Week 5: One Small Step

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

This week was euphoric for me, taking small steps towards materializing my ultimate dream. After a year of serious blogging, my writing finally got noticed and I landed up with an offer of being a Creative Writer of an upcoming online magazine. 

To be frank when this offer came, I wasn't very sure whether I should take it up or not. This was a writing assignment which required me to churn out articles at regular basis and that too on varied topics. Till date, I have written freely with no binding what so ever in terms of topics or time. So I was not confident if I would be able to live up to this new assignment.

But then you have your friends and family who push you and make you believe that you can reach the moon!! Same thing happened with me and I agreed for this new avatar! There was a glitch though - writing on general topics doesn't come natural to me. I think I write well only if it is a personal experience or if it is something that I am passionate about. I tried writing an article on 'How to speak up in Meetings' and was devastated with the outcome. Then I started thinking, how can I write on something which is personal and yet keep it general? After a lot of pondering I came up with a concept. I bounced my idea of writing on 'What makes me happy' theme to the editor along with 2 sample articles. The editor liked my articles and gave me the green signal. So here I am, writing each week from now on 'What makes me happy'.

The happiness of seeing your profile listed as the Creative Writer was massive! It took me 3 hours to scribble those 3 lines of self bio. It is a difficult job to introduce yourself in so minimum words. Never the less, I was complimented that my introduction is just perfect! :)

I think I have come a long way from writing to keep myself busy in the new country to getting my first ever professional article published! It is indeed my one small step towards my dream of publishing a novel someday :)

This endeavor, boosted my confidence as a writer and I contacted two established bloggers in my network. Thanks to Prashanthi who is a food blogger at Yummily Yours' and Anju who is a travel blogger at Traveling Noodles, I received a few tips on how to take my writing to the next level.

I sent my writings to a few online magazines and was delighted when I received a positive reply from one of the sites. This enabled my writing go beyond boundaries and across the oceans, with Pink Pangea, an International Women's Travel Magazine publishing my article on para sailing! It was too good to believe, suddenly so many feathers in my writing hat :) 
The last time I checked, my article had reached 100 views and was shared 50+ times.

It has indeed been an euphoric week and I just pray and hope that this momentum continues :)

And amidst all this glee, I decided to start my FB page which will be a common host for all my writings. It is getting a little difficult to keep a tab on my 2 blogs and my articles on Stylewhack. So if you like to read me, please do like my FB page here!

I would like to end this adventure with the poem 'Baby Steps' by Serena Blackinton - 

There is no limit to what you can do,
The only thing prohibiting it, is you,
Make plans, set goals, a little at a time,
Take small steps along the incline,
Baby steps - one goal at a time,
Even if you don't have a dime,
You will reach the summit in the end,
If you keep taking steps, my friend,
Whatever your heart desires,
And all that your soul can dream,
Whichever it is that inspires,
No matter how hard it can seem,
You can achieve when you believe...
See... Dream... Believe... Achieve.