Finding your writing niche

One of the hardest parts of writing to publish is finding the place where you fit. I never thought of myself as a journalist, yet I’ve been writing feature stories for newspapers and magazines for decades. My specialty is personality profiles and special events. I have covered every topic from autism–my very first assignment–to zoology–animal shelters and animal rights groups. I have more than 1,000 articles published.

For four years I wrote a column recommending Web sites, but with people becoming sophisticated using the Internet, my column became passé. My column on fashion lasted three months. I wrote a column about events in Brunswick County, N.C. for eight years, but now it’s absorbed in events throughout Brunswick County and Horry County, S.C. Do I write a book about feature writing?

My hobbies are swimming, walking, biking, needlepoint, digital scrapbooking and photography. All of these topics interest me, but I don’t feel I have enough expertise in any of these fields to write about them except in general terms.

My dream is to get a novel published, and I’ve been writing novels longer than I’ve been writing feature articles. What should I do? Where is my niche?

I have a Chinese proverb from a fortune cookie that says, “Your dreams are never silly; depend on them to guide you.”

One of my favorite quotes is by Napoleon Hill who said, “Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.”

I keep writing feature stories, which I love to do, but I’ve written several novels and my dream is to get a novel published. I have 9,982 more tries to catch up to Edison.