Find a Niche and Write About It, They Said
Finding your niche will be fun, they said.
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I didn’t know what a niche was, so I looked it up.
“To succeed in this new world, you have to sell yourself. You go to a brand-name college, not to imbibe the wisdom of its professors, but to make impressions and connections. You pick a niche that can bring attention to yourself and then develop your personal public relations efforts to let the world know who you are.”
— Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review, 7 Jan. 2001
The short version of niche as a noun is simple.
Merriam-Webster says, “Niche is a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted, as in, she finally found her niche.”
That’s all well and good if you feel that you have a niche.
I was a bookkeeper for 42 years. It suited me because my people skills suck, and I liked being in my own office where I didn’t interact with a lot of people. How exciting was my career? Was it exciting enough to make people want to read about it? HELL NO.
I used to do a variety of crafts. Making jewelry, stained glass lamps and picture frames, spinning yarn with spinning wheels, weaving, crocheting, and making clothing with my yarns was thrilling to me. Can I write interesting stories about my crafting that will make people want to read them? Probably not. I don’t like to cook — so writing for Foodies is out, too. However, I do like to eat, but my taste buds don’t like surprises. That makes being a food critic not one of my niches, too.
The only thing that I know more than I care to know is caregiving. I didn’t train for it. If I was asked to be a caregiver, I’d say, “Go to hell.” I fell into it when my husband had a motorcycle accident, a coma, and a severe traumatic brain injury. I could have walked away and told his family to have fun. But I didn’t. Hell, I couldn’t. We were married for two…
