Tuesday, November 1, 2016

My experience as a freelance writer, just...follow your dreams



When you were young, Did your parents and people around you asked you about your dreams job? Do you remember about your answers? For me, if I tell someone that I wanted to be a writer, everyone would surely laugh at me.

Why? Because I failed in Thai grammar test. My worst subject's score was Thai writing. I was very good at Mathematics and Sciences.

And in Thailand, people think that someone who is a writer does not have secure income. These kinds of market is so limited that people do not want to take risks. Writers have to invest a lot of their time and energy, and if the publishers do not like their stories, it is unlikely that writers will get much return from their books.

So I gave up on becoming a writer. I studied economics instead. I like to study Economics but I love to write novels. I secretly keep writing and did not tell about it to anyone.

I had a job in banking company. And wrote novels at the night. One day, my co-worker found one of them in my computer. She laughed.

“Sirin, Do you write that story?” She asked me. And look surprisingly .

And I was embarrassed and said. “Yes, I write that story.”

My co-worker laughed again “Don't you think, that stories was so… sweet and grilly? I think, Just only dream girls or teenagers who will read that story. Do you sell this novel?”

At that time, I felt so shy and replied. “No, I write for my free time.”

And she said “I think, It will be better for your life if you spend your time on stock market because you can earn money from that.”

I felt bad from this conversation. But it didn’t stop me from living my dreams.

Internet technology was opened my world. I uploaded my novels on websites. I just wanted share them to the world. And again., The same co-worker, she found that. She laughed at me and told everybody about that. She thought I used my time for unproductive activity. Because, in her world, we should have money or some benefits in term of tangible things from every work.

For almost 3 years, I kept on writing on the website without any income. But it did not bother me, because writing was my passion and I was happy and satisfied.

And that day came, when I got a call from a stranger. She was the editor of the publishing company. She said she really liked my stories and wanted to publish it. Her publishing company wanted to publish all of my novels.


And I ask her “Are you sure?”

“Why?” She asked my back.

“Because I think my novels are so sweet. Only day dream girls who want to read it and they want to read it from free website only?”

The editor kept quiet for 2-3 secs. And she asked me again. “Do you love your novels? Do you happy reading your novels?”

I said “Yes.”

She laughed and said sincerely. “I already read all of your novels and I love them too. So don't think about how to sell them. It is my problem not yours” ...Surprisingly, the readers received my novels very well. It seems that the novels have also created a fan base, most of them are teenagers.

Until now, I have thirteen novels sold in Thailand [www.facebook.com/sirindabookstore] . My fans are usually teenagers. Many of them always think that I am only twenty five years old because my novels are so sweet novels.

Now, I can tell everybody that I am a novel writer. Lastly I want to tell all of you that. Don't be shy of all things that you love to do. You will never win if you do not begin.

Just FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!!!

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