Letters to the Editor
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Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you should do it!
The thing I learned as a teenager, between the dance and music lessons that my mother felt would make me a well rounded individual was that just because I was good at something didn't mean I was meant to do it.
LW, do you feel compelled to write on a regular basis? Is there something that you can't help but to put on paper? Were you ever that person?
If not, then don't make yourself be someone you aren't. Don't make yourself into to something just because the hoop is there for you to jump through. Or maybe you thought you were one type of writer and really you're another. Maybe your an editor/copywriter type, not a "great American novel"/fitness blogger type. Or maybe your imagaination just needs a little direction, like say if you were a reporter or screen writer.
But if you're serious about being a writer, then don't take a job as a trainer. Its a social and financial crutch. Short of you discovering your calling as a trainer, it makes it that much easier to put off climbing that literal mountain.
Also, don't make money a factor. Yes you want to make decent money, but don't let it be some stumbling block. You know one of those "I could make more as a trainer" blocks.
Oh, and forgive yourself for having these introspective questions. This may be the first time you aren't on some track, and you shouldn't (if you are) let the fact that you have these questions about yourself get in the way of answering them.
Good luck! :D
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Writing full time
The full time writers of my group are non fiction writers-- writing about business, medical stuff, water conservation. One of them does that to pay the bills in order to write his fiction and screenplays. The rest of us write as much as we can, and pay our bills with other jobs. Many, many successful literary authors that I know earn their living with the college classes and lectures that they give.
I think the goal the LW has set is actually quite overwhelming.
Break it into small, achievable steps. Like, maybe, a topic. (A number of topics) then tackle the one that connects most meaningfully. Life and writing are so different from the classes we excelled at. There was always a syllabus attached, and always
a guide as to how to get the A. Good luck, and, really, have fun, or else what is the point?
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Cary Assumes You Will Be A Writer
But maybe that's not who or what you are. Anyone can apply Edison's maxim that "success is one percent inspiration and 99 per cent persperation." But to be a writer one may have to turn that on its head. Edison inverted. Maybe you're an inventor and not a writer. Or something else and not a writer.
I majored in art, and I can draw stuff, but I'm no artist. I don't even know how I wound up in an art curriculum. Then again, I'd never have excelled at anything in school unless it touched me in that secret place, and the art wasn't "secret." That was the problem. It was just something I did.
Writing has been something else. As Cary points out, you must feel compelled to write. I suffer from that disorder. I'm not sure, though, that it can be willfully turned on. In fact, Cary and I have been around that tree before. I don't agree with the "structured" or maybe a better word is "forced" writing routine. And to get to the shadowland where the craziness resides is not a willful act.
It doesn't take anything away from your accomplishment. You earned a master's degree in a difficult curriculum and you can use that in myriad ways. But you don't have to be a writer because of it. You haven't wasted a moment doing that work. Now you can do what moves you, whatever it may be, and you have that degree as evidence of your ability to follow through, should that question ever arise.
Now go be. You do well with things you're great at. Go there!
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Did you say 9 months?
It took me years to get settled into my career and then I switched to a different one.
Take some time, and remember... baby steps. With intention, they add up.
Good luck!
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Transition Blues - or Giving Yourself Permission To Live Before You Write
Aw, LW, you just have a case of the Transition Blues. You said it yourself - when you're in school, someone else sets the topics, someone else sets the agenda, someone else sets the format. You've been used to this framework and performed well enough within it to get that Masters. After the time and expense of getting that degree, it's only natural that your friends and family assume that you're going to write that Great American Novel.
Thing is, though, I don't see anything in your letter that says "my passion is for writing". I see something more like "I like the dream of me doing something creative, not the usual 9-5" You crave a job that has flexible hours and a certain level of satisfaction at a visible result - that's why you're a fitness trainer. If you're getting those particular needs met through your fitness jobs, you're not going to push for them through writing.
My husband is a writer. Always has been, even as a child. He has a long-term day job that pays the bills but doesn't even come close to feeding his soul. He scribbles constantly - has a mini notebook he jots things down in when they strike him. He comes home from that job, kicks me off the computer, and writes. Not to sell - he might like the idea, but that's not really the motivator for him. He hasn't even tried to market his writing. It's just what he does. He has all these terrific, weird, funny, scary, interesting ideas in his head that he wants to see to their limits, in all their permutations. He's a writer - it's who he is, it's how he sees the world. Do you have that in you?
If not, well, you may be someone who has a knack for a phrase who is good in an academic environment, the subject of study regardless. Nothing wrong with that - hell, most of us are like that. But you may not be a writer.
If you are, or if you want to see if you are, set yourself a goal. I don't think setting a goal of a number of lines will help you - I think you lack inspirational spark. What do you read every day? Advice columns? Personal ads? Science/tech news? Read 'em and riff. No set number of lines - just let it flow. Read it the next day, after you've had a chance to sleep and reboot your brain.
And if you aren't a writer, after all? Nothing wrong with that. Don't let your family pressure you either way. You have a right to change your mind in life. And back again. Who knows what you might find yourself driven to write in 10 yrs, when your life has settled down a bit and you've seen enough of the world to really write something earthshaking?