The journey so far

Cue Carry on my Wayward Son for my fellow supernatural nerds.

So, my last post, for anyone that was interested in how I came to the illustrious position of being some guy with a blog, took us to the first step in my journey. Really I would say that maybe it was the second step, or perhaps that it was some weirdly specific conclusion of a step in motion.

Aforementioned conclusion to a step in progress. Circa 2003, local man walks as photographer takes artistic shot. Neither party were available for comment.

That was how I chose a path.

This time though, I’ll talk about my journey walking down the path. The scene, Newcastle in the summer. I’d just decided that I’m going back to uni with the intention of becoming a freelance writer or at least being paid to do something with writing.

I have always been one to have a plan, whether I communicate that to anyone else or not, I usually like to approach things with some idea of how I’ll do it. My plan for my new career was relatively simple.

• Step one: Go to uni to learn more about writing and about the business of being a freelancer.

• Step two: Become a freelancer.

For those who would loudly proclaim that this is not in fact a plan, fret not. There were subsections (who doesn’t love a good subsection?).

• Year 1 – Learn how to be at uni again (possibly one of the harder parts of the plan looking back).

• Year 2 – Research and planning (who said a plan can’t involve a plan?). Specifically, figure out the steps I need to take to become a freelancer and get everything set up.

• Year 3 – Do the thing.

Winning entry of the photography competition posted before this post. Photographer Brimhold Gunstrom's (not real name) interpretation of my stunning strategic and organised plan. Piece titled, 'Do the thing'.

I am as surprised as anyone that it worked. Of course, if you are reading this then you are either a friend held hostage by obligation or someone who is actually interested in the story so I will elaborate a little.

I’ll skip over the first year as it was just being at uni with not a lot else. And, honestly, so was the first half of the second year. But around June/July of 2020, I had a little meltdown as I realised that I had no idea what I needed to do.

Luckily, a strange character quirk from my Type A family is that when the panic sets in, I usually go into planning mode. I sat down and thought about each path I could take in terms of writing. Editing, publishing, freelancing, journalism, marketing and more. For each one of these, I came up with a step-by-step plan for how I would achieve it.

The Plan. An early draft so please excuse the simplicity, I know it's quite threadbare.

There were some overlaps, and I already knew that while I was vaguely interested in the other paths, freelancing was the goal. Other than the plan I made for that, the rest was really just a way to calm myself down.

So I decided that a Content Mill was a decent place to start as it was convenient. For those that don’t know what those are, think of things like Fiverr. I set up my profiles, scraped together a vague portfolio and was ready to send out proposals by the end of the year.

Now, when I talk about this part I will always say that I got lucky. But luck in these spheres is usually a combination of hard work and an opportunity arising. The lucky part is the specific opportunity coming at that time. The hard work is putting yourself in a position to take any opportunity that arises.

Whatever your personal opinions on luck, I got lucky. In January of 2021, right on schedule somehow, I landed my first client and a dream contract. Writing flash fiction stories about mythological creatures. And getting paid to do it!

I haven’t looked back since.