What does it mean to be a part time writer? and why do I call myself as such?
I am unpublished thus far, yet I call myself a writer. How can I do this? Well, that's kind of an easy question to answer and its not as big headed as it sounds. You see, its not being published that makes you a writer--its writing that makes you a writer, whether you get paid to do it or not. Calling yourself a part time writer as I do just means that you have decided you want to take it seriously.
A piece of advice I heard is that making the switch from writing as a hobby to writing seriously just requires a change in mind set. If you want to write something to get published, you can just write as a hobby writer and eventually you will finish and be proud of it. In fact hobby writing is a good thing, it means you actually want to write and enjoy the process of recording your imagination on the screen (or on paper, if you still like the old fashioned way).
The advice I was given however, is that, if you want to write something that you want to have published and you want people to pay you for, you must be prepared to put in the effort, as if it where a job.
I have wanted to write a book for years, but never actually finished one or even wrote more than a few chapters because I didn't have the right mind set. I would come home from school or college or whatever and think, nah I will do a bit tomorrow. This cycle continues until you stop thinking about going back to write it all together. Now though, I have changed my view point so to speak, and I tackle writing from a totally different angle.
If you want people to pay for something you have written, you have to put the effort in. Keep telling yourself that, and eventually it will sink in. Effort however, means sacrifices, and by sacrifices I don't mean sacrificing your grandma at a demonic shrine--I mean, sacrificing some of your free time to sit down and write, whether you want to or not. And if business studies taught me anything, it is that entrepreneurs have to be willing to make sacrifices and take risks if they want a new idea to become successful, just like you now.
For me, I look at it as being self employed. You are the boss, but to get anything done and to get any reward out of it, you must make yourself work, by whatever means necessary. I like to set myself strict goals that I must keep to each day, and that is to write 500-800 words per day when I get home from work. And this might not sound a lot, but after a month or so of doing this each day, you will technically have the first draft of a novella. Keep going for a couple more months, and you have got yourself a good sized novel.
If there is going to be a day where I know I am not going to be able to write, I make sure I have written at least 1000 words the day before so that I don't get behind. At weekends, the goals are the same, but its less of a problem because I normally will sit down for several hours and get through a few thousand words. When the week starts over though, I cannot lean back on the work I got done over the weekend as they are free days. The working week is the time for sacrificing that special free time after work, to put some effort into your story. Thus, I must always write at least 500 words per week night, only missing a day if I know I am not going to be able to write, requiring extra effort the day before as explained above.
This method for me has proven quite successful so far. I have kept to my goals and I am on track with my writing. It also helps that I don't like to stop when I am in the middle of something. for example, if I get to five or six hundred words and happen to be in the middle of a scene, I will always end up finishing that scene, and that usually means I get an extra few hundred out of each day.
This then, is how I call myself a part time writer. I have made sacrifices to make myself write, because one day I want people to want to pay for my books, and to me, that means you have to work for it. And it is this mentality, to me, that allows me to call myself a part time writer.
I hope this post has somehow helped someone in some way, after all, it was this piece of advice alone that flicked a switch in my head and made me look at writing seriously.
I know it seems like a very serious thing to post as a first blog, but I just wanted to clear it up and get it out of the way. I will get to the more pleasant things, like introducing myself properly, in the next blog.
Until next time. keep tapping.
