Turning a Hobby into Professional Writing
For anyone who may know me, or even anyone who’s had a mere conversation with me, I would say there’s no struggle in trying to guess what my favourite writing genre is. I am a fantasy girl, through and through. Fantasy, specifically mythology-based literature, is where I truly discovered my love for reading, and later writing too.
As a child, you are thrown book after book by family and school in an attempt to develop your communication skills, and they never really click. The words on the page are a fleeting memory, long lost to the wind and replaced with the excitement of playtime and the disdain for maths lessons. I definitely was not different from the crowd. I enjoyed reading as much as the next kid, but I wouldn't say I was in love with it.
Abby - content writer for Lyons Tales
Well, that certainly changed. One Christmas morning, I raced down to the tree to open the assortment of presents and eventually came across the book series that changed the entire trajectory of my life. It feels silly saying a children’s book series changed my life, but there’s no denying the impact it had on me. A book series about a mortal girl who was prophesied to save Olympus; it was the stereotypical hero saving the world type of story, but it stole my heart.
I remember the days following that Christmas when I finally decided to sit down with my new book and give it a read. I was immediately entranced. I read the first, the second, and the third books cover to cover, and when I finished, I did it all over again. I would read them in the car, on the walk from the car into school. Every free moment I had, you would see me with one of those books in hand. I would make notes of my favourite pages, and follow my friends around reciting my favourite passages. Looking back now, I am positive I really got on some people’s nerves, but back then, I didn’t care. I was absolutely in love.
As time passed, I eventually moved on to other series and books, but they all remained on a similar theme. The fantasy genre is where I felt at peace. Particularly as I grew older, and started to face the typical teenage problems, I truly gained an appreciation for fantasy. It provided me with the escape I was yearning for. When the world was collapsing around me, I had a safe place to turn to. The characters felt like friends, their struggles were shared with me, and I could share mine in return. I watched these characters and I developed such a strong connection with moving heaven and earth to save the world, overcome their deepest fears and accept their flaws. I was awestruck again and again, and forever inspired by their wisdom and bravery.
The ominous castle on the hill - the most terrifying place of all.
Of course, with my growing obsession with reading fantasy, it was completely unsurprising when I started to write my own fantasy stories. In truth, they ended up being almost carbon copies of my favourite series, but that didn’t matter at the time. I was learning and developing my skills. With each piece of work I created, the characters became more of my own. The world and environment grew beyond what I had read before, and I could proudly say, ‘This is mine, and mine alone’.
With my experience of writing being solely within the fantasy genre, I can be fully honest in saying transitioning out of that style was terrifying. While I was completely confident in my abilities, it was certainly a learning curve trying to adjust my knowledge to suit any other writing genre or style. When it came to content writing, it really made me sit and assess my capabilities. For the first time in my years of writing as a hobby, I felt limited. For the first time, I had to write about reality, and not about some random creation my brain had fabricated.
However, I had to remind myself, this is what I have prepared for. I had to remind myself of what I had spent my entire life consuming. Stories about characters who fought against all odds and won. Who didn’t begin with the knowledge or skills needed for survival, but had to pour their entire beings into practicing and working to develop what they needed. I thought to myself, if they can do it, why can’t I?
A magical boat on the horizon, brought to life by the power of the written word.
Well, I certainly could. I settled my worry and panic and just practiced. I wrote my first piece of content work. Read it, and reworked it several more times until I was happy. It wasn’t perfect, I can happily admit that. The important thing is that I tried, and completed it. I was given more work, and I just kept writing.
Over time, I definitely have improved, and have branched off into other styles of writing too. I never thought my love of writing fantasy would expand and develop into various other writing styles too, however, I am extremely proud it did. I’m sure my favourite characters from that first book series would be proud of me too.
