What does success look like? In the creative field especially, it’s hard to judge. Writers set their own goals for success, whether it’s becoming world famous or merely finishing a manuscript.
I’m always curious to know what success looks like for each writer I interview. So, it’s one of the questions I ask in my author interview series. In my final post in this blog series, I share quotes from indie authors who explain the moments they felt like a writer.
Be sure to click on the authors’ names to read their full interviews and learn more about them and their writing. The links will open in a new tab.
Early days
I began writing before I even knew how to read. Once I learned how to write my letters, I started trying to form words and turn them into stories. A lot of writers start early, but the journey is different for us all. Here are some stories about when some writers first started out.
“In reality, I have been a writer always. Since I was 5, which was when my love of writing began. And I wrote the whole time. I published my own stories into folders or filled journals with stories and shared them with friends. I entered contests and went to writing conferences.
When I was in college, one of my majors was creative writing. And in grad school I finally decided to go all-in and get my Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (concentration nonfiction). But then I graduated and I couldn’t find a job back in Vermont where my MFA translated to paying job with benefits. The closest I came to being steeped in my writing life was being a part of a statewide writing organization.” – A.Y. Berthiaume
“I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first poems and started my first novel in elementary school. I have always been an avid reader. So I think I learned to write from reading. I always loved grammar and sentence construction, poetry and the power of words. I remember being fascinated with ‘sentence trees’ in elementary school.” – Trish Ahjel Roberts
“When I got the idea and started writing the book it was more as an experiment. I needed to write something to practice my English. I wrote a page or two a day making horrible mistakes but didn’t give up and finished the entire manuscript in six months. When I moved to the US, I revisited my work many times, putting more meat on the bones, breathing life into it.” – Kirill Khrestinin
“As a kid, I actually wanted to do something in music. I grew up involved in advanced choir in school and took part in plays/musicals. I learned I had severe stage fright, and by age fourteen I wrote my first poem. It came so natural, and I enjoyed the ease of creating a story. I started journaling and wrote as a hobby. It wasn’t until after I had my second child (early thirties) that I realized I could attempt to write professionally.” – Brittany Benko
“Writing has been a part of me throughout my life. My great great grandfather was a famous writer and historian, so I guess the love of words was passed down genetically. I remember writing a poem in first grade.
I earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and, for years I took as many writing classes as I could. I was also a newspaper and magazine editor for several years before I began writing my memoirs.” – Ann Campanella
The motivation to write
The motivation to write starts with an idea that grows into an obsessive need to write it down. Whether or not you feel like a writer when you start or finish a piece of writing, the very act of it makes you a writer. Here is what led some writers to begin their writing journey.
“This book is a time capsule. I wrote it between the ages of twenty-nine and thirty-seven. The final draft is vastly different from the first. These years have left their mark on me, and on everyone else in the book. When writing was difficult for me, I told myself I owed it to these women and men to publish their words as I had promised.” – Laura Sgroi
“I wasn’t even intending to write ‘a novel.’ I was simply playing around with words and characters as they came to me, just for the fun of it. I’ve always felt that my work as an author is to follow my imagination and the characters wherever they take me, so that’s what I did. The more I ‘followed,’ the more I realized that this was about much more than a romance.” – Anne Marie Bennett
“I’ve had no formal writing. I began writing as a teenager not planning to be a writer; it just happened. I wrote limericks for newsletters then songs. I got involved in theatre and then started writing plays and musicals. I had radio plays broadcast and started writing fiction.” – Cenarth Fox
“My journey to becoming an author began in 2002 after a religious experience. For three years I wrote short stories and decided to do a creative writing course. I received a diploma of distinction from that and continued to hone my craft. For a while I tried screenwriting as my writing style has been described as being very visual. I realized that it wasn’t for me. I might focus on writing comic book scripts instead.” – Aidan Lucid
“I write non-fiction books because I love finding out where good art comes from and how artists create it. My favorite thing to do is to interview someone, so my interviewing skills just sort of rolled into me becoming an author.” – Scott Ryan
How writing ties into the day job
Most writers write as a side hustle or hobby as they build a writing career or at least just pursue their passion. The day jobs are diverse too and span a number of industries. Below are some jobs that the indie authors I’ve interviewed have held or still hold.
