Hey everyone,
There was a musician I knew fifteen years ago. I was just starting out as a writer, he was just beginning to start recording songs.
He had talent. Far more talent as a musician than I had as a writer. I knew this. I recognized this. I assumed he would make a career from his music. I wasn’t sure I would ever make it as a writer.
I believed in his work so much I bought and designed a website for his work. I did some PR. I encouraged him to write more songs and record more music. I offered to send them out. He did record every now and again when the muse paid him a visit. Usually, he just got drunk and high and worried that he’d be stuck in his high-paying, high-stress job forever.
At some point, I got tired of helping him and started focusing on my own career. The domain for his website expired and I didn’t renew it. He stopped recording songs.
I kept writing. I bought my own website and started sending out even more of my work. I didn’t finish writing the first novel I started, or the second. But I pitched articles and essays and built up a very nice career as a journalist writing for some top publications. I became a content marketing writing and earned as much as $450 an hour for several years.
I didn’t finish the first two novels but I did learn what didn’t work and why they stalled. I wrote up a nonfiction book proposal and got myself offers from several agents. I signed with one in NYC. We parted ways a year later and I tried my hand at another novel. This time I finished it. I self published some nonfiction.
When I first started as a writer, I had some talent but what I had more of was hunger. Fifteen years later, I have thousands of clips, credits with top publications, a highly-respected (and badass) agent, a creative business, and an income I could not have imagined when I first started.
I still have the hunger.
Talent is important because it gets you started. But it is hunger and drive that give you the momentum to get to your goals. And it is commitment and consistency that keep you there.
Cheers,
Natasha