The Most Important Advice…
So from time to time I get asked, what is the most important thing you can do if you intend on being a writer? I’ve thought about this a lot and when I reflect back on my author journey so far, I always come to the same answer. It may seem ridiculously simple, but the best advice I can give is to write. Incredibly simple, I know. However, when I look back on how I’ve arrived at where I’m at, I would have to say that is the most important thing. I mean, if you wanted to be a painter, would you simply declare yourself a painter? If you wanted to be a lawyer, would you just get up one day and decide you were a lawyer? No. In both cases, you would spend great amounts of time learning your craft, whether by going to school, or building up your practical experience, or in some cases, both.
When I set out to become a website developer, I didn’t do it overnight. I studied, I read books, I built test sites, I took classes. From the time I first had the thought until the day I was able to obtain my first client was about two and a half years. Now to a lot of people who didn’t see that day to day grind, it seemed like a sudden change. They weren’t there to see the late nights doing online classes, they weren’t there to see me getting up and working on websites for several hours before having to be at work by 7:30 am. To them, I suddenly became a website developer.
Similarly my writing journey began a long time ago. At some point my wife had told me that I needed to harness my outsized imagination and write some stories. I thought it sounded like a fun idea. I came up with several story synopsis over the next few weeks and that’s as far as it got for a while. At the time, it was just a hobby, with my goal being “someday I’ll put out a novel”. Over the years I started seriously considering it, and at some point I decided the goal was not to just put out one book, but to make a career out of being an author. It was at that point that something shifted. I knew from my journey as a web designer that I needed to prepare myself. As a result, I started writing, just not how you think. I didn’t feel like I had developed my writing skills to the point that I could accurately convey a story, so I needed to sharpen them. I could have taken writing classes, and I do highly recommend it, but that wasn’t the path I took. Instead, I started marketing myself as a content writer to my clients. Once I started advertising writing as one of my services, I started consciously looking for writing jobs. Over the next few years, I took on a ton of content writing jobs, determined to develop my skills. I wrote stories about natural gas, air conditioners, landscaping, concrete for patios, the difference between different deck materials. The point is I wrote about anything and everything for the sake of developing my writing skills and getting myself used to writing all the time. In my spare time, I started writing a few short stories, as well as the story that would end up being my debut thriller novel, “Tears of the Dragon”.
My point is, if you are serious about doing something, you have to be willing to put in the hard work to develop your craft. Very few people just say they are going to do something and do it. Be willing to do the hard work. Roll up your sleeves and write. It doesn’t matter if you are writing stories, guest blog posts, content for clients on Fiverr, or your own clients. Write for the school newspaper, or the local newspaper, the point is to write and get the practice to build the skills that will hopefully someday pay at least a few of the bills. When I got my first Amazon check, it wasn’t much, but it meant the world to me. It was the validation of the path that I started probably eight or so years ago. I hope you get there too. Now, that’s enough reading, get out there and write. As always, drop me a line if you want. Ask a question, tell me what’s going on in your life, or share what you’re writing. I answer every email I get. So everyone stay safe out there and we’ll talk soon!
– Ryan