“I’m the Chief Operating Officer of a large counseling agency. Although I’m all things business, I’m married to a psychologist and am surrounded by therapists at work. I’ve learned that having the courage to integrate feelings with business results in a stronger outcome. Who I am relates to how I write which is why the theme of becoming strong and independent is the underpinning of the book.” – Ruthie Davis
“I’m a security guard, and I work third shift. Every now and then I get caught up thinking about switching jobs, but then I remind myself that I’m currently working my dream job. I get paid to sit and take an occasional walk. And my boss encourages me to write. If I’m writing, that means I’m not sleeping.” – John Michael Gariepy
“I became a professional writer after earning a degree in English with a minor in journalism in college. I was a reporter for daily newspapers in Western Massachusetts for about 10 years before becoming an editor. I also freelanced, writing magazine pieces; one got picked up in Nick Jr. Magazine. And I wrote short fiction that got picked up in literary publications. In 1998, I began writing for hire through Beetle Press—press releases, blogs, magazine pieces. My passion, though, is writing my own books, and helping others develop books to tell their stories.” – Janice Beetle
“Since leaving university—which was much like jumping out of plane and hoping I catch a parachute at some point before I splat on the ground—I’ve had a lot of jobs. Collecting money for charity, cinema attendant, photo technician, graphic designer, art and design teacher, personal trainer… Basically, I’ve been flailing around desperately, searching for a job that gives me enough time to write!” – Joshua Radburn
“I didn’t think of myself as a writer until I retired and was able to write full-time. The only training I had was papers I wrote in college and my thesis while in grad school (where I studied music, not writing). The best training I got was reading, a lot of reading, mostly of fiction. And of course, I am still learning how to craft a novel.” – R. Douglas Clark
“I studied architecture in university, which has little to nothing to do with writing. I am currently working as a 3D and technical drawer for a big stand-building company. My drafts become spaces for people to show and sell their art in. Connection to art is the closest my current occupation comes to writing. Stories, after all, are an art form.” – Victoria Liiv
“Alyn: I am a prof emeritus in mathematics. My career depended on publishing tech stuff. Being able to explain complex concepts clearly was a necessary skill. Math also honed my imagination and creativity (I know this will surprise some).
Kelly: I have worked as a private math and science tutor for 25 plus years. Alyn stole my answer. Being able to help students understand complex concepts is an absolute necessity for my line of work.” – Alyn Rockwood and Kelly Nichols
“Before I published this book, I was working as a maintenance worker in a Recreation and Parks division in Maryland. In my spare time, I was a professional basketball scout for some teams overseas. I was really unhappy with where I was at professionally in the county job. There was no advancement and it was a stagnant type of job. I just wanted to push myself and pursue passions that I have.” – Greg Walter
“I was a teacher for thirty years. I worked with high-functioning students with mild needs, and my emphasis was reading and writing. I helped them learn how to construct sentences, use adjectives/adverbs, write paragraphs, and analyze story plots.
This, of course, helped me analyze my own writing and improve with practice.” – Sheri Chapman
When to call yourself a writer
This is the big question. Here’s what some authors had to say about when they finally felt like a writer.
“I think calling yourself a writer is tantamount to pinning the Purple Heart on your lapel! It takes years of dedication. I have always ‘scribbled’ in diaries and notebooks and learned the discipline of writing in a three-year creative writing course I took when I lived in Seattle in the 90s. I considered myself a writer when I completed Catch the Moon, Mary.” – Wendy Waters
“I’ve consider myself a writer since I was a kid. Even before I could read or write I was always making up special stories for my toys and roles for my friends to play in a world I created. I haven’t had any formal training besides maybe some English classes.” – Michael Gatti
“I have a BA in literature, and I took some creative writing classes in high school and college. But I think that creative writing is instinctive. It’s hard to teach. You learn it as you go. I’ve loved to write for years, and I’ve written. But I’ve only recently started feeling comfortable calling myself a writer. I think I needed to be able to point to something and say, ‘I wrote that.’ My standards for others aren’t so high. Anyone who writes is a writer regardless of publication, but for my own comfort, I needed that external validation.” – Fran Laniado
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