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Currently, this blog is devoted to underprivileged writers. That is, writers who cannot afford the luxury of being writers. If it is true that everyone has a story to tell, we can presume that some vast majority of people want to tell their story, whether it is fictional, factional, or otherwise. Most of the highly successful writers (success, here, means well-paid) seem genuinely grateful that they can make money doing what they love. But what about the rest of us? Are our stories any less grand? Probably not, but the literary jungle requires hard work and persistence to survive and a great deal of luck and timing to thrive.

You may have zero control over luck and timing, though that is arguable. But you are certainly THE person in control of your hard work and persistence. Whatever your circumstance, you determine these two elements of success.

Consider hard work, taking the example of a minimum wage worker who works 40 hours per week, has three children living at home, a sick parent, a religious devotion, and no computer (Person X). Person X already works hard by virtue of his description. Yet, if he has a story to tell and wants to tell it for pay, then he must add writing and querying to his queue of responsibilities. When, you ask? I cannot answer that for Person X, as I sometimes struggle with it myself. But I know that the typical minimum wage worker has mandated breaks and lunch each day – valuable time that could be used for writing. Perhaps after the children go to bed, he can write. Perhaps he can go to the library on Saturdays with his kids and work on the computer while they play.

If Person X has the goal of being paid to write, he must first devote time and attention to writing. But he must also find peers to review his work. Not his mom. Not his co-worker. Definitely not his boss. He must find a writing group in his area or invent one and advertise it in the local paper. Writers need writers. Writing in isolation may produce stale, out-of-touch, weak manuscripts. As iron sharpens iron, writers sharpen one another.

Persistence is another necessary element. In carving time to write regularly. In researching the genre. In following the market trends. In querying – sending work to agents and publishers. And, accept rejection. If an agent or publisher doesn’t like your work enough to see it through the publishing process, then their rejection is a blessing. You only want to work with someone who can see the project through, so keep hunting until you find the right match and continually improve your manuscript.

So, the lesson here is that underprivileged writers must focus on hard work and persistence to succeed financially at writing. Does it suck that you have to work 40 or more hours a week and care for family and still find time to write? Yeah. But that is a choice entirely within your control. If you can’t or won’t or don’t want to, then you can grieve it and leave it in the category of “not important enough right now to beat out its competitors for time and attention”. You can take stock regularly as your life evolves and pursue writing later when it does beat out some other responsibility. Life is full of prioritized decisions. Is writing more important than family? I hope not. Is writing more important than lunch? Maybe. Is writing more important than working to provide today’s needs? Certainly not. Is writing more important than watching three hours of television every night, playing on your company’s soft ball team, clubbing on the weekends, surfing the Internet?

Take an honest review of how you spend your time before you moan about having no time to write. Perhaps there is time here and there that you could write instead of doing other things. And, if there is no time today, reevaluate as often as you can: you may surprise yourself at the wealth of time you find.

-Amanda Salisbury, writer, ShyJot Publications LLC