Esther Chilton

I’m delighted to welcome writer Sharon Harvey back again. Here, she shares her writing journey with us:

My writing journey began at a very early age when I could pick up a pen. I first started writing down my experiences of being bullied while at school, and then my late mum, the encourager of my writing, bought me some Famous Five books. I would devour them, enjoying the adventures of the five relatives. I became embroiled in their adventures, and became ‘one’ of them, though of course the Famous Five stayed just that – five. They became the confidantes of my bullying and I would enjoy being part of their adventures.

It was through that I realised I loved writing stories. I wrote my adventures with the Famous Five and continued doing so with other writing. As I grew as a person, I continued writing my stories and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. Back then there was no internet; it was pen and paper and whilst I knew a lot about the craft, my mum encouraged me to seek further help to hone my craft by trying to find courses to help me. I continued my writing, but it wasn’t till further down the years, and my mum had sadly died and the internet appeared, that I started to investigate writing courses. One stood out from the rest – The Writers Bureau and my partnership with them began and my writing blossomed and flourished further as my mind and knowledge expanded.

In 1998 I decided to write a letter to a TV Mag expressing my feelings on a show and to my amazement it was published. My name in print, wow. Ok it wasn’t a book that was published with my name on it, but my name was still in print regardless. I thought the feeling of being published would then subside but no, even now, years later, the thrill of seeing my name in print is still there and strong.

What I didn’t expect was to open my mind further and rather than just honing my craft to open my mind to other things… things I wasn’t sure I was capable of achieving, but I did just that, thinking outside of the box.

As I have progressed, I have learnt many things. One of these is that you don’t need to have been published to be able to give advice to others. It’s something I learnt recently.  

A while ago, I always thought that being a guest blogger on The Writers Bureau site meant that I had to be published, etc, but after learning from someone else that was not the case, I decided to contact the director and enquire. I followed the advice and rules and before I knew it, I was published on the guest blog for The Writers Bureau site! That was quite a thrill and an achievement. I so wish my mum had seen that; she would have been so proud of that and how I had passed on my experiences as a writer to upcoming and aspiring writers through my continuing growing knowledge. It’s exactly what I joined the WB for. Having the blog article published was also another first for me.

My main objective is to get my debut book completed and self-published and make that dream come true for myself and in tribute of my mum.

I think any advice I can give to other aspiring writers is, don’t give up, keep at it, and whilst it may seem ‘small’, keep writing those letters to magazines because not only does it give you money to save, and yes, maybe the rewards are ‘small’, but those rewards do add up. I totted up it all up and it has come to a staggering **£690 **. As I said, it may not sound a lot, but it’s £690 I didn’t initially have and it will go towards any ‘writing’ material I may require, so I am putting it back into my craft. I have just purchased a writing software programme… You know how I paid for that!

I hear too many different authors mention how much they paid for certain programmes and that’s great if you have the money, but like myself, you may not have the budget, so my aim also is to show aspiring writers just how to start with basically nothing, only your creative imagination and build from there because it can be done. I have just found two other well established writers who have also done the same, and I am proof of that. My other aim is to write another book of my journey of writing to self-publication and how I accomplished that on a very limited budget, to help other struggling writers achieve their dream.

My next target? Going for Student of the Year. It will be another first for me if I get it. And another thing my mum would be proud of and, as usual, it will be a tribute to her.

I am planning to put all my experience so far into a book – coming soon.

Many thanks to my tutor Esther for asking me to do this article of sharing my writing journey and my learning experiences and I was very humbled and honoured to do this.

**At the time of writing this article**