When I was young, I was creating and designing my own Word printed magazines. I can’t remember what the topic was on, but I loved creating it. My friend and I created it and it looked awesome, with our clip Art images to design it.
I would write letters to my family and friends and yes,
boyfriends and yes I demanded they write me letters back. Ha! Of course back
then, I would receive gifts of pretty writing paper and envelopes, a rareity to
find out the shops these days but still possible!
I found in Grade 11 & 12 in High School, in English and
actually the years prior to that, I really enjoyed English. I didn’t do too
much fiction writing, may be none at all but it all set me up to one day be a
writer.
When I was in my late 20s, I realised I wanted to write a
novel. I also realised, I have always loved writing so why would I not consider
it a good career path to go down? It was because it was so easy to me that I
didn’t even think of it as a possible career path.
I then spent years writing, writing novels and non-fiction
books. I had my own digital magazine on book writing for a year, which I loved
creating and filling the pages with interviews with authors and doing book
reviews and even adding a spot for my own script writing. I was also a
freelance business writer and had a 95% referral rate and then every 5 minutes
or so free, I would pitch for the final 5% of writing for the week. I just
completely embraced the world of writing.
And then things happen in life, massive life changes
happened, which I won’t go into detail. My computer crashed and I thought, it’s
a sign … I was also really burn out. I took 7 years off from writing. I kept
thinking of ideas during that time but didn’t really act on it. The fear of
reaching burn out again was a fearful element.
And then another life change happened … and I decided if I
was going to write, I would put boundaries in place. No writing novels. No
freelance writing. Just blogging. They say you should write about what you
enjoy and know and that’s how I created a hobbies blog. I then created 10 more
other blogs, which I have now put aside to focus on my hobbies blog. I then
found an old book, I had written but never edited. So I have re-started the
editing process for this historical romance. And then I wrote and published an eBook for the journey of crocheting for beginners. And now, my full focus is blogging and writing and
publishing eBooks. I want to grow my blog and writing audience.
I know now, I will always write and I will always want to
create more. I have other eBook ideas for books, so many, I have a list! I know
I don’t want burn out, but I am so excited and passionate about writing, I
don’t think I can achieve burn out. Especially because, I have a set routine of
when to write. I think this is important when setting out a writing journey to
avoid burnout. You can
read my burn out blog here. I also have to spend time marketing
my blog. So if you want to become a writer, you do need time aside and it could
be just ten minutes a day, or thirty minutes a week to schedule some marketing
posts about your writing.
Marketing is easy, it’s the time that is the issue. I love
checking my blog growth daily, sometimes when I’m bored a few times a day!
Especially when its growing a lot. For example, today I received my highest
views in a day 167 and you know what’s exciting, that number is a number in
time and I will exceed that soon! That’s the cool thing about marketing, you
get to see results! Your writing is being read by others and that’s a pretty
cool concept to consider.
And don’t get me wrong, I still get nervous when people I
know tell me they have bought one of my books, or read my review but its cool
that people are using their time to read something you have worked so hard on.
So thanks for reading about my writing journey, make sure
you visit my books page to see if you are interested in buying any and join my
social media channels below so you don’t miss a blog post!
#writing #writingstory #careerinwriting #meltoye
Also if you are a beginner in crocheting, you may appreciate reading my ‘The journey of crocheting for beginners’ eBook by Melanie Toye. You can purchase here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1808619
To see all of my ebooks available for purchase
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