Having read one of R J Chamberlain’s recent posts – Triond: A Year in Review (Triond: A Year in Review), I thought I should add my two penn’orth!

I began submitting articles to Triond around 10 months ago.  Even as a kid I loved reading and writing and, at the grand age of nine I received my first accolade for my writing skills!  My local village school was visited by a well known children’s author who wrote a series of books regarding a sardine sandwich loving school boy called Bobby Brewster.  The author asked the children to write a Bobby Brewster story and, out of the 60 or so children that attended the school, my story was chosen to be submitted to the author.  Unfortunately I didn’t get paid for it, but I did get a letter from the author.  That was back in the 1960s!

My love for English didn’t diminish over the years but, as is so often the case, we’re led into a ’secure’ career rather than following our dreams and my life was no exception.  I left school and, true to form for girls in the 1970s, I was encouraged to study shorthand and typing as this was considered to be something ‘to fall back on’ whatever I finally decided to do career-wise.  Needless to say, once I’d achieved my qualifications I immediately went into an office – a nationally renowned firm of lawyers - and that’s where I stayed for the next 25 years.  During that period of servitude I met my partner and settled into a life of domesticity so any ideas I had of becoming a writer were shoved firmly into the back of my mind.

It wasn’t until I was in my early 40s that I suddenly decided I’d had enough of my humdrum life and, after lengthy discussions with my partner, I took one of the biggest gambles I’d ever taken in my life and gave up paid employment to become a freelance typist working from home back in 2003.  Everything was trickling along nicely until about a year ago when the property market took a nose dive.  I type primarily for property lawyers, surveyors and estate agents so, rather than sit around at home watching Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey while waiting for work to arrive, I decided to have a look around on the internet to see if I could supplement my income by writing.

I came across Triond by accident and decided it may be worth a stab.  It seemed I’d get paid for my efforts so I submitted a few articles and was a little depressed at the amount I earned.  However, the writing bug had now well and truly caught me in its pincers and I found myself making lists of things I was interested in writing about and I finally found my perfect subject – history.  I then carried on publishing on Triond purely for enjoyment.  I’ve made loads of friends and have had a lot of support from Trionders which has given my confidence a real boost.  Thanks to those friends I’ve recently found the courage to dip a very tentative toe in the water and approach a few publishers, create a portfolio on a freelance writer’s website and set up a blog.  

While I was online sifting through various publishers, etc interested in history articles, I came across a relatively newly formed independent TV company based in London who are primarily interested in true historical crime and murder tales.  I decided there was no harm in sending them links to some of my recent articles on Triond so a week or so ago I attached my Murder in Tabernacle Steet, Stanfield Hall Murders, Amy Robsart and Elizabeth Fry articles and asked if they’d be interested in paying me to undertake some freelance research work for them and produce brief chronological reports.  I didn’t hold my breath, but yesterday I received a lovely email from the Managing Director of the company saying that they weren’t in a position to pay me as they were just getting off the ground, having completed filming a six part drama/documentary series called The Crime Wave, which are basically true Victorian murder stories.  They’re currently promoting the series and, having seen the promo video myself, it looks as if it’s going to be a pretty gritty series!!

My heart instantly sank but I continued reading the email which went on to say that once they’d managed to find a buyer for the series they’d want to speak to me further as they felt they could use my talents and would like to come to some sort of monetary arrangement with me.  In the meantime, they’re promoting my Amy Robsart and Elizabeth Fry articles on their website.

So, all of you out there who are feeling down hearted and wondering if you’re ever going to achieve your dream, it really is possible.  Provided you have a real passion for what you’re doing rather than just doing it to make a fast buck, can find your ‘comfort zone’ on what subject interests you most, and have confidence in your abilities you can make it pay.