Big Dreams, One Life.

When I was at school in the late eighties, my teacher wanted us to write a fiction story for an essay. I had already started writing out of school, and I wrote quite a bit,

I was around 11 years old when I wrote that four paged essay and my teacher checked it for plagiarism because he thought that I'd copied it from a book!

Lucky for me, I had no qualms with this because I already knew that I hadn't copied it from a book! I had spent all day working on that essay, and I left my entire class in awe of it.

I was beaming because I got top marks for it!

Almost every teacher at school had said that I should start a career in writing, but there were many out of school who put me down for it, and I had a lot of bullies who constantly made me feel incapable.

I spent a long time recovering from trauma and mental illness once I left school. However, a few years ago, I picked up the pen again.

I would sit in my room and write most of my stories using pen and paper. They only got seen by myself for a long time, because I was afraid that I wasn't good enough to 'live my big dream.'

Then came Vocal.

I have been writing here for a number of years.

When I first started, I struggled with nerves which made it hard to hit the publish button. I told myself that I'd never make it as a writer.

It is that word 'can't' that so many of us get stuck with, that can put blocks in the way of starting to write online.

Writing for yourself is one thing, but nothing is more nerve-wracking than publishing your words online where everyone can see them.

However; don't get stuck on telling yourself that you can't do it, because you can do it with a little effort, patience, and time.

• Practice until you feel confident
• Just write any words on a page; you don't need to put them online at this stage.
• Write over and over again until you feel confident.
• Rewrite a piece that you're unhappy with, rather than discard it. Bad work can turn into good work with a little extra effort.
• Once you're ready to write online. Just do it! Even if you don't think that your work is good enough; if you do it often enough, you'll improve over time.

I have taken steps to write e-books since I started writing, and I have a few pieces from here which have been published such as Bethany's Song

The story started here on Vocal. However, I intend to write a second book as a follow on for the story, which is why I published it as an e-book.

I am also extending other stories into books, one of which I wrote as a short version here, but is being extended into a bigger story in the form of an e-book and maybe, a paperback. You can read the first, shorter version by clicking below.

• I started with a lot of 'what ifs'
• What if I'm no good?
• What if I'm useless?
• What if nobody reads my work?
• What if I can't do it?
• What if people hate my writing?

I could sit and wallow in more questions, but they simply hold me back and then I will be staring at a blank page!

I am not progressing by doing what many other writers do:

Trying to be the perfect writer.

Perfection does not exist in my work, only the workings of a brain, lots of tapping on a keyboard, and using ink until my pen runs dry.

Attempting to be perfect will not help you to achieve your dream, but practice, dedication, and effort will.

You just need to be kind to yourself.

You only get one life, so why waste your big dreams?

The only way to make a big writing dream come true is to write, without fear and with deaf ears to negativity.

If your writing for you, you'll make your dreams come true.

I'm doing it, and so can you!