I suppose that most true creatives know it right from the start … that they were born to write, paint, draw, sculpt, sing or whatever. It doesn’t matter whether it’s their full time occupation or if it’s pursued in their free time, they’ll be doing their thing, and feeling most alive when they’re doing it.
In the book publishing universe, there are writers like this … writers who were born to write. And write, they will, whether or not their work gets published or if they get any real recognition from the world at large.
Then there are the kind of writers who aren’t writers at all, but they have that one book that they either wrote or co-wrote, telling about some terrible tragedy, disease, or life circumstance that they lived through and overcame. Or maybe they lived fascinating, adventurous lives, or performed some miraculous, heroic deed that saved other lives. Their lives are interesting and important stories that need to be told. They may write or co-write their own biographies, or another person may interview them and write it for them.
Then there are the “surprised” writers … surprised because they had no idea that was in them.
They were just living their lives, working, raising families, paying bills … doing all the everyday things that everyday people do. Then the lightning bolt hit … out of the blue …
Maybe it was a book they read … perhaps it was something that happened to them … a flash of insight … a bolt of inspiration … stirred emotions from a song they heard … and they thought to themselves, I should write that down!
So they give it a try, and ... Hey! This is fun! ... they like it!
Now they’ve done it … and there’s no going back …