I Want to Be a Writer But What Can I Write?
By Ruth Barringham
This is a question that comes up all the time.
There are even several Google searches about this that I can see in my control panel of my website from the search terms that people used to get to my website.
And I always wonder why anyone needs to ask this question.
If you're a writer, or you want to be a writer, you'd never even have to ask this question and I'll tell you why.
If you want to be a writer, or you already consider yourself a writer, then you'll already know what to write about.
And if you haven't got a clue what to write, then you need to ask yourself if you really are a writer.
Why?
Because every writer already knows what kind of writing they want to do.
Some want to be novelists. Some want to write non-fiction books. Some want to be online writers and create information websites. Some want to be ghost writers and some want to be freelance SEO writers.
And those that sit and think "what will I write?" aren't writers at all.
It's also possible that some writers are already making a good living from their writing but they're not doing to kind of writing they really want to do.
So if you're a writer but your not happy with the writing your doing or you haven't started writing at all because you don't know what kind of writing you want to do, this is how to solve the problem.
Sit down for just 5 minutes and imagine your perfect writing day.
Just think about sitting down and writing.
Now, where are you? Are you working at home or in an office?
And what are you writing?
Are you knocking out your next best selling book or are you writing a stack of articles for your website or for a client?
Or are you doing multiple types of writing, such as writing articles for your website to promote the latest book you've written?
Just take 5 minutes to sit and dream about your perfect writing day.
And that is what you really want to do.
But if you don't see yourself sitting and writing and all you see is yourself rolling in money from all the writing you've already done, then you're just dreaming. And it will always stay a dream.
If you're a writer, you write because you love writing. Not because of all the riches it will bring.
Writing is work. It's not sitting at home doing nothing.
Being a writer is especially hard in the beginning as you get your portfolio set up and establish yourself as a professional writer.
Writers don't get to where they are by sitting an exam and receiving a diploma. No one will suddenly start calling you a writer. You have to earn the title yourself.
And you can't be a writer if writing isn't what you really want to do.
Yet there are thousands of people all over the world living in la-la land thinking that writing is easy and that all they have to do is write a piece of junk and everyone will want to read it and they will get rich.
Just the other day I received an email from such a person who said that they had written a book and that they would like me to publish it for them.
They said they had attached a couple of chapters and a synopsis and that if I wanted to publish it, they would send the rest of the manuscript.
Isn't that kind of them?
And not only was their proposal difficult to take seriously, but the problem was further compounded by the fact that they couldn't spell, had used completely incorrect grammar in their email and obviously didn't know what punctuation was.
Honestly, the email was appalling (and difficult) to read but they we willing to let me publish their book AND they'd let me read it IF and only if, I agreed to publish it and not before.
Needless to say I deleted the email and didn't even bother to open the attached files.
But why would someone send such a terrible book proposal?
Because they are one of the people I spoke of earlier. The ones in la-la land. They were not a writer. They thought they could get rich by writing a load of garbage. It was the money that was important to them. Not the writing and not the publishing either. They obviously hadn't even bothered to research how publishing works.
And I get emails like this all the time. Sometimes they are from would-be book authors and sometimes from people wanting me to publish their horribly-written articles on my website.
Sometimes I do receive requests from people wanting me to publish their article on one of my websites and if the article is good, and fits in then I do publish it. But I'm never interested in junk. And neither is any reader.
So if you want to be a writer but you don't know what you want to write, just take 5 minutes to ask yourself; do you want to be a writer, or are you hoping to get rich from writing?
And if it's only the money you're after, then you should stick to your day job.
But if you love to write and you can sit and dream of your perfect writing day, then go and live the dream.
Being a writer is something I've never regretted and always enjoyed.
I love to write.
How about you?
GOODBYE WRITER'S BLOCK