It was a rainy Friday evening last December. I was on a bus to nowhere relevant. Another year was about to pass without me having done what I had pledged to, almost 11 months earlier.

I wanted to travel, I wanted to be able to afford nice meals out, and most importantly, I wanted to be able to build a future. I wanted to write for fun, I wanted to write for money, and I wanted to create my legacy by publishing several great works of fiction. I knew I had a novel in me, I knew the characters and the plot. But I didn't have the skill or the time to write. I knew life could be filled with more freedom, the freedom to finally be 'me' and to do the things that I knew I was capable of. But I didn't know how to access it.

That last desire did feel grandiose, yet being able to write for money seemed like an achievable, even humble goal. A pen for hire, a scribe, a wordsmith; a profession as old as time - surely with today's tools & technology, it was a pathway open to me.

These thoughts were playing on repeat. Every play-through led me to the same conclusion; it was a pathway open to me. And, dear reader, it is a pathway open to you.

The thought that I was getting close to making a life-changing decision excited me far too much for me to sit still. I didn't get off the bus, though, that would have been far too exciting. Instead, I decided that I would fill my mind with distraction. I couldn't look out of the window - packed buses have foggy windows when it rains. Instead, I turned to my book. I didn't know at that moment, but doing so would be far from a distraction; it would be the next step in my character arc. The plot would continue, whether I, the protagonist, intended it to or not.

The Epiphany

I was reading a 'language hacking' book - I was trying to learn Italian. The author was talking about the debate between 'structured learning' and 'total immersion' (moving to Italy and learning as you go). Both pathways had their benefits, neither seemed quite right for me. Luckily, the author had some 'language-learning-specific' techniques for simulating total immersion, without one having to turn one's life upside down and move to a new country.

That's when I had my idea - 'strategic immersion'. I could do this with writing! It might be better than giving up everything and putting pen to paper with nothing but a hope and a dream.

How To Do Strategic Immersion.

Integrate the following into your current life. Find the time.

Step one - first 48 hours and beyond:

-Accept now, that you are a writer. I know you are - you at least send emails, text messages etc. You make things happen with the written word. You write to manifest a result: You are a writer.

-Writers, you write. You must. Write every day. Write with intention. Write different things, but write. Once you have read an article, write about it, write a response to it. Write.

-Notice when you write, and how you can manifest destiny with the written word, even if it's just a shopping list that you give to your partner. "I am a writer" - say it to yourself.

-Submit your writing to Gemini and ask it to critique it. Note your patterns of bad writing and work out how to improve them. (Run-on sentences are my flaw)

Step two: - within the first week:

-Up the stakes. Write short pieces and submit them for publication.

-Get an online presence. Upload your writing to a portfolio, adapt your socials.

This will begin to feel very real at this point. Welcome to being a professional writer. But for proper immersion, you must continue...

Step three: - within the first month:

-Up the stakes further now. Write to other people, and ask them to pay you to write for them. I explain all this in the resource cache. This forces rapid improvement.

-Continue and repeat. The rest is a little too nuanced to go into here. The end goal is that you get to Step 4, whereupon the majority of your income comes from writing, so that you can either continue to do that, or you can buy yourself the time to finally get your novel written, or your almanack, or the children's fiction starring your own child as the main character. Whatever it is that you really want to write, at step three, you can.

And that's the method I champion. The story doesn't end here.

This is not some wild idea that I have, it's not 'what I think you should do' or 'what I would do if I was starting today'. It's what I am actually doing, now. I'm between step 3 and 4.

At the moment, I am the protagonist of this story. But this is your call to adventure (this is a link). I invite you to branch off from my story, into your own. You are the main character now, and I invite you to keep the plot flowing, and click the button below.

I look forward to seeing you on the inside.

To your future,

Paul

Penman | Wordsmith | Scribe-for-hire | Pro Writer