For years, I told everyone who asked that I was going to be a writer someday. They would smile, nod, and tell me that was a good dream for the future in a tone of voice that let me know that it wasn’t going to happen for a long time. That was okay. I was content with writing for fun. I rarely finished anything, but it was fun to toy around with the ideas.
I went off to college. I learned how to write lots of short stories, and I told myself that I didn’t have time to write anything longer. That was okay. I was going to be a writer someday. Eventually.
Then, I graduated. I wanted to launch my writing career as I had been envisioning for four years…and realized that I had nothing to work with. I had some ideas, some half-finished projects, but nothing to use to seek publication. In fact, I knew nothing about publishing. I didn’t even have my own blog.
Somewhere along the way, I had believed my own words. I was going to be a writer someday. Not now.
It was my excuse for not writing. Not being disciplined. Not researching the world of publishing.
It was time for a title change.
I began to tell people that I am a writer. After all, publication doesn’t make a person a writer. The act of writing does. I gave myself a writing schedule. I blog-stalked my favorite authors. I learned. I wrote.
That was a year ago. I have now finished three manuscripts and I’m working on a fourth. I’m launching this blog, and I hope to continue to reach out and make connections with my fellow writers, both published and pre-published.
I wouldn’t trade my years of being a someday writer. I did a lot of practice writing in those years that will never make it off my computer, but the practice brought me to where I am. I couldn’t claim the name of writer until I was ready.
Now I am still learning patience. Publication is still a ways off, and it’s tough to lean on God’s timing instead of mine.
What about you? Are you still calling yourself a someday writer?
Tricia Mingerink 
This post is spot on. I am a recent grad as well. I was a “someday writer” since I age 7. I wrote spontaneously and littered my hard drive with scraps of novels. Only this year did I really sit down and commit to going for it. I completed a manuscript in July and am working on another. It’s hard because it can be such a slow process, but it’s exciting!
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Congrats on completing a manuscript! If you’re anything like me, you sat there for a minute staring at the last word on your page, unable to believe it was real. Then you jumped up and did a little dance to celebrate.
And thank you for your comment! I did a little happy dance of my own when I saw it! My first comment on my blog! Thanks so much!
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I actually had the strangest reaction to completing it. I felt really let down. I was expecting to feel joyous and victorious and instead, I was like, “Huh… that’s it. What now?” But the feeling of accomplishment set in a little while later.
You’re so welcome!
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I got the same feeling, but it took a few days. I went from humming in euphoria to dragging around the house listlessly because I didn’t know what to do with myself now that I’d finished the manuscript I’d been working on for months. So, I started book two.
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Hi! You might remember me, I was the one with the corsairs in my logline on Go Teen Writers. 🙂
Anyway, to answer the post; I planned on writing a book (or several) for a long time, but I never actually wrote anything because I knew I wasn’t ‘ready’ and I didn’t want to mess up my story. I’m one of those people who has to know they can do something before they do it. (I know, weird, right?) So here I am, at eighteen, 22,000 words into my first story ever. It has been lots of fun, it’s pretty much all I want to do, all the time. Maybe because I waited so long to start, lol.
Great post! I’m looking forward to another one and if you ever decide to do a post on corsairs…well, let’s just say I’ll be happy. 🙂
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Hi, Sierra! Thanks for tracking me down to comment on my blog. Congrats on starting your first novel! 22,000 words is much farther than I got in my first few attempts. I understand waiting to start your novel until you’re ready. I have ideas that I decided to wait to write because I want to learn more before I tackle them. I’m still waiting to write them. 🙂
Corsairs sound like an excellent blog topic for sometime in the future. 🙂
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You’re welcome! Yeah, I have a few that I’m not ready for as well. I was so thrilled when I reached 20k. The only problem is I think I’m about half finished, but I want it to be longer than 45k. “Sigh.” I’ll have to add some subplots, though it should get longer when I start my edits, hopefully.
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