Writing Advice
Writer’s Journal — The Day I Found Out I Could Write
From self-doubt to believing
Let me take you back a bit to the year 2021. I have been writing for many years before then but it was in 2021 that I landed my first freelance job and everything shifted. You won’t believe it though, it was absolutely accidental.
I wouldn’t say it was a mistake, I also won’t say that it was an absolute accident, but what do you call being hired for a job you kinda applied for blindly?…. At that period, I really needed a job but I never put much effort into being a freelancer. It seemed like a long shot to me. I would just submit some proposals on Upwork, put in a few samples, and never really check back on them.
And then one day, after sending out blind proposals, someone responded. They loved my stories and wanted to see if we would work together, and that was my first job. Then came the self-doubt... My undoing. At least for a short while.
Now let me give a bit of a back story here. I have been writing for about five years prior to this date. I have written two trilogies (unpublished) and a number of standalone novels. I had even written for a significant publication in my country. However, this was the first time I was doing something for someone else… something entirely about someone else’s life, someone else’s story, and this person was a whole continent away. The book was a biography.
The first draft was exceedingly boring. Factual but boring. That was what my client said. He wanted something that was more fiction from his life story. I second-guessed everything. I panicked, I had no job and the fear of not submitting something perfect was nearly crippling. That rejection was my breakthrough.
Somehow, I managed to pen something else in the midst of my confusion. I didn’t know what to expect but I sent it to my client. A short prologue. It was based on the stories he had sent me about his life. He loved it!
I don’t know if you’ve ever been on that precipice of make or break, the writing of that second book was a make-or-break moment. Did I also mention that I had to sort of work a cookbook into it? Oh yeah, there was also this love triangle in the midst of all that.
It’s funny though, despite the pressure, I can honestly say now that I loved it. There will always be something about putting words on paper, building it, painting pictures with it that will always make my day. Writing has always been a wonder to me that way. It doesn’t just transport the reader, it transports the writer too.
Particularly if it’s creative nonfiction, it transports you into another person’s life, and to make it even better, you have the privilege to paint that person’s life on paper. When I get to that moment when it seems as though the story just swallows me and I can’t help but keep writing, then I know I am going to love that book.
That happened to me with this book. Oh, and I was doing something I’d like to call a chapter-by-chapter review. Let’s just say my client was full of surprises and he was a very busy person. Is anyone here with such an experience? The super busy clients? And they always have the nerve to have tight deadlines.
You may be wondering at this point, why then did you say you found out you could write? You’ve been writing for five years.
The simple answer to that is when I finished the book, it was different. I’ve had people compliment my writing many times. They loved my stories. It was interesting and all that. But this one hit differently. And considering the fact that it was the first time I was stepping into freelancing professionally with some major money involved. It really really hit differently.
My client didn’t send me a simple note on how he found my writing wonderful, he sent an entire paragraph. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to read anyone’s comment in my life. I started it on Gmail.
You may also be wondering, why this whole tale in the first place? Well, it’s so I can share these few tips I learned along the way. First, don’t let the fear of making mistakes cripple you. We all will make mistakes, particularly where writing is concerned, and then we work with those mistakes and make masterpieces out of them.
Secondly, don’t ever be afraid to step out. Everybody needs to do that a couple of times in their lifetime. If not, there won’t be growth.
There will always be that first time. No matter how much you have studied and written out samples. The day will come when you are really going to need to face that book or face that blog or whatever it is you want to write. Face it as fearlessly as possible.
This is my offering to my fellow writers or budding writers starting out in professional writing and trying to get money in their pocket for their work. Don’t wait five years like I did. Don’t second guess too many things.
You will make mistakes on this journey. But write anyway. People like you and I, we are married to the pen. ( Well keyboard now but you get my point.) So write anyway and know, now, you are going to be great at it or you probably already are. You just don’t know it yet.
