Lessons Learned on Becoming a Writer

I’ve been trying to become a writer since May of this year, with some success. I’ve had a short story and two articles printed in Southern Distinction, a slick regional magazine. Two more articles are due out in January. I’ve also managed to get a monthly column in the Oconee Leader, a newspaper that relies on advertising and goes into every home in the county. I’ve had four columns so far. It’s a small start, but it’s a start, none the less. I decided to take up writing after giving serious thought to what I would do when my teaching career ends in May of next year. Since we’ll be moving to the mountains, and I’ll be spending most of my time looking after my folks, I wanted something I could do from home. I’ve always enjoyed writing. I’m a thinker and a dreamer anyway, a person who often lives inside my head. I figure I might as well write down my thoughts and get paid for them if I can.

There have been bumps along the way - mistakes made, rejections, and lessons learned through hard experience. My first interview was embarrassingly awkward. I called Daddy’s dog an Australian Shepherd; he claims it’s a Border Collie. (I’m still not entirely convinced he’s right about that.) I learned to make sure the batteries in my camera are fully charged before going off on an assignment. I was even asked, “What kind of reporter are you?” when I had no working camera to take a picture of my interviewee’s work. I learned that editors lose your work and ask you to take assignments at the last minute when their first choice says no. I learned that you don’t make money writing for a newspaper unless you are Rhonda Rich with a syndicated column appearing in papers all across the country.

And I learned that you must be very careful when writing about people you know, particularly members of your own family. I guess I shouldn’t write about family members at all, but that policy would deprive me of a wealth of material. My sisters should be glad they are not Rhonda Rich’s mother! I now know why Darryl Huckabee always refers to his wife as “my lovely wife, Lisa” before telling something on her. No wonder writers are often loners!

I also know that much of what gets sent in to editors never even gets a look. All the success I’ve experienced so far came about as a result of taking my work directly to the person who makes the final decisions about what will be published and what will not.

I’m not going to give up. In the past, if I’ve made a mistake or upset anyone, I’ve retreated into my comfort zone and cowered in fear of making another mistake. No one ever got anywhere doing that. I will learn from my mistakes and keep plowing through the difficulties. I’ve always admired the words of Theodore Roosevelt, taken from his “Man in the Arena” speech:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”


The challenge is finding my voice and focus. There are many subjects of interest to me. As a government and economics teacher, I could write editorials. I could write about education. I can write stories about growing up on the farm, or human interest stories. My favorite piece so far is an article about a former drug addict who turned his life around and began helping those who now face the same problems that once bedeviled him. I could write about matters of spiritual interest or about home and family. Of course, I can always continue doing assigned pieces for magazines. With my degree in home economics, I am now writing a newspaper column about turning your house into a home. I am experimenting with all kinds of writing, but I guess eventually I will need to settle on one area in which I can specialize. Meanwhile, I will try any kind of writing and keep learning from my many mistakes.