The Passion to Succeed as a Writer

I was recently reviewing the postings on a writer’s forum, where the question was asked, “How often do you write?” It was actually a very good question, but I was surprised at the answers it received. More than anything, I saw people answering in a way that made it seem as if they played at writing, rather than take their writing seriously. I had to ask the question, “If they don’t take their writing seriously, why should anyone else?”

I realize that there are many professional writers out there who write for a living. They probably have regular office hours, demand a certain amount of output from themselves every day, and get the job done, no matter what. I really can’t see a Tom Clancy, or a Clive Cussler being the great successes that they are without that sort of discipline.

Maybe the writers I’m talking about are the writer wannabees. You know; those who dream of writing, but haven’t yet made that dream into anything. They’ve been working on their first novel for two years, and haven’t even gotten halfway thorough, or they’ve got a blog which they don’t get to as often as they’d like. Maybe they write for one of the content mills; but only when they’re a little short of cash to pay the bills that month.

If one is going to write, whether full time or part time, they need to see themselves as a self-employed professional. It doesn’t make any difference whether they are ghost writing a book, writing their own poetry, creating the next great American novel, or just doing their daily blog posting; without an attitude of professionalism, all they are is someone standing on a virtual soapbox, fooling only themselves.

When I left engineering, one of my workmates came up to me and shared with me something that his dad had always said. It was a great piece of advice: “The only people who should work for themselves are those who have to.” My co-worker went on to say, “You are one of those people.”

I actually found great comfort in those words, knowing that I was one who was destined to work for myself. He was telling me that I wasn’t just taking a wrong step in life. Actually, I was taking a great leap into the unknown. Those words gave me the confidence that I would find some solid ground when I got to the other side of that leap.

There is an attitude that goes with being self-employed; it is called the entrepreneurial attitude. This attitude is the attitude of one who is willing to take on all odds, believe in themselves and push until they see a breakthrough. It is an attitude of incredible faith in what they are doing and the value that their product or service has in the marketplace. It is the attitude of a winner.

Those types of people don’t see disciplining themselves to work as a problem; it’s much more likely that they have to discipline themselves to take a break from working. They have an undying passion burning in their souls for what they are doing. They can no longer stop what they do than they can stop breathing.

A true writer needs that kind of passion for their writing. Like the artistic photographer that is seeing an award-wining photo in everything they see; the writer needs to see words sprouting out of the most mundane elements of life. Whether writing, or just talking to themselves, they need to constantly experiment with ways of describing what they are seeing; taking that mundane thing and turning it into an artistic expression with their words.

Like any skill, writing takes practice. As I look back over the last 15 years, I am almost embarrassed by the quality of writing that I find in my first books. To think that I wrote that badly back then, and yet still managed to sell a few copies of those books is truly amazing.

As the years have passed, I’ve seen my writing change, grow and evolve into something much more mature and deeper than it ever was before. I can remember times when I was ready to throw in the towel and let somebody else do all that work. Looking back, I’m glad I never let that towel go, for I can see every twist and turn along the path that it has taken to bring me to where I am today.

There’s a saying I’ve used for a number of years, “The difference between a success and a failure is that the success gets up one more time than they fall down.” Have you fallen down somewhere along the way? You know something? I have too. But, I never let myself stay down; I always got back up, dusted myself off, straightened out my keyboard and started writing once again. Success, any success, only comes when we couple passion and perseverance.

Where is your passion? Has it left you? Then all you’ve got left is perseverance. Let me tell you a little secret. If all you’ve got it perseverance, then persevere until your passion comes back. This is the discipline part. You’ve got to discipline yourself to persevere. But, it’s worth it. As you push yourself through that struggle, your passion will come back.

Check out my web site, Maranatha Life at: www.MaranathaLife.com

Check out my blogs:

• "Romantic Act of the Day" at: RomanticActOfTheDay.blogspot.com
• "Daily Satire" at: Daily-Satire.blogspot.com
• "Tool Innovations" at: Tool-Innovations.blogspot.com
• "The Way I See It" at: RAMMaraLif.blogspot.com

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