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When I announced to my family about fourteen years ago that I was going into writing full-time and that I was walking away from a job that paid around 75K a year plus benefits to do this, they all thought I was crazy. They probably still do. I have yet to make 75K writing, although I have made a decent income. I have no benefits (luckily my husband does). However, the treasures I've gained in the last fourteen years far outweigh that extra money.

Writing allowed me to stay home with my children when they were little. I did not have to leave them with a babysitter and worry over their well-being. It allowed me the freedom to take vacations when I wanted instead of when I was told I could take a vacation. On top of that, I've been doing something I love with all my heart and soul.

If you decide to embark on this journey, I have some tips for you that I think might help as you make the transition:

*Ignore all the negative comments made to you. There are many people who will just never ever understand why you would want to write instead of having a "stable" job. Your own family may even pressure you to keep it as a hobby. You have to be strong enough to tell them that this is your job now and to demand they respect it. For example, if you tell everyone you know that you'll be writing from 8 am to 2 pm every day and they phone you during that time, you either should not pick up the phone or you should quickly tell them that unless it is an emergency you really can't talk right now because you're working. Yes, use the word "working". This makes it real in their mind too and eventually they will respect your working hours.

*Do keep a regular writing schedule. I did great at writing in the evenings when my kids were little, but when they went off to school for the day I figured I would shift my writing to days. The only problem was that I'd been working at home, stuck at home and raising small children, and now I wanted to get out and experience life. Us writers have the problem sometimes. We want to absorb life so we can write it. To absorb life, you have to live life. But when you are living life, you have no time for work. It's a vicious cycle. For the first three months, I went to movies by myself, went to museums and just vegged out. Then, I realized I hadn't been sending out queries and I hadn't gotten any work done. I quickly adjusted things and began sending out a minimum of two queries a day and writing for a minimum of two hours. I made myself do this BEFORE I did anything else (with the exception of a shower) and this included doing housework. I was soon back on track with assignments lined up.

*Keep track of submissions. There are many inexpensive software programs out there for this, or you can just set up something on Excel or another database. Even keeping a log in a notebook is better than not tracking what you've sent whether. I used WritersMarket.com for a while and it is great because automatic reminders will pop up and you can search markets for queries and then add them to your log very easily. Now, I just use Excel spreadsheets. I have one for article queries, one for book queries and one for things I've turned in and am awaiting payment on. It makes a huge difference and I immediately know if a publisher isn't paying me and will not write for them anymore. Although it doesn't happen often, it does happen. I once had a publisher sit on two articles for almost a year. I finally contacted them and requested that they take 30 days to pay the invoice or to release the articles back to me. The new editor got a bit nasty with me, but I really didn't care. I had no plans to write for him again after months and months of promised payment and no results. Had he communicated with me at any point that payment might be delayed or they were having difficulties, I would have understood.

*Remember to be thankful each and every day that you are able to do something you love and get paid for it. Most people hate their jobs or dread working for a difficult boss. As in the example above, if you don't work well with an editor or they don't pay you, you simply move on to another source of income.

Happy writing!