When I was a little girl, I loved to make up stories.
These were both written and through pretend play with my best friend. I had notebooks full of ideas and couldn’t seem to stop myself, which is often the case with writers. Writing has been a part of my life ever since I can remember, but it wasn’t until after I had kids that I could finally turn this passion into a full-time career.
Before I had kids, I worked full-time in recruiting with freelance writing on the side. I never fully gave it up, but I also wasn’t able to fully commit to it. There was only so much I could take on and only so much time I had. I did many different things during this time, including newspaper articles, but things were changing and I got busier at my day job, so eventually things slowed down.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was torn between returning to my job and staying home with her. I had a hard time with the idea of her going into daycare and being separated from her, so I examined what was most important to me.
I found a writing opportunity that I took on at six months pregnant while continuing to work my full-time job because I was still torn about what I wanted to do. The opportunity wasn’t great, but it was a starting point. It was something that I could do here and there when my kids were little too, so I held onto it until my second child was about one-and-a-half years old. I learned a lot there, but it was soon time to move on and grow my career. Being self-employed means that this growth is up to me.
The dramatic life change of having kids also gave me something new to write about, so a bunch of the inspiration came back as I discovered parenting publications around the time my son turned one. I could write on this entirely new topic while going through it, which was helpful.
My first submission started as a way to deal with my emotions over my youngest turning one. Realizing how fast the time goes as your baby grows can be rough, so writing about it and sharing it with other moms who I knew would understand was therapeutic. It helped me understand the feelings I was having and get them out.
Once I had a taste of getting published again and contributing to the household money, I couldn’t stop.
It made me feel closer to who I had been before becoming a mom. I love being a mom, but writing is a part of me. Not having it for a while when they were little made sense, but coming back to it was even better.
I searched for more sites to contribute to and found other writers and editors to connect with. Then, I made friends with them on LinkedIn. So much of writing success is facilitated through reaching out and networking. The writing community is great about helping each other out. We share information about publications and help each other get a foot in the door.
Eventually, you have people who will answer or give you contacts.
Making writer friends is so important no matter what genre or niche you write in. I don’t just stick to one, so I have writing friends in all of them. These kinds of connections take time but are so worth it. Many people you won’t hear back from, but the ones who respond can be great.
Becoming a mother helped me achieve my other dreams of being a writer again. I was able to reconnect with that part of myself after they were born. It also drove my ambition to commit and increase our household income to make things better for all of us. Writing helps with my overall fulfillment. It can be chaotic sometimes, juggling it all, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
