It Feels Good to Be Counted Among the Best

When I first came to AssociatedContent.com, I was concerned whether I was capable of contributing to the greatness of this site. There were already so many talented writers who were giving their all to every piece they published on AC, from Kassidy Emmerson to Timothy Sexton, from Lolaness to Amy Brantley. I didn't think I would ever be counted among them. They had produced 100s, maybe 1000s of articles. Everything they had written was gold. This of course, caused me to question my own abilities as a writer. I could never produce so much so fast. Look at the current number of published content I've produced in the last 3 to 4 years I've been a content producer or "source" on AC. It's still under 400.

It was June 27, 2006. I was desperate for extra cash. I had dabbled in writing once in a while. I had just gotten my GED with high scores in English. The most I had ever written were screenplays that might never be read. I published an article for the local paper about movies. My mother, a strong influence on my life and a true supporter of my abilities urged me to keep it up. She had even cut out and framed that article. If that's not motivation to keep pursuing a path, then I don't know what is.

Ever since I was young, I had always been interested in expressing myself through the written word or a drawing. I've even dabbled in making my own movies. Like George Lucas and company did when they made The Empire Strikes Back in the late '70s, just like those crazy comedians are doing with Robot Chicken, I thought I could make movies with my own toys in stop-motion animation. I didn't fair as well as I had hoped, but that didn't stop me. I was hooked on this kind of storytelling. Then, I realized that I wouldn't get anywhere in the movie business unless I started from the ground up.

From there, I picked up every published screenplay on the shelf. I studied the media for myself. I started my first screenplay when I was almost 16. It wasn't a mastepiece ready to be put on film. However, I had learned all that I needed to learn.

Outside of movie-making, I was also spending a lot of time figuring out how to write properly. In school, they wanted us all to read books, give reports in front of the class and I was always too terrified of standing in front of all those kids to even start reading the book assigned. Let's just say, until I started educating myself, my skills as a writer were very weak. But, the odd thing is that I have always been a great speller.

I picked up one of the many books collecting dust on my shelves. I wrote and re-wrote everything in the book. I made someone else's novel my own. In that re-imagining, I discovered a desire to better myself as a writer. And, over time, I definitely did.

At 17, I was able to attend courses at the local community college and mold my skills into what they are today. This one English class was able to help me become a writer more than anything that I learned when I was in elementary school. I was finally able to use punctuation. Also, before this college class, I could not understand how to form paragraphs with my own words.

After everything I had learned, I was still unsure of my abilities. Then, that day came when I got back the results of my GED tests. I was positively ecstatic when I saw my scores in English. They were through the roof. For someone who railed against picking up a book and writing a report about in front of so many classmates, I had finally become a good writer. All of my worries were suddenly proven unnecessary and trivial.

I've got the skills. I can put all of the commas in all the right places. I can start and finish paragraphs exactly like the professional novelists. Now, what do I do with this talent? I don't have an associate's or even a bachelor's degree in English. I figured that I can't exactly take my abilities to get a real job with the local paper. So, guess what I did. I went to Google and started a search for writing online. And, one name came up on top.

AssociatedContent was offering money to anyone who wanted to express themselves through the written word. At that time, all they were going to pay for was specific content that they would have to approve on first. There was no PPM. It was not a Pay-Per-View kind of site, but I was still very excited to be getting paid for something I loved doing. In the words of Heath Ledger's Joker, if you're good at something, never do it for free. The first articles I published on AC didn't have the subject matter that they would pay for. I was forced to publish these articles for nothing. But, I was on the happy train and nothing was going to derail me.

I have to thank everyone who ever believed in me. I'd like to thank those AC "sources" and AssociatedContent readers who have commented on my articles. Good, positive re-enforcement is always good. It really can feel like the best, most rewarding form of motivation. If I somehow brought some joy to peoples' lives by simply reading what I've had to say, it really makes everything worthwhile. I'm happy to be one of the Top 1000 writers on AC and I'm very proud to finally become a 10 out of 10, alongside so many other great writers.