"I want to be a writer"

The words appeared on a forum to writers and small publishers: "I really want to become a writer."

If you want to be a writer, you write. You may be an unsuccessful writer or a successful one but it is impossible to stop a writer from being a writer.

As one of those people, I started writing as soon as I was capable of stringing words together with stories pinned up on school noticeboards and in school magazines.

I used my first wages to buy a typewriter and wrote a book which was never published. Eventually I found the one thing which could stop me writing -- the publishing business I started to publish my books after my initial publisher went broke. I went on to publish books by others and I had no time left to write.

So the publishing business had to go** and I'm back to writing. Maybe the business I used to own will publish my next book...

**An explanation may be in order: I'm writing this blog for The Worsley Press, and I'm still keenly interested in the future of that publishing business, but I no longer own it. Worsley Press is now owned by Geoffrey Heard who was a Worsley Press author as well as having done some layout work and having effectively "packaged" the latest WP book, Type & Layout, handling its acquisition, negotiating with the author, writing additional material and handling the layout. So an author and publisher have changed places.