1. The Dream
For most of my life,Ihave wantedtowrite.Itisnot onlysomethingIenjoydoing,itisapassionof mine.
Thisis true for manyauthors,those of us whoare born to write.Itmay be true for you.However,like
manywriters,itgivesme pause knowingthatsucceedingfinanciallyasanauthor isa complicatedand
difficulttask.However,while Ipursue teachingasa meansto gatheran income,Iholdon to mydream
of creatinga literarymasterpiece.Iwouldlike toanalyze anauthorwhoshareddesiresidentical to
mine,andwhohas made these dreamsbecome areality.ThisauthorisBrandonMull.
BrandonMull
One of the reasonsI wouldlike toanalyze BrandonMull isfirst,because of the similaritiesthathe hasto
my ownsituation.Iwasgreatlyintriguedbecauselikeme,he hasalwaysenjoyedwritingsince he wasa
child.Like me,he isa devoutmemberof the LDS faith,andlivedinSouthAmericafortwoyearsas a
missionaryandspeaksfluentSpanish.He alsohasalwaysbeengreatlyattractedtothe fantasygenre,
inventingandcreatingfantastical storiesthroughouthislife. Notonlythis,buthe hasmanagedtotake
thistalentforstorytelling,andturnintoa useful andapplicable skill thathe usestoprovide forhis
family,which issomethingotherpotential authorscanaspire to.
I alsofounditinterestingthatlike me,he wasinterestedinusingLDSpublisherstosuccessfullypublish
hisbook.To me,thisis a boldchoice,because hisnovelsare fantastical,andclearlynotspecifically
gearedtowardan LDS audience.However,because of thischoice,he hasbeenable tofindawider
audience,withoutalienatingthose whodonotshare hisown faith.Nevertheless,thisdidnotstophim
frompublishingwithShadow Mountain,aProminentLDSPublisher.Thisisone of the biggestpointsto
me at thismoment,because Iamcurrentlydecidingonatarget audience formywritingstyle andnovel
that I will write,andIfeel like BrandonMull hasseta goodexample forotherstofollow.
The Trick
It ismy hope that ithas become apparentthatbeinga successful authorisnotsome kindof magic trick
that one ina millionpeople canaccomplish.All of ushave the potential tobecome writersandasI have
shown,BrandonMull isa prime exampleof someonewhohasaccomplishedthis dreamby readingthis
composition;youshould have beenable toidentifypatternsinhow he accomplishedthisdreamfor
himself,andhowyoucanmake it happeninyourown life.