A Secret

I've got a secret that I'll let you all in on. When I first started blogging, I had a tiny little fantasy in the back of my mind that some publishing entity would stumble across my exceptionally well-written and interesting blog and offer to pay me for my writing. Before that statement points to the notion that I have a big head or think a lot of myself, please let me say that my tongue is in my cheek when I say "exceptionally" and "interesting". I will add, however, that it is not really in cheek when I say "well-written."

During all of my adult life, I've been told that I write quite well. In college, being able to write made success far easier for me than for others as I could write essays and papers without the mental equivalent of chipping a nail. What is more, writing has never been a struggle for me. The words roll out with ease. In fact, I think many people wish I could simply get them to shut up as I go on and on at times.

In large part, I attribute the ease with which I write to two things. First, I read copious numbers of books when I was a child and young adult. This slowly sets up an almost unconscious awareness of patterns in stories and a completely conscious recognition of the joy of having an expansive vocabulary. While a lot of people deride the use of "university words" or "$20 words", I think that having a deeper and broader vocabulary to draw from allows you to express ideas more precisely and colorfully with the right word choice. If your audience can't go to dictionary.com and look it up, maybe they're not the right readers for you.

The second thing which almost certainly contributed to my writing was having a huge number of pen pals from age 12 to 17. I wrote all the time from a very young age to a captive and receptive audience. All of that practice may not have made me perfect, but I'm sure it helped build a smooth synaptic highway for my mind to speed along when it came to expressing myself on paper (or on screen).

At any rate, I'm sure that being "discovered" via your blog isn't a little dream that is uncommon among those who believe they have something special to offer. In fact, a lot of ambitious sorts take matters into their own hands and create blogs that pay for themselves through advertisements rather than wait for someone to come along and recognize their brilliance and give them money. I wish I were so ambitious, but that requires more marketing effort and and focus on a niche for the likes of me.

Fortunately, fate was kind to me and my former blog did attract the attention of a print publication based in and about Tokyo. They asked me to write for them regularly and, yes, they pay me for my pieces. Since I don't want my real name connected clearly to this blog, I won't offer the name of the publication, but I will say that it's in English and has been around for a very long time. I'll also say that it's not one of the freebie magazines that you can pick up and you can buy a subscription to this publication through Amazon. It's the sort of thing you'll almost always find in places like Kinokuniya book store.

It's not that big a deal really. It's not like I'm writing for the New York Times or something, but it's nice that sometimes some little dreams do come true.