The day I became a writer!
// October 16th, 2009 // Uncategorized
If you don’t know me that well but know I have a magazine you’d just assume I am a writer by trade. You might imagine that I’ve written for tons of other publications and that’s what steered me into having my own magazine.
That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I had never worked at a publication or written much at all after college. I mean I still remember getting praise in my freshmen English class in high school and being told I wrote one of the best papers ever in my English 1B class in college but since my focus was never on being a writer I paid it NO attention.
No I went to school for advertising and music and I have been in marketing or sales jobs my entire life. I done everything from being a Redbull promo team member to being a Marketing Director at a high end Spa, Boutique, Hotel. While writing is something everyone has to do, non of these jobs required much of it and when I started the magazine I wrote because, i was the only writer on staff.
Thing is that people have been implying to me that I’m not much of a writer for a long time. People close to me and those who aren’t but NEVER someone that was a reader (very telling). Those who said what they said was mostly because of my typos and grammer issues. When I’m in a rush or feeling lazy it’s hard to even get through a sentence let alone a whole piece. However, over time I’ve learned this is the case for lots of writers and is the very reason Editors have a job.
What really struck me today was that another writer whom I admire said I had a strong writing style and would love it if I was a contributor to his magazine. This blew me away as most of what I’ve heard has been criticism and not praise (or is it most of what I’ve held on to). So I decided go back and read one of the pieces I had sent him myself and guess what…I was really impressed!
I read a piece that was insightful, dug deeper then most other writers who have interviewed the same person, and was actually a good read. What this day has taught me is summed up best by thinking about rules that apply to one of my other trades, marketing.
Remember your audience, some people may think my writing is awesome while others my hate it. The most important audience is me!
