If you wanna know the truth about it.....It's Damn Hard to be good at something. It takes a lot of work even if you actually have a talent for it.
Like most, I had dreams of what I wanted to do when I was young. One thing in particular. I even went to school for it, and was hired on at a place. But, within the week, I failed. Wasn't as good as I believed I could be, so I literally walked away from it and quit. It was hard giving up that dream, but I knew that whatever talent I did possess wasn't enough.
I picked another totally unrelated field to work in, went to a Tech School, and worked a lotta years at it. I would say I was quite moderately successful at it, but eventually had to quit due to the physical toll it was extracting on parts of my body. Along the way, I also worked at a place where I made millions of pounds of a common everyday product, and also drove a forklift for awhile. Today, I do something else I also discovered I have a talent for, planning and organizing events.
It the seventh and eighth grades, I wrote for, and published, the school newspaper. I was a small school, and there was no school newspaper before I came along and did mine. Besides school news, I wrote of local and national news as well. I started it off by myself, but eventually had a staff of 2 who also contributed articles, and even some teachers wrote articles for it. I didn't give this away for free, but sold it for a nominal sum per copy. That school was not a public school, and I left after the eighth grade because the school only went to the eighth grade. Far as I know, after I left, there was no school newspaper again.
I only wrote those short stories now and then after that, more afterwards as I gained better proficiency at it. Some were even published in obscure publications. This may sound funny, but I think "The Discouraged Testicle" was my best short story because It came to mind so easily....But, I certainly couldn't have that published mainstream, now could I ?
Writing is usually tough for me though. I'm not a fast typist, never had that skill. The ideas come far faster than I can put them down on the screen. For just a post of 1000-2000 words will sometimes take 2-4 hours for me to complete and proofread. Then, I have to play the Reader, and reread the whole thing, with these things in mind....(1) is it interesting enough to hold a random reader's attention ?....(2) does it advance the story well ?...(3) is it structured properly so that the reader can easily understand it ?....(4) does it lead to, or contribute to, the final end of that part of the story, or the final end of the story ? {Because, as you see, one must have an idea as to where the story will conclude}.
Being a relative good writer is a tough job. Being an excellent one is even harder. It's like that in life, about anything you do. You may never achieve fame and acclaim for what you do, but that shouldn't be your goal. Your goal should be the personal one of a job well done to the best of your ability.
So, Evann, don't ever give up. There are literally millions of things out there to try. Find those that make YOUR life worthwhile. Fame and Acclaim are fleeting things, and very few ever become Legends in their own time.
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