Writng, sports writing- A blessing in disguise..

After a long time I return to blogging. It feels good to be back. But you may wonder whether I stopped writing all this while? Well, yes and no. I stopped writing in my personal blog and I jumped to the world of Freelance writing!

Yes, many well-wishers around me have been saying that I have and am obsessed with cricket. They were prodding me in a way to express my views about the sport to a much larger audience on a larger scale.

I was apprehensive at first as I used to write what came instinctively to my mind, even when it came to writing a blog post related to cricket earlier. I never gave complete thought how it would be perceived.

It was more about expressing my point of view about a player or a series. Many have appreciated my writing, some have criticized but I was fine with it as that helped me improve my writing.

I must thank my aunt and uncle for giving me the morale boost required to take the leap into freelance sports writing. They have been saying for some time  to pursue that more seriously,  as they wanted me to put the passion I have for cricket and write about it more often and regularly.

I gave it a thought and that time  for 5-6 months, owing to professional commitments, I stopped writing. I was not in the right mental space to write about anything for some time. Well, looking back that break proved to be a blessing in disguise  required for the writer in me.

As after that short hiatus, I seriously started looking out for avenues where I could contribute as a freelance writer. And that search proved to be successful, as few months back, a really close friend of mine, Mayur suggested a website which takes on freelance writers and involves them in their content generation process. 

This phase which started few months back has bought back zeal in my creativity and has immensely helped me in improving as a writer as well. The thrill of being involved in a website's content generation journey is something which can't be completely put into words.

Earlier,  when I used to write in my personal blog, getting a topic to write on was a challenge, but now as a freelance sports writer we need to fight with other such freelance writers in-order to get the topics we want to write about.

And the very fact that freelance writers like me can put our passion to good and fruitful use is really amazing. This leap into freelance writing has made me write more responsibly and put lot more thought and research into my writing.( Not that I wasn’t doing so when I wrote in my personal blog!).

Now it’s not only about building my brand as a sports writer, but it’s about maintaining my credibility to sustain my stint as a freelance sports writer and possibly take to a different level later on in life.

When I see people’s comments about some of my articles which have got published I feel gratified. The sport which has given so much joy and happiness to me in my life so far- Cricket is, directly helping me in getting  respect and recognition  as a writer.

When my father shows some of the articles to his colleagues, there is a sense of pride in his voice which is so pleasing to hear! I may not have achieved too much but just to see him happily sharing something I wrote with his friends or colleagues is an achievement of sorts for me.

There are lot of freelance writers, there is a whole new world in the digital space nowadays. We can present our point of view and get noticed by a larger audience. We need to take that step ourselves. The step from being bloggers to writing on a freelance basis.

If you like writing, be it about any topic take that self-doubt out of your mind and march ahead. I myself am nowhere a finished piece, I have lot of improvements to make in my writing. But only when you write more, on a regular basis will you explore the writer in you.

You can be a blogger, reviewer, critic or a freelance writer- you just need to remove self-doubt and try to take your writing to a higher level.  From personal experience I can say the satisfaction of getting published is something which needs to be experienced, words can justify that sense of satisfaction one gets. 

I look upon the phase where I laid low and stayed away from blogging as something which changed the writer in me. I decided to take the jump into freelance writing and I am enjoying every bit of this new phase.

Not everybody would be as lucky as me to get people support you in the right direction like my aunt and uncle did and also get the help to take my writing to the next level. I did, and I am so thankful to them.

You will face criticism, you will find that some of your articles won’t get published,  but friends that’s what makes it more addictive. To taste success always isn’t necessarily a way to improve and re-invent your writing.

So I would say to all those aspiring writers/freelancers, think big and don’t shy away from pushing yourself to reach the next level. Who knows someday, a quiet, shy person who is a blogger can become the next big thing in the field of journalism!

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda'.