Achieve Your Dreams

How to Achieve Your Dreams of Being a Writer

Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank

I’ve always had a penchant for writing. When I was in seventh grade, my typing teacher used to let me slide on the assignments by letting my type stories all day. The length of the story demonstrated keystrokes and the accuracy of the spelling demonstrated correct typing procedures. Since then, I felt it was a passion of mine. Unfortunately, my past was altered greatly and I fell out of touch with that 13-year old author. Although the years may pass, it’s never too late to achieve your dreams of being a writer.
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Getting Yourself Started to Achieve Your Dreams

Getting started as a writer isn’t as difficult today as it was when I was 13. The Internet has opened the flood gates for all kinds of opportunities. As a professional freelance ghostwriter for the past four years, I can attest to how easy it is to get started. The first thing you need to figure out is how you want to go about developing yourself as a writer.

Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is one who creates work for other people while allowing them to take credit for the piece. This is one of the most common forms of work on the Internet. Textbroker, Fiverr and a slew of other sites are centered around ghostwriting. Although you don’t get to put your name to the piece, it can still be a lucrative way to make a living if you’re fast and know the topic well. I’ve found that this is also a great way to get your feet wet while practicing grammar and typing skills.

Blogger
A lot of people put effort into blogging usually to express themselves much like a painter or a singer. For me, I love to share information with those who need help. Blogging can also help you fine-tune your skills whether you want to practice good grammar or you want to put some of your creative pieces out there. For instance, this website is mostly centered around helping writers learn how to work from home. However, I’ve also put up some of my short creative pieces for the sake of entertaining others. So far, they have been quite popular among the posts I have completed.

Novelist
One of my dreams is to have a book with my name as the author sitting on my bookshelf. I would love to hand out signed copies at Christmas to friends and family. However, this takes a great deal more work and effort than the other two mentioned above. At least, there is a lot of work involved if you want to achieve your dreams of being a popular author on the New York Time’s Best Seller list. That shouldn’t be your driving force, though. Personally, I don’t want to be rich and famous. I just want to entertain others with my work and possibly keep my bills paid. When I look back, I want to know that I had accomplished at least one of my life-long dreams. Luckily, it’s much easier to do today than it was in the 1990s to achieve your dreams of being a writer.

6 Ways to Get Yourself Ready for Publication

If you’ve never developed written material before, you may want to spend some time preparing yourself before being published. Even those who believe they have superior grammar skills can still have a great deal of their work edited. Here are some of things I suggest you do first before trying to achieve your dreams of being published.

  1. Learn All You Can
    Knowledge is power. If you can take the time to enroll in a creative writing course, it may be quite beneficial in the long run to achieve your dreams. This can help you fine-tune your abilities as well as learn the necessary procedures for creating works. In fact, I am debating on enrolling in a class or two myself before actually publishing my “real” novel.
  2. Google It
    Google can be a wondrous tools when it comes to learning. There are all kinds of sites dedicated to spelling, grammar, punctuation and other facets of writing. Plus, it can be done from virtually anywhere. Even I have a list of websites I frequent. Never underestimate the value of a good search engine.
  3. Be a Ghostwriter
    One of the most profound experiences I’ve had for developing my abilities as an author is being a ghostwriter for the past several years. I don’t think you have to write for Textbroker or Fiverr for that long before you put your skills to the test. However, clients and editors can be very helpful when you receive feedback regarding your work. It can be a great experience for helping you achieve your dreams as an author. Plus, you get paid for the content you write.
  4. Write What You Know
    A lot of authors advise new writers to create pieces based on what they know. It can make the flow of the content much easier for both the author and the reader. If you want to explore something you don’t know anything about, do your research. Material that is based on fact and information makes the story seem more real and could boost your reputation among the target audience.
  5. Practice, Practice, Practice
    Practice makes perfect – no matter what you’re trying to accomplish. This means you should spend some time honing your skills through platforms like blogging or free writing submission sites just to test the waters before investing in publication. It may be valuable to you to create work you have no intention of publishing. Write a few short stories and get the feel for your own style of writing. I used to have stacks upon stacks of things I wrote in my youth. It can be very helpful in honing your skills and discovering yourself as an author.
  6. Never Give Up, Never Surrender!
    You will fail at 100% of the things you do not try. This is one of the biggest problems I had over the past couple of decades. I gave up before anyone say my work. Now, all I can do is wonder what I could have been if I would have put in the effort. Don’t surrender before you have a chance to explore your potential.

Getting Yourself Published Immediately

The Internet helps achieve your dreams of being a writer by giving you access to a lot of ways to be published immediately. Although you won’t get rich quick off of most of them, it’s still a great way to see your name in print and discover if you have real potential to be an author. Here is just a handful of ways you can get published today if you’re ready.

WordPress.com
If you want to try your hand at blogging, WordPress.com is one of the best places to set up a free site. Personally, I pay for my own hosting and domain name. However, WordPress can be just as effective for targeting a wide audience. In fact, the majority of the traffic to this site is coming from WordPress.com – you might be one of them right now. The WordPress platform is one of the most versatile and easy to use content management systems on the Internet. Most of the time, you’re only limited by your own imagination when it comes to setting up your own blog.

Wattpad.com
I’ve mentioned Wattpad before. This is a free system where you can publish virtually any length of writing for a vast audience to read. If you’re unsure about whether your writing style will be attractive for publication, this is one of the easiest sites to try. In fact, I am working on a novel right now that I hope will be published on Wattpad before my birthday next month. Everything from single-page short stories to full-length novels are featured on the site. My wife reads quite a few of these. You don’t get royalties or payments from your work, but the site does offer regular contests with cash prizes. At any rate, it could be a valuable tool for exploring your potential as an author.

Create Space
Once I am done with my “real” novel, I am going to use CreateSpace.com. It’s an Amazon company that will help you publish your work for free. There are plenty of options to enhance your experience by paying, such as hiring illustrators or editors, but you don’t need to invest anything if you don’t have a lot of money like myself. There is also a lot of helpful information on the site including a community you can join. This is just one of the many self-publishing sites on the Internet. To find more, simply put in “self publishing” in Google.

It’s never too late to achieve your dreams. Those that you had in childhood may simply require a bit more work today. Don’t assume that you’ll fail before you even try. You don’t want to go through the next 20 years thinking, “what if” like I did. You’ll spend the next 20 kicking yourself in the butt for not trying earlier.

Michael Brockbank
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