How Other People’s Writing Shaped My Life

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Do you remember the first time you opened up a book?

My uncle had a HUGE collection of story books that had started to collect dust in the bookshelves at my grandparents’ home. These were books that smelled like books. Not like the new ones we have now.

I was about 5 years old. I could barely read novels, but I was amazed with his collection. I picked up one of the books and started to flip through the pages. The letters were too small that it gave me a headache. I flipped the book to its cover and tried to read the title out loud.

“The Perfect Spy.” I didn’t understand what it meant.

Two years later I remembered that same book, and I became curious as to what it was about. When I reached the bookshelf, I noticed all the  books were gone. I got upset. I wanted to read a story book that had more than fifty pages.

The next day I went to our school’s library and picked up a random book from the shelves at the ‘Fiction’ section. I couldn’t remember what it was, but I’m pretty sure it was a Hardy Boys book by Franklin W. Dixon.

Little did I know that I would end up reading every Hardy Boys book in our school library. Once I was finished with all of them, I moved on to the other Hardy Boys books sold in book stores. This was where my obsession with spies, detectives and espionage began.

I became a spy, a warrior and a dragonslayer

I was in elementary school when I started documenting my adventures. Stories that were about me and my daring mission in war-torn lands. I was a great master-spy. The James Bond that would surpass all James Bonds. But it was nowhere near a professionally written book.

In high school I got to read books about knights and their adventures. I wrote about stories of how in one of my missions, I was transported back in time, and transitioned from a modern-day spy into a medieval knight, sword to protect my king and save countless princesses that I would be making love to. I was also know as ‘the slayer of dragons’.

I wrote a total of 10 short stories about my adventures as a knight. Those were good times.

I was all this, and more (even in real life)

My life from then was like an adventure to me.

I hadn’t written a single short story in years. My life became dry. Until that fateful day when I fell in love with a real-life princess.

I didn’t know how to ask her to go out with me, so I turned to what I loved doing since I was a kid. Writing.

I had written the one love letter that would rule all love letters.

We’ve been together since then.

Stories and other people’s writing shaped my life

And now that I’m at that age where I need to make a living, I turned to writing.

But this time, it was weird. Back in school I was one of the most creative writers among my peers. Today, I’m someone who could only dream of standing out in the crowd and write words that would inspire other people. It’s not that I lost my creative side. It’s because I lacked the skills of a professional writer.

But it was my dream, nonetheless. To bring stories to people. To bring meaning to lifeless words. To end poverty. To bring world peace.

All this with my writing.

There’s nothing else that I would love to do more than to write words that other people enjoy reading.

To bring meaning and beauty to simple letters, numbers and text.

You have this dream too

I know you do. You also dream of writing beautiful art and making the whole world to not only listen, but to believe your writing.

You want to make a living doing the one thing that you love. Writing.

This is where mentors come in.

There are writers out there, skilled writers who would love to share their knowledge and professional advice on bringing your words to life.

And they can help you become the writer that you’ve always dreamed of. They can shape you to write your own amazing stories. To use words to enlighten people, and make them want to listen to you more. Whether you’re a blogger, author, writer or dreamer, these people can help you.

And you’re in luck.

James Chartrand of Men with Pens is on her own mission to bring out the professional writer in you.

She’s currently doing Damn Fine Words.

It’s a writing course aimed to molding dreamers into professional writers, so that you could write intense content that would boost your business to heights you could never achieve alone.

I want this course, and you should too

I’m not only here to write amazing stories. I’m also here to make a living.

There are thousands of freelance writers who are already reaping the benefits of their words.

And I want in on that. I want to hone my writing so I could make a living out of it. Because at the end of every day, it’s always about how much I can afford to give my family the life they deserve. A good life. No. A great life.

I want to inspire and teach people to write amazing stories. I want to write books that people want to buy, and talk about for years to come.

And this is how I can do that. It’s Damn Fine Words.

Because every spy, warrior, dragon slayer and of course, every writer needs to have a mentor.

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