My Writing Passion Makes Me Happy
Sometimes people go their whole lives without finding their purpose. I found mine in my writing passion. I love to write. And now it’s my career and my hobby.
The other day, I was busy writing the final chapter to a book that I had been hired to ghostwrite. I was having a little bit of difficulty writing those final words to recap the 150 pages that I just finished. How do you boil down almost 30,000 words into a page or two without losing its meaning?
I decided to take a walk because that sometimes makes my mind go free, shakes loose some of the cobwebs, and causes the ideas to come to me.
One of the interesting things about being self-employed and freelancing is I sometimes lose track of time. As I walked, I realized that it was nighttime and rain was pouring. I’d been busy typing on my home office since 5 AM — well, I wasn’t typing. I use voice dictation, which means that I speak the words and Dragon Professional inserts the text in my document.
The rain didn’t bother me, nor did the fact that it was late at night. I’m in a safe neighborhood, and since I live in Florida, water from the sky is always warm, especially in the summertime.
Making sure that I was wearing some old shoes that could be muddied up without concern, I began my walk. The warm water felt good as it drenched my clothes. I’ve always enjoyed the rain with it’s interesting smells and sounds — especially the flashes of lightning and the clapping of thunder in the distance.
Anyway, I digress.
As I walked, I realized that I found what I’d been looking for my whole life. I found my passion.
I’ve been many things in life: a student , a son living with his parents, the vice president of two different consulting companies, a senior designer of water systems for 3 major cities, the Director of Technical Services for Trader Joe’s, a husband, a Renaissance Festival photographer, and even a photographer of models, supermodels, and dancers.
Every single one of those things had its purpose in my life, and while I walked in the rain I realized everything that happened brought me where I am at this time.
I’m a professional writer and ghostwriter.
I especially like writing books.
My Writing Passion is to Ghostwrite
I enjoy ghostwriting books for other people and I like writing my own works of fiction and nonfiction.
Ghostwriting is fun because it’s challenging to take the thoughts of another person and write an entire book based upon a few interviews and research notes. I have to pretend I’m them, which is a very interesting thing to do. I guess it’s kind of like acting, only instead of using expressions, body language, and speech, I’m using words to portray stories and themes.
My mind is bursting with stories, and I’m enjoying taking those stories from somewhere deep within my brain and weaving a coherent plot with good characters, vibrant backgrounds, and interesting ideas. It’s fascinating taking the small germ of an idea, usually a question in the form of “what if?” and turning that into an entire novelette or novel.
Nonfiction is another passion because I love to help people. Each of my nonfiction books is designed to serve as a guide of sorts. I never knew that I would get such enjoyment out of being a coach or trainer.
As I walked in the rain, listening to the sounds of the frogs croaking, and seeing lizard scatter in front of me to avoid being squished, I acknowledged that I’ve accomplished what most people merely talk about.
I found my purpose, which is to write books.
I’ll tell you something — there is nothing more satisfying than finding and practicing your purpose.
A few of my books on display at a bookstore event.
Richard is the Owner and Senior Writer for The Writing King, a bestselling author, and ghostwriter. He’s written and published 63 books, ghostwritten 40+ books, as well as hundreds of blog articles.
