Making Strides

I have recently taken what I see as a very important step (hopefully not a symbolic one, but we shall see about that) in my writing "career" – I applied for a writing job. I won’t go into a lot of specifics here, but it would be writing for a local business magazine, meaning I actually have some relevant experience on my resume. None of that experience is as a "writer", however, and I’m sure many of the applicants do have writing credentials, so I have to face the facts that this is a long shot. I go into the process optimistically however - if they are willing to take a chance on me, I am sure they will be rewarded.

While I am optimistic and excited about the prospect, I’ll admit that I am also a little scared. All that I have heard about having a writing career in Maine is that it’s hard to make any money. This job is no different in that I won’t be getting rich at it, and my family will have to make some changes to how way spend our money (and maybe to how we earn money as well). We all tend to be frightened by things unknown. I’m no different.

I have wanted to leave my career in accounting and finance for several years, thinking that I would be much happier as a freelance writer. I’ve come to the realization that I am not really a good fit for the type of job that my experience points me toward, and I have a hard time buying into many of the "business" issues that concern my employers. My current employer has an eye to the bottom line in everything that they do, and it leads management to make many decisions that I don’t agree with. It was similar at Megabank, though surprisingly to a lesser extent.

I have always enjoyed writing, and I have always found time to write for the newsletters of the various companies that I have worked for. At pretty much every stop, somebody has read one of my articles and said, "you should be a writer." I always took that as a bit of an overblown compliment - "I want to make you feel good, but I'm not really serious." At my prior job, I had one person tell me that he was serious. "I mean it - you have talent!"

I heard it enough over the years that I started to think that maybe I could consider a career in writing.

My wife was kind, encouraging me and keeping he patience with me well past the timeframe of any other rational person. "Take a class," she would say. She also encouraged me to r espond to ads looking for sports reporters for small or medium-sized local newspapers. "Nah - I don't want to do that. We'd never pay the bills!" Something about the reporter jobs didn't appeal to me (aside from the low pay), for reasons that were difficult for me to articulate at that time. I think I can articulate it now: I want to be a writer, not a reporter.

Reporters need to get the facts and report the facts. I want to do research and analysis and write my findings. I want to educate and sometimes entertain. I don't want to be sent on an assignment that needs to be done in two hours. I want to have time to craft an essay, choosing the right words, presenting the right facts, building to a conclusion. Reporters don't do this, feature writers do this.

The problem is, how does a guy with no writing resume get a job as a Features Writer, paying the same as a middle-management accounting would. The answer is, he doesn't. At least this guy doesn't know how that would happen.

Still, I have persisted with this crazy thought, and now I am taking strides toward my ultimate goal. Why now?, you may ask. Well, as noted above, I am ready to change my job again. As I look at the job listings, there is nothing that appeals to me. I keep thinking, "God! I don't want to do that again!" My resume has led me to exactly the point where the jobs available to me are ones that I don't have interest in - middle management, more about administration than the numbers. Frankly, this isn't my strength, or my interest. I can no longer find positions that I wish to apply for. And staying where I am now really isn't an option for my mental health.

The other factor that has come into play is the fact that I have met a writer who has transitioned from a business career to a writing career. I've plugged the book he's about to publish a couple times at my other blog, and I'll plug his writing business here. Though I haven't had the opportunity to really pick Jim's brain about how he pulled off this transition, he has been quite an inspiration to me. He's now written a book and started his own publishing company to get his book to the people. Since we met, I have been encouraged to write a lot more (as you can see at the Sea Blog), and I am already developing outlines for two writing projects that I plan to work on in the future.

So here I am, rapidly approaching my 40th birthday and at a crossroads in my career, and I am choosing to take a left-hand turn that I would never have envisioned ten years ago. The map is kind of vague about what I'll find down there, but I feel the need to go. I need to be able to afford fuel for my car, however, which is why I applied for the magazine job. I now feel comfortable saying "I am a writer," rather than "I want to be a writer." Please continue to check in to see how I progress in making it happen.