by Ashlee McNicol

 

Being a writer is no easy feat. You stay up late, wake up early, and repeat. You spend hours and hours creating fantasy worlds with characters that you love like your family, watching them experience miracles just as easily as pain, and grow like your own kids.

You are an author the day you create your first book. So once you have graduated from a writer to an author, a whole new world you never realized exists begins.

You’ll meet other writers/ authors and readers with varying tastes. But not one person will be the same as another. You must be prepared to tackle the whirlwind involved with being a professional. But while every author is different, these true points generally never change.

 

We all:

1. Set Goals. 

Whether it’s word count targets or mindset goals (i.e. be happy today), we aim to succeed. If you don’t have to-do lists on to-do lists yet, you’ll be there soon enough. And you will love every second of it.

 

2. Have days where we don’t think we are good enough.

Self-doubt is tough, but it happens. We go through times where we don’t believe in ourselves, but that makes us that much stronger. It thickens our skin, and makes us come out ten times better.

 

[Related: Hate writing blurbs? We’ll do it for you. Check out our blurb writing service.]

 

3. Find solace in our characters.

Since most of our time is spent with fictional characters, that is a major source of friendship. We don’t always want to go out (most of the time, not at all) because the things we care about the most are being born.

 

4. Fight. Everyday. 

Whether we fight to meet our daily goals or fight to go be someone we feel like we are not in order to pay the bills, we fight. It can be a daily battle, but it gives us lots of fuel for our stories.

 

5. Aspire to do this for the rest of our lives. 

We never want to stop.

 

 

 

 

Guest post contributed by Ashlee McNicol. Ashlee is the author of YA Fantasy series The Secrets of Ghastillanda, as well as non-fiction books on marketing and creative strategic development for small businesses. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she enjoys facilitating community involvement through teaching.