“Becoming a writer is easier than you think.”

I had joined a writing group through Nicole Riveira’s Stop Writing Alone group in March of 2021.

I wanted a space where I could meet other writers and have accountability with my projects. The group was like a mini writer boot camp, where, for two months, you logged in Monday thru Friday for writing sprints, critiques, and coffee chats. It was so refreshing to be surrounded by writers of all walks of life from those who saw it as a hobby to those who made it their careers.

It was during one of those coffee chats that one of the women said, “Becoming a writer is easier than you think.”

To which I thought, Sure it is, because at that point I couldn’t see a life outside of teaching.

The woman started to talk about how someone needs to write the copy on the Advil bottle and someone needs to write the instructions for the Ikea furniture.

I had the *ping*. Someone has to write the copy for the company websites. Someone has to write the marketing emails.

Armed with a new way of thinking, I started to consider what my interests and niches were. The world of writing is wide, but where did I fit?

I thought maybe writing for a tarot card company could be fun. My husband thought that was not a great idea. I thought maybe an editorial assistant position or internship at a literary agency could be interesting. Again, my husband tried to veer me in a different direction.

And then the most obvious answer flicked me right between the eyes: my niche is education.

I started looking for educational writing opportunities and found one through a company my friend was working for. They had an opening for a content writer. I sent my resume in and scheduled an interview with them in April of 2021.

All the while I continued to work my teaching job and rewrite my novel as I started the wheels to change my life.

I got the writing job and put in my notice on May 1st, 2021. I was going to be a full time writer. A different version of my dream, as I had always wanted to be a novelist, but now when people asked me what I did for a living, the answer was officially, “I’m a writer.”

I left teaching in June 2021. The night of graduation, I came home, sat on the couch, and sobbed into my husband’s shoulder, “I’m not a teacher anymore.”

What happened next was the hardest era of my life to date.

Let’s talk about it next Saturday.