I work full time, study part time and write short stories on the side.

I always had an excuse for not chasing my goals but felt dissatisfied until I realised nothing would change unless I took action.

After years of wanting to write fiction, I enrolled in an online course which consisted of a bunch of videos recorded many years ago with exercises which were peer reviewed. It was a bit of a scam as there was zero involvement from the instructors and the students would copy paste random text into assignments and randomly fail you but I learnt how to write stories through the process.

I kept writing and started submitting to competitions with the arrogance of a beginner. A story I painstakingly worked on six months didn’t even make the long list of over 70 people. The same happened with the second story and the third one but it stung less and I kept writing.

To answer the question, I dedicate time towards my goals and try to be consistent. It’s important not to lose hope if you don’t succeed at first, to keep working on yourself and to be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses.

A story of mine will be published in a local magazine next month. It’s a little win which cheers me on. I don’t know if I’ll find success as a writer but want to write well and will keep at it.