How positive are you about your writing skills?

This is a question we could all do with asking ourselves – no matter what stage of our writing careers we are at.  And yet it isn’t a subject that you read a lot about.

Let’s face it, there are plenty of articles out there that tell us how to write, or how we should be writing.  But how many have you read that tell you how important self confidence is?

Let me share a personal story with you here, because it might help to make it clear what I’m talking about.  Anyone who knows anything about me will know how long it has taken me to become a full time writer.  I have always wanted to write, and I have been writing stories since I was about five or six I think.  Eventually in my late teens I started writing for publication.  I’m 37 now, so just bear that in mind for a moment.

Now I always knew I could write for a living.  It’s all I ever wanted to do.  But even though I was regularly getting published in magazines, I just couldn’t see how I would ever be able to make enough money to even consider going full time.

But I still persevered. I was always convinced it would happen – I just didn’t know when or how.  Everyone around me kept advising me to stick with a proper job, and just write for a bit of extra cash now and again.

Which one are YOU going to strive for?

But I STILL persevered. Stubborn as anything, I knew I could do it, and I wasn’t giving up.  Period.  No question about it.  This was what I wanted to do, and without being big headed I knew I could do it.  I felt as if I had been given this skill that I could earn money with.

It might be too late to cut a long story short, but the internet came along.  And there was my niche – my chance to use all those writing skills I had been honing over all those years.  It had taken eighteen YEARS to finally become a full time writer and realise my dream – and all because I never lost the confidence in my own skills and the ability to make money with them.

If you are struggling to get your first writing job online at the moment, take heart from this true story.  The ONLY way you won’t succeed at this is if you give up. Don’t worry about what other people think or say.  They’ll be congratulating you and very jealous as well when you finally succeed and start making the money you want to be making as a freelance writer.  Trust me on this!

It may not take you anywhere near as long as eighteen years to get to where you want to be.  Thanks to the internet and the huge array of opportunities there are now for the average writer, it will probably come a lot sooner than that for you.

But ask yourself this.  Even if it DID take eighteen years, wouldn’t that be great?  It would mean you would finally be writing for a living in the future.  But if you give up before you give yourself all the chances that are out there to succeed, you’ll never do it.

Make your decision to succeed today – and you will.  Let me know how you are getting on!  And never, ever give up.

Tags: confidence, income, internet, perseverance, writing