The Advice That Turned Me Into A Full Time Writer
People have a conception that good writers know a secret that others don’t.
Somewhere between birth and prolific writing, they discovered a profound industry secret that set them apart.
If this theory is true, they must have cherished that secret. They must have held it so tightly that a single word wasn’t leaked in their stories. If it had been, we’d all know the secret.
We’d all be New York Times Best Selling authors.
People would care about what we had to say.
We’d be making six plus figures off of our writing.
Yet, these writers didn’t seem to leave behind a single cryptic message in their work.
- Robert Frost never wrote of a strange dream that showed him the metrics for an outstanding piece of poetry
- George R. R. Martin hasn’t portrayed himself as a character of his books who was told the secret of writing by an elusive character
- J.K. Rowling didn’t hint at a specific reason for her rise to success in the over one million words making up the Harry Potter series
The secret they were keeping was in plain sight.
Robert Frost was forty years old when he first received fame from his writing.
George R. R. Martin wrote for 25 years before Song of Ice and Fire was published.
J.K Rowling spent six years writing her first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone.
What each of this writers has, that new writers do not, is time.
They’ve written for hours and hours. They mastered their craft. They became an expert at translating thought to paper.
And it took them years to do so.
In 2018, we have an opportunity that none of these authors had.
Writers can freely publish as much work as they want online and get immediate feedback.
Used to write well educated and thoughtful answers, Quora can propel your writing. I’ve used it to write over 200 article like answers, learning how to get my messages across so well that over 600,000 people agree. Medium offers the same system.
The best writing advice you can receive is to stop looking for the secret and to start writing. Write in places where your work can be seen. Not your journal. Not a Word document. Not your blog.
Right here on Quora and on Medium.
Put pen to paper, just as the world’s top writers have done, and then use the resources of today to learn faster than they were able to.
You’re living in the easiest time, in history, to become a well known writer.
It’s your choice as to whether you decide to take the opportunity.
