I get asked to answer this question SO often: “I know a book would help my profile and open up new opportunities for my business, but how do I write a book if I’m not a good writer?”
Let me tell you a little story to answer that.
When I was in primary school I used any spare moment that I wasn’t dancing or eating or sleeping to write stories at my bedroom desk. I was obsessed with writing. I had worked hard to get my pen license and I cherished the baby blue Papermate that I was gifted when that license was mine. I wrote short stories, essays and even penned a series of poems about Oliver Twist discovering his real parents and a sister!
I wrote reams and reams of words, filling notebooks until my hand ached. I travelled into far-flung places in my mind and created such vivid characters I believed they were my friends. A couple of my stories won prizes at local library and bookstore comps, and I was a bit of a goody-2-shoes in my English class – an A- was a fail in my books.
This writing ‘success’ continued throughout high school. The most amazing English Literature teacher introduced me to the classics in year 10 and I fell in love with him and Heathcliff (of Wuthering Heights fame) simultaneously. I was the Editor-in-Chief of our school magazine and I actually relished all the essays I was demanded to write. I was no Jane Austen though – my writing was good but not genius, and yet I still dreamed of writing for a living.
Reality hit at university however. Suddenly I was a little fish in a big pond, and whilst I was still getting great marks for my academic research writing, my creative writing floundered. I felt misunderstood and criticised by one of my teachers and I couldn’t get an A no matter how hard I tried.
That teacher crushed my big dreams of being a professional writer.
