This guest-post is by Ben Moore.
“From when I first read books I knew I wanted to be a writer. My 12 year old self-wrote a story about a boy who had a secret pet Pacman who would constantly get him in trouble and then save the day, but I did not bring it to an end.
A few years later I tried to write a mystery, but that didn't pan out. At 18, I co wrote a play that was produced three night's running in my local town hall. In university I edited the arts pages of the student newspaper and co-edited one issue. Then, I had to start earning some money and I did not have the motivation to make my career out of writing. So it took second place to sales and became a hobby that I love even though it has frustrated me over the years for just being a hobby. Since then, many projects have been left unfinished; some just begun and others reached the dizzy heights of the start of the second draft.
Throughout my career I would always return to the discarded stories and instead of finishing them I would start another one. Then, a few years ago, through a screenwriting course, a group of us were commissioned to write a comedy pilot for a television network; we were paid, but, unfortunately, they chose not to make it in the end.
So back to work and back to the routine of starting and stopping but always writing in the background. Then, suddenly in the last month, sort of out of nowhere, I landed a job blogging and at the same time a small part of me deep inside woke up. It still has sleep in its eyes and has not yet had breakfast. I cannot believe myself that after all these years my writing skills are suddenly paying off and on top of that I have a story that is closer to the finishing post than any of my other efforts have ever been before. Mine isn't a success story but I know I love writing.
So if you feel that you need to express yourself, light a fire under yourself and write every day. It is never to late to finish whatever you are working on. Do not let anything get in your way because I, like you, want to hear our names when people are listing well-known and respected (one way or another) creators of stories and purveyor of our names unique ideas.”
