I’ve been writing a blog since the end of 2009. I’d been writing before that, but after years of writing assignments for school, the writing I was doing after I graduated was work-related. It wasn’t until I wrote my book that I sat down and dedicated every day for six weeks to complete my first draft.
Before writing my book, a friend asked me to submit a piece to a magazine she was the editor of. I had never had a request to write for someone other than myself before, and I wasn’t sure what to write. The article I submitted ended up being the inspiration for my book, and it was the first time that I had people reach out to me in response to something I had done.
Even after writing a book, I didn’t consider myself a writer. I remember years ago, at a networking event, saying that I would be a happy woman if I could get paid to write. At the time, I didn’t think there was a way for me to get paid to write. I wasn’t a writer, after all!
Years later, it took the pandemic for me to entertain the idea that I could get paid to write. As a self-proclaimed introvert, the idea of working from home on my own was exciting. I was in another country when I experienced an uptick in requests from my Fiverr account, and before returning home, a company hired me for my first freelance job.
It’s been almost two years since I started writing as a freelancer, and it’s been an exciting journey. I moved from writing about various topics a company requests, from Jet skis to the lifespan of a spider, to writing career guide articles for Indeed.ca. Now, I’m pitching articles I write for makeuseof.com with a focus on work and career. The bonus of the last job a company hired me for is that I get paid to write them, and I get paid based on how many people read them.
I feel like I’m coming into my own as a writer. Grammarly has taught me to let go of using passive voice, and I appreciate the weekly reports on my activity and word usage that it sends me.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. If you give a skill 3 hours a day, that means just over nine years. I’ve been writing more than three hours a day for the last two years, and I’ve been writing in some way, shape or form for the past 14 years. I don’t know if I’ve reached 10,000 hours yet, but I believe I’m getting close.
If you’ve been on my mailing list from the beginning, you probably can say better than me if I’ve improved since I started this journey! 😊❤️