Many people are drawn to write and want to do it professionally. While desire is important, probably the most important factor in becoming successful, you also need to understand craft and have high-level writing skills. In addition, you need contacts, and to understand how the business of writing works. If you have these three things: desire, craft, and contacts, you can make creative writing your career. A career in writing means something different to each writer, and what one person considers success, might not be exactly what another person views as success. In the end though, all writers can move their career forward with training and focus, but it all starts with deciding that a writing career is what you want.

For some, any job writing where you get paid will feel like success. This could mean that you are writing copy for businesses, tech-manuals for corporations, or news articles for a local paper. For others though, they will not be satisfied or consider themselves successful unless they are teaching writing, writing and selling books, short stories or poems regularly. Again, each individual must define what they want their writing career to look like and then go get the appropriate training and support to get from where they are now to where they want to be.

Training to be a writer can take many forms, from classes in craft that are taken as seminars, or online, to Master of Fine Arts degrees in Creative Writing. There are a lot of options out there, and it is possible to make your dream a reality with clarity, focus, determination, and the right training that is tailored to your specific goals as a writer. Don't sell yourself short, you can achieve your writing goals, but you need to be smart about where you use your limited time and resources, and making the decision about what your ultimate goal is as a creative writer is the key first step.

Find out more about creative writing careers and make the right decision for you.