The Desire to Write

Years ago I read a book by Phyllis A. Whitney called Writing Juvenile Stories and Novels. In it she makes the statement that the only secret to becoming a writer is

“You must want to enough…That is the only secret there is.”

I confess that I have spent most of my adult life “wanting to write” and not necessarily writing. Dreaming is not the same as doing. Now I see youngsters in their teens and twenties with bestsellers to their credit and up to now I haven’t been much more than a writer wannabe.

I’m finding as I get older that the drive to succeed is getting stronger. In the last year or so I have fallen in love with writing for the web. Web writing suits me because it can be done more quickly than print writing. I can choose to see my name in print, not stand by the mailbox collecting rejection slips.

Like print writing, becoming successful at web writing requires persistence, practice and determination. I have attained certain goals, such as seeing my name in print on multiple websites. There are more goals ahead, however. I have come across web writers who are earning six figures hands down, writers who have so much work they can name their price.

I want to be one of them. I am studying their path like amoebas under a microscope and I am imitating them. If they say blog, I blog. If they say chase jobs on www.elance.com that is what I do.

Most of all, I am writing every day, confident that I am undergoing a metamorphosis from writer wannabe to writer.

Doing what it takes to succeed means writing daily, whenever you can, whether it’s early morning or late at night, on coffee breaks during a full-time job or on a commuter train. It means wearing earplugs during Sponge Bob Square Pants, but letting nothing get in the way of writing.

Ultimately, I will do what it takes to succeed.

Because at long last, I want to enough.