Getting Started

Making the jump from writing for others to writing for yourself?  Here are some resources that helped me make the leap.

I spent nearly forty years writing for other people. Some were easier to please than others, but most of the time I managed to hit the mark. Then I retired and decided to spend my time writing about the things that matter the most to me. I now work for the most difficult taskmaster of all: Myself. And, suddenly, I was no longer hitting the mark. I wasn’t even sure where the mark was.

I wanted to write about my life but didn’t know how those stories fit into the literary world. Then I stumbled across a genre that I’d never heard of when I was working. I finally had a name for what I wanted to write: “creative nonfiction.” That’s it, I thought to myself. That’s the ticket. Sign me up!

A quick Google search led me to creativenonfiction.org, and it was there, just one month into retirement, that I signed up for a six-week boot camp to see what I could learn. Turns out I learned a lot. Even though I’d been writing for decades, this felt completely new to me. 

The class gave me the structure I needed to take a good hard look at myself and what I wanted to say. More importantly, it connected me to a community of writers who were on a similar journey. Together, we learned ways to weave together story ideas. How to overcome writer’s block and our own self-doubt. And how to give and receive feedback. We wrote daily—even on vacation—devouring reading samples and writing exercises like candy. By the time the six weeks was up, I found it hard to say goodbye. But I wasn’t walking away empty-handed. I left with ideas, inspiration, and even a few essays that I could use to jump-start an exciting new chapter of my writing life.

Then it occurred to me, what good is writing if no one ever sees it? I need to find a way to get some of my essays out into the world. I needed to get published. But how? Once again, the answer came from the greatest resource of all, a fellow writer. My dear friend, Jillian VanHefty, started writing for herself years before I did (with considerably more success). And she knew exactly what I needed.

Jillian encouraged me to submit my essays online at submittable.com. To my surprise, it worked. And each time my essays were published, she was there to cheer me on. Because that’s what we do. In Jillian’s words, “writers support other writers!”

That’s the inspiration for this post—to support those out there who want to write about their lives but are not sure how to get started. Every path is different. By sharing mine, I’m hoping you can discover a path that’s all your own. When you do, I’ll be there, cheering you on!