> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.writingintheshadows.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # All I wanted to Do was Write - URL: https://www.writingintheshadows.com/all-i-wanted-to-do-was-write/ - Published: 2026-10-21T15:50:34.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T15:50:34.000Z - Author: Ken Preston - Tags: Writing, Movies, Books, Archive Before we go into today’s post, just a reminder that I am running an online workshop on writing great opening chapters. 💡 Key Details: 25th November, 7:00-8:30 pm, online, 20 places, 1 hour of learning, half an hour for discussion and feedback, £25. [REGISTER HERE](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hook-them-on-page-one-write-an-opening-chapter-readers-cant-put-down-tickets-2003127741999?ref=writingintheshadows.com) All I wanted to do was write. Like pretty much every other novelist or short story writer in existence, I have been writing stories since I could pick up a pencil and write a basic sentence. There is (cliche alert) something magical about inventing worlds and characters and telling their stories. And there is something magical too about reading, especially a well-written book. People read for many different reasons: to get lost in a thrilling plot, or visit alien worlds and cultures for example, but probably the most common reason is surely to answer the question, What happens next? I have just finished reading Sam Wasson’s *Fosse*, a gripping biography of the choreographer and movie director Bob Fosse. Fosse died of a heart attack aged sixty, and even if I hadn’t known that, Wasson structured his book to start at Fosse’s wake, and each chapter title is a countdown to the moment he died—‘Fifteen Years’, ‘One Year’, etc. Even though I knew he died at the book’s finish, I still needed to know what happened next. I read the last third of the book in just two or three sittings. I couldn’t put it down. What happens next? This is why I write too. Not just to know how the story ends, although that can be part of it, but what happens on the next page, in the next paragraph, in the next line. E. L. Doctorow once said, ‘Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ That’s the joy of it. Where might you wind up? How will you get there? Who might you pick up along the way? Another reason some (perhaps most) writers write is to be read. Much like the question, ‘If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?’, does a novel exist if there is no one there to read it? For some writers, perhaps, the answer is no. Tied up in that question of legitimacy though is another, filthy reason for writing: fame and fortune. Ah yes, the money. I have been doing this writing thing full time now for over eight years, and I love it. I love the freedom, I love the work, I love the challenges, and the fulfilment I get. What I don’t love is the money. Or rather, the constant struggle to earn the money. I used to have a ‘proper job’, nine-to-five employment, five days a week with a regular paycheque at the end of each month. And I hated it. No, that’s not quite right. I never hated the job, but I hated that it took me away from my passion for writing and telling stories. There were also many reasons to love the jobs that I have had, the paycheque being one of the most important, but also the friendships I made, the skills I learned, and that indefinable sense of pride in being a valuable, tax-paying member of society. But what I really wanted was to be a valuable, tax-paying member of society *on my own terms*. So here I am, dream fulfilled, a full time, working writer. Except, some days it seems like I do anything but write. When I yearned for that freedom to write, I always thought that I would be just that, a writer. It turns out that’s not quite right. What I am is a writer, a publisher, and a marketer, because, don’t forget, does a novel exist if there is no one there to read it? Actually, I’m more than just those three, I’m also a blogger, an editor, a workshop leader… But I’m going to stick with those first three for the purpose of this post. You want to be a full-time novelist? Here is your dilemma: You want to write full time, you need to sell your books, and they need to bring in enough income to keep you at home, with the lights on and the computer working, and enough black coffee at hand to float a cruise liner. This becomes the chicken and egg question: You need to write a novel that will sell enough copies that it will give you the income you need to write a novel that will sell enough copies… You get the idea. It helps if you’ve inherited money, or maybe you’re married to someone who has. You never need work a day of your life again, but you will, because you’re a writer. Or maybe you have saved up a pot of money from all those paycheques you received in your ‘proper job’ or maybe you cashed in a private pension. Either way, you’ve got a finite amount of funds to work with and you need to write that book that sells. Now, if you’ve got some business savvy you might do some market research before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. What’s selling right now? What are the hot genres? Erotica? But you wanted to write a dystopian sci-fi western with a touch of Gothic horror and a lycanthrope detective as your hero! