky people, not normal people with small but valuable(?) lives.
The fact that writers are hard workers, writing for hours and hours, for years and years, crafting great stories was obliterated by some bright romantic artist aura surrounding the profession.
Took me years to realized / believe being a writer was possible.
Writing is NOT a get rich fast business
It takes hard work to better our craft. It takes a healthy dose of humility. It takes a mind ready to open up to the world, for the better and the worst. It takes constant work to better our stories.
To be published, it takes all that, plus a very good bit of research, timing and a dash (more a ton) of luck, sure.
But it’s possible.
Crazy tough, but possible.
For earning a living writing novels does NOT happen in one or two years. You’re lucky if, after ten to fifteen years of hard work writing your novels, then working harder to sell them, you see a steady sort of decent income coming your way.
And that’s all relative too. It depends on many factors, like where you live, what language you’re writing in, what genre (literary, fantasy, romance) you choose.
Finding writing motivation is tricky on a day-to-day basis. Add up all those factors and oh dear, why pick up a pencil at all?
Because Creative Writing is Awesome !
I need to write. It’s who I am. Creative writing makes me happy. Even more than that: it make me feel alive, like I’m in the right place, doing the right thing.
I’ve written a couple of post about how, even when I can’t find the right words, or even when revising feels like a lost cause, I still want to write.
Nevertheless, motivation often escapes me. So I write a blog post, I do some « research », which is often code word for watching a movie instead of sitting my bottom down in my little writing nook and write.
In the past, I felt guilty when I wasn’t writing. And so I ALL the time… and discover the hard way that writing all the time is not for everyone, especially me.
To be motivated to write, funny enough, I need some down time.
But I also need a non-demanding day job (being money-wise stressed just puts any kind of writing motivation or inspiration I could have in a deep lethargic state; I need to earn money) and realistic goals.
Here’s what I also do to feed the writing motivation:
- Stick to a writing routine
- Set writing goals (word counts, revising chapter countdown, stuff like that)
- Establish a reward system (allowing myself to read a novel is a big one)
There’s literally a ton of tips and tricks you can use to help you with the writing motivation. On this blog, you’ll find one or two posts about it.
I’d said, the most important thing is to know yourself. It something I often remind myself: don’t try to work like the authors you admire/wish you could be friends with.
Just have fun and do your best.
Thanks a million for reading, and a bonus thanks for sharing if you did. It’s awesome.
Marie Alice Writes & Reads 