Writing Wrongs

Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

Part of girlhood is waiting for the moment in your life that Warner tells you you’re not good enough to go to law school. I’d sailed through my life happily, with nothing much to knock me off my path… until one morning in early Spring.

I was at an event in my local area when I got chatting to one of the journalists from my local news place. She was there to cover the event. We were having a really interesting conversation about her career, how she started out as a volunteer and gradually grew within the newspaper to become a lead writer. As a recent graduate, this was a really exciting conversation to be having. I hadn't met a real life writer before! Someone who actually got paid to do this!

The conversation was going really well, and she began asking me about my own interests, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to tell her about my own career goals and my love of writing. I was looking for a little advice, writer to writer - how to get my foot in the door, what my first step should be. I told her about my dissertation, an investigation into what Shakespeare can teach us about Love Island, and how my passion was writing think pieces inspired by pop culture and personal experiences, and I’d love to write a novel one day, but I am obviously open to writing anything I can. When all’s said and done, words are words, and I want to string them together professionally one day. Her response?

“You’ll never be able to make money from your writing.”

I couldn’t quite believe what she’d just said. I was confused - she was making money from her writing, it was her full time occupation… so why couldn’t I? I have to admit I felt a little upset. I’d never spoken to anybody about my writing before, so to have done so with such confidence and been met with discouragement was quite a shock. She told me that there just wasn’t much room in the industry for “girls like you”, that there were enough of me already. I’d like to note here that she’s never read my work. It’s okay though - she said I could post long form pieces about my job on LinkedIn. Sure, I thought, everyone wants to read about my stint in digital marketing.

I smiled and nodded, because I was raised to be kind and polite, but on the inside I was seething. How dare you tell me I can’t do something! You don’t know me at all! You’ve not even read my stuff! It’s not that I’ve never been told “no” before, it’s more that I’ve never been told not to try in the first place.

Naturally, I decided to ignore everything she’d just said. Turns out I wasn’t looking for advice, I was looking for a cheerleader, and considering I couldn’t find it in her, I'd have to be my own. I went home, baked some chocolate chip muffins to soothe my soul, and watched Legally Blonde, because what else would you do in this situation? I grabbed my laptop and started to Google until I stumbled upon a cute little site called Substack. The rest is history.

I decided that I would stop asking people for advice I didn’t really want to listen to, and instead make a baby step toward my goal.

So, take my advice, and ignore any advice you’re given that doesn’t resonate with you. Even if it means you ignore what I just said. At the end of the day, the only person in control of your own life is yourself, and it’s not worth closing the door on your dreams just because some random person doesn’t want to support them. You don’t even have to make any noise about it, just wait until they walk into a bookshop one day and see your name on the pile of best sellers. 💖

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