A guest post by Josh Sarz of Sagoyism
I read a story a while back about a farmer who was sowing seeds by hand. He would bring his pouch of seeds, go out and start sowing. The farmer threw the seeds everywhere. At first, one would think that he is losing so much because he throws handfuls of seeds on the ground. To the extremely hungry, those seeds could make a decent meal. Why would he be throwing them away like that? But when you look at the big picture, the farmer really does lose handfuls of seeds, but in time he gains bounties more.
I was reminded of this story when I was out fishing with my girlfriend and her family. I’m not good at fishing, but I love the quiet atmosphere of the place.
The rules of the park were that you throw some type of bait that they provided in order to get the fish to come closer, and then you can then hook them with your fishing rods.
My girlfriend’s niece, was a little girl by the age of 4. When she got a hold of the bag of fish bait, she tore it open and got handfuls of the stuff and threw them out to the water.
A lot of us told her that throwing handfuls of bait was not the right way to do it. She then said that the reason why she threw a lot of the bait on the water was so a lot more fish would come closer and every one of us would catch one. She said the more bait, the better.
Wisdom from a 4-year-old
Do you really want to be a writer?
If you do, then you should be open to the fact that you’ll need to throw away lots of seeds. This means you need to be prepared for a lot of sacrifice on your end.
You should be ready to sacrifice money. As a writer, one of the best tools to have at your disposal is a blog. Getting your own domain name is going to cost money. Certain tools to market your blog cost money. Writing courses cost money. Getting professional web design can be costly, unless you’re willing to learn how to do it on your own.
Then there’s time. Time is golden, but you’re going to have to be ready to sacrifice a lot of your time to work on your writing. Say goodbye to long nights of sleep. Say goodbye to spending all day every day with your family, or hanging out with friends. You can still do these, but not as much as you would want to.
There’s a significant amount of sacrifice that you have to make if you want to be a writer.
So, do you really want to be a writer?
You’re not alone
But one thing that you have to know is that you’re not alone in this.
Writers everywhere also learn that they need to sacrifice time and money for doing what they love. They understand that they have to sow their seeds.
But it’s not just writers. Every one is involved. In order to succeed at something, everyone has to sacrifice some part of their old routine. Their old lifestyle. Their old habits.
I know a lot of people who had to sacrifice spending time with their families to work on other countries, to get jobs good enough to pay for their family’s needs.
I took up a bachelor’s degree in Nursing when I went to college. I personally know hundreds of fellow nursing graduates who had to leave the country to work in greener pastures. Their biggest sacrifice is that they can’t spend as much time with their families as they want to.
How many seeds are you willing to sow?
With sacrifice done wisely though, comes great rewards.
Like the farmer who throws away handfuls of seeds across his farm, he earns bounties more in time.
So would all your hard work. All your sacrifices will bear more fruit than you’ve ever dreamed possible. You just have to make a few wise sacrifices at first.
This will be your big dream reward. Whatever you want, a book deal, thousands of subscribers and readers, a teaching course that will let you earn money, anything. Not just a goal, but a dream that you would work your ass off for it to come true.
I also heard a passage from the Bible related to this.
He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
No seeds to sow
I loved reading stories as I was growing up. I’ve read books from Robert Ludlum, John Le Carre, Franklin W. Dixon and a whole lot more. I got back to my roots. I loved reading books as a child, and come high school I was writing my own fantasy/adventure short stories. Ten of them, actually. I titled them ‘Hollow Dreams’. That’s why I decided to get back to writing again.
But I had a problem.
There are lots of writing courses on the Internet. Courses that I couldn’t afford. My current writing job could only provide for food and rent, and some little savings.
But I wanted to learn more. I wanted to write better. I wanted to tell stories. The same stories that inspired me as a kid growing up surrounded by paperback novels. I decided to start sowing some seeds.
I tried learning how to write by reading and studying a lot of writers’ blog posts. I’ve also got back to reading A LOT of old books that I haven’t read yet. It may not be the easiest method, but it’s what I could obtain at the moment.
Journey to be a great writer
We’re all on our journey to achieve writer immortality.
Whether we take writing courses, or dissect other people’s writing, or read books, we’re all sowing our seeds. And the more seeds we spread across the soil, the more rewards we get, in time.
A writer’s job isn’t easy. There’s a lot of sacrifice involved. But these sacrifices help us grow and improve our trade, in order to give us the opportunity to live out the dreams we had as children.
How do you sow your seeds as a writer? Let’s share our experiences and struggles in the comments section below.
Josh Sarz is a Freelance Writer, Blogger and the founder of Sagoyism, which talks about Epic Content Marketing and Storytelling . He also likes punk rock and metal, among other things.