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/9ece7863-f166-48ad-824e-70f84032d2e1.jpeg) Uh-oh, that’s not why you left the security of your job. You’re a writer, dammit, not a hack for hire. Not that I have anything against erotic fiction. The point I’m making is that if you pigeonhole yourself into a genre you do not read and do not enjoy writing, you will become resentful and you will do a bad job of it. But if you’re going to make money… Let’s say you find a genre that is hot and you are comfortable writing in. Now comes the hard part, writing a novel that will tell enough of a compelling story to sell a gazillion copies and make you a fortune. But you can do it, you’re a writer after all. Once you’ve got that novel written, next comes the publishing part. You’ve got to format it for ebook and print, you need to find someone to design you a cover, and you need to get it in the shops (Amazon basically if you want even the vaguest chance of selling any copies). That part of the process is relatively painless though, especially compared to the writing part. There’s a steep learning curve at the start, but you’ll soon get the hang of it. Unfortunately now comes the really hard part: finding your readers. Or, in other words, selling your book. This is the part where many authors get swallowed up by the business. Posting about your novel, managing social media, advertising, blogging, the constant grind of trying to find a way of getting your book visible to potential readers and then convincing them to buy it. Meanwhile your money is evaporating like a reservoir during the hottest summer on record, forcing you to scramble into a whirlwind of non-writing activity to stave off bankruptcy and (oh, the horror!) having to get a ‘proper job’ again. What, then, is the answer? 1. Well, firstly and most obviously, don’t take the step into full-time authorship until you have written and published some novels and have some decent sales coming in. 2. Once you are full time, compartmentalise those different aspects of your work. I write in the mornings, when my creative brain is freshest, and save admin-type work—ads, social media, formatting, etc—for the afternoons. 3. Look through your daily tasks and identify any that are not worth the effort. You know, the ones that have you feeling like you are doing valuable work, but really you’re just spinning your wheels. For me, social media falls into this one big time. 4. Before you buy the next course or tool, ask whether it solves a writing problem or a procrastination problem. This is all you need to do: 💡 Write → Publish → Promote → Repeat I know, I make it sound easy, right? This is one of those situations where the principles are simple, but the execution is not, especially if you have a personality like mine, always ready to pay good money for a new course or a new piece of software that promises to solve all of my writing, publishing, and selling problems. So no, this full-time writer business is not easy, not at all. At the beginning of my author journey all I wanted to do was write, and now I find myself running workshops and author visits to schools and prisons, developmentally editing other authors, running Facebook ads, speaking at conferences, and much else besides. I planned none of this, but I love it. And through it all there is that question, not just in my work but in my life too: What happens next? --- That's enough of that for the moment! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/08/Signature-1.png) ## Subscribe and get a Free Gift Subscribe to Writing in the Shadows and get a download of The Gothic Story Matrix. [Subscribe Now](https://writing-in-the-shadows.kit.com/1904cc917a?ref=writingintheshadows.com) If you love Gothic fiction—haunted mansions, cursed bloodlines, strange apparitions, lost children, spectral echoes, lonely moors, monstrous secrets—then this is the tool that will spark your next story. There are **1,679,616** unique Gothic story combinations in this print ready resource for creative writers. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/Gothic-Matrices-Promo-16-Oct-26.png) [GET YOUR FREE GIFT NOW](https://writing-in-the-shadows.kit.com/1904cc917a?ref=writingintheshadows.com) --- ## Currently Reading ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/81-QeHKAPhL._AC_UF894-1000_QL80_-1.jpg) ## Movies Watched this Week ### Watching 365 Movies in 2026 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/Cast-a-Dark-Shadow-2026.png) ****249**. The Rocketeers! 😂 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/The-Dark-Half-2026.png) ****250**. Meh ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/Donnie-Darko-2026.png) ****251**. Parts of it are good, other parts aren’t so good. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/The-Doll-Squad-2026.png) ****252**. Terrible! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e5/f3/e5f3ce55-c9d3-4643-a93f-512036ef1319/content/images/2026/10/Fascination.png) ****253**. A dreamy atmosphere makes up for its shortcomings.