Trying (and not quite succeeding) to become a writer

If you're anything like me, you've always dreamed of walking into a Waterstones or a WHSmith and finding your name proudly displayed across the book in a large, bold font. And if you're really like me, you'd want to see that book as high up the best-seller list as possible. It's a dream that I've held on to for a decade of writing (I wrote my first short story when I was 13, yes, it was bad), and if those ten years have taught me anything, it's that envisioning your name on the front of a book is a fuck load harder than actually getting anybody reputable to print something you've written.

To be honest I'm not entirely sure why I'm writing this. I suppose it's a kind of 'what to do, what not to do' type of situation, but I want anybody reading this to remember that I haven't yet had a book published or a script brought to life on the big screen, so make sure to take everything I say with a pinch of salt. Because lets be honest, what the fuck do I know?

While I haven't had anything published or produced yet, it's not to say that there haven't been any successes, although none are bigger than being selected for a screenwriting competition or receiving a glowing review from my Mum. But on the whole, the successes don't hold a candle to the glaring masses of rejection lurking throughout my E-mail's. And I think that's the most important thing to know if any young writer's end up reading this (which I'll be the first to admit, is pretty unlikely), you will get rejected. Even Stephen King, arguably one of the best writers of all time, got so many rejection letters that the sheer weight of them was enough to tear a nail free from his bedroom wall. So my first tip really is to not take the rejections to heart, which is hard at first. Really hard. But stories are subjective. And what one person discards could be another person's new favourite story. I think a big part of finding success is in waiting for the person (be that an agent or a publisher) that truly believes in you. I like to think that that's why it takes so long, because when you finally get that breakthrough, you'll be glad that everybody else rejected you. That's what I hope, at least.

My second tip would be to write the stories you want to read. You have to accept that there will be a period of time, be that months, or years or even decades, in which the only person that reads your story (or more than the first three chapters, at least) will be you. And let me tell you, redrafting and editing becomes tedious very very quickly. So to save yourself hours of boredom, write a story that you love. Write a world that you want to spend hours and hours of your life in. Write the book that you would happily spend your money on. The book that jumps off the page at you. Write something that you can be proud of, because beyond that nothing else really matters... Apart from earning a living, of course.

I think my final tip is glaringly obvious (as were both the previous two) but I'll say it nonetheless. Work hard. No matter what you've done, you can always do more. Don't just write one book or one script and settle down, because the moment a publisher or an agent likes your work they'll ask what else you've written, and you don't want the answer to that question to be 'fuck all.' What's more, you should only really pursue a career as a writer if it's something you have a genuine passion for. And as much as I've mentioned money and success and published work throughout this, the truth is I only write because I love it. I think the ability to create characters out of thin air, characters that I learn to love or hate, is a joy. And I think even in writing this right now, I've somehow convinced myself to go back to my novel and begin my millionth redraft.

I think the most important thing to take from this (if anything I've rambled on about is important) is to never give up. There will be bad days and there will be good days, but at the end of the day we get to spend time in world's we've created entirely by ourselves. In world's where anything is possible, world's where we make the rules. And that's a good way to spend time. With a wage or without.