When I first started blogging, I wrote about my love life, my schoolwork, my little mini dramas that would make for some interesting “Dear Diary” reads. A pint of ice-cream, a flashlight and it almost felt like you were sneaking a peek where you shouldn’t be.
Then, I wrote about weddings and baby showers for an online stationery company.
Now, I write mostly for me.
It’s interesting how from a simple seed of passion, a career can bloom. It took nurturing, hard work, and a sprinkle of faith. And it’s a system that needs to go on forever. Unless I want my career to look like our pitiful houseplant sitting on my windowsill. No love, no honey right?
Dr. Eric Maisel, a phenomenal writer and author wrote this in a lesson plan for his class I’m taking:
“It is vital for a person who has decided to turn germs of interest into full-fledged productive obsessions that he learn to distinguish between those things that interest him and those things that really interest him.”
When I think about it, my own writing story began from a sprout of interest, a trickle of self-doubt (can I really do this?), a handful of blind faith and a waterfall of passion.
I think that’s where you have to go when you want to pursue your dream. You have to look for the place where your heart skips a beat, where there’s a sense of flow, where there’s been subtle signs that lead you in a certain direction. And then you must keep following that path. Persevere through what feels impossible.
If you can do that and you still want to get to your computer every day, then it’s pretty possible that you are a writer.
How do you know for sure?
You do it. You do it every day despite feeling afraid. Despite being unsure. Regardless of what other people say or don’t say. You do it anyway.
Eventually the gap between where you are and where you want to be will lessen. Eventually you won’t have to ask yourself, “Am I a writer?” anymore. You’ll just know.
