Hooked on Writing

An enthusiast's journey

Free image :Pixabay, a pen resting on a notebook, amongst crumpled balls of paper

Dear writing, my obsession:
You got under my skin,
Made me dream of successes
But will I ever win?

I dabbled with writing
In two-thousand and sixteen,
My hopes were still hazy — 
A barely-formed dream.

The lure of t’internet
Was shiny and bright,
I could publish my stories
If I wrote them at night.

Wordpress and Blogger
Built my fiction a home;
Found a kindred community
And stopped writing alone.

The praise was addictive,
But the trolls broke my soul.
When content was stolen
I reshaped my goals.

I switched to a platform
That charged me some rent,
But new readers found me
So — money well spent.

I was paying it forward
By editing for free
To give newbies some polish,
Because once, that was me.

But I lost out on books
Only reading online,
Evenings and weekends
‘Work’ was stealing my time.

With ideas still hatching
I set editing aside,
Returned to my scribbles
And began to take pride

In revising my own work
To appear in a book
That’s sold in a shop,
Or downloaded for Nook.

Let me seek an anthology,
To submit where they pay;
Try more than 1 platform — 
The smart way to play.

I appreciate each reader
Who follows my tales,
Their comments are jewels
Adding weight to the scales.

Subscription’s an option,
I’m sure grateful for those,
But I don’t make a living
With this hobby I chose.

Something turned on my ‘tap’
And the ideas keep flowing — 
As long as that happens
I guess I’ll keep going.

While my fingers can type
And my eyes can still see,
I’ll put thoughts into words
Setting my stories free.

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