For anyone who has aspirations of being a professional writer, you must know that the road ahead of you it's not as easy as you may think. I know from experience that when you look at authors like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King you might think that it's something you can do with the drop of a hat. It most certainly is not, so buck up, buttercup.
College for creative writing isn’t all about creativity. You have to take a lot of difficult classes that will test your patience as well as your faith in yourself. The difficulties may not give new much of an opportunity to write pieces freely. This, to a very creative person, can be very stifling. I got lucky and received an email saying that I could take part in the school's Odyssey team. I gave it a try, more out of curiosity than anything.
My first piece for Odyssey was my first actual published piece of writing. When you're ready, you have a piece published every week. iIt's actually a great way to get your voice out there if you're planning to be a writer. I was thrilled when I saw that a piece online was trending for the first time.
The camaraderie that our team has amazing. We're all friends. Even though we're not all living in the same place, we don't actually physically see each other very often if at all. The piece that I wrote for the last week in December was very personal to me and I had a hard time preparing myself for what was going to come when it was made public. I got cold feet shortly before publishing. The amazing team that I am on help me through it by giving me moral support and telling you like stories of their own. On that note, I know I can talk to anyone on the team when I need something or want something or even just feel lonely. The bond I have with my fellow teammates is awesome.
The sense of solidarity is probably, the most important attribute of the team. As most writers know, the process of writing can be very personal experience or person might feel like they have exposed nerves as well as exposed secrets and fears. Odyssey allows us to write about anything we please and with that comes the ability to vent and write therapeutically. With the added support of all teammates, we are able to deal with the feeling of exposure, end help all the more in our individual processes of healing. The sense of friendship we have on the team meant that we can just chat about daily life and have fun when things are good.
Odyssey also offers you great résumé support because you'll be able to place all of your published work and experience on your resume. That is comforting to anyone who is pursuing a degree in writing because you already have some writing experience under your belt when you're done. On that note, all of the people that are above you your content editors as well as the higher-ups on the team want to see you succeed. They want to see you do well so they will give you constructive criticism before it's time to publish and they will help you share and get the word out after.
I am so very thankful to every one of my teams all the wonderful work they have done to make this a positive environment as well as the place where I can feel loved encouraged and accepted.
