The Struggles of Being an Non-Native Writer

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, but can it overcome long-standing biases?

The Love for the Written Word

I come from a strict family, with a focus on education as the means for survival rather than educating one’s self just for the sake of improving oneself. Thus, mundane and everyday activities a child might enjoy were prohibited for me, and I was not allowed to leave the house unless necessary. The only respite that I could find to break my monotonous routine was books.

I issued a new book every week, and although I was very bad at English, I drudged through it and enjoyed whatever little I could understand. However, I took very quickly to the language and became obsessed with trying to replicate the writers I read. I found that I could write better than most of my peers and that I actually enjoyed the process of doing so.

My mind began to become more comfortable with the idea of becoming a writer, even as my parents and teachers warned me that I would find little monetary success in the path I was about to embark on.

On the Road Less Taken

I never gave up the dream of becoming a writer, though. Over the course of my more youthful years, I wrote prolifically, in prose and in verse, and through self-critique and the critique of like-minded individuals, I developed my craft, and to a point that I considered my skills to be at par with professional writers.

Being born into a lower-middle-class family can both be a curse and a blessing, depending on how you look at it. I was educated and knew enough about the world to want more from it, but empty pockets can take you only so far, and I had to find a way to earn. Armed with newfound confidence and faith in myself, I delved into the realm of freelancing.

The first website was one suggested to me by a friend, called Upwork. After multiple attempts, I managed to start a conversation with a client. It was going well; he liked my samples and was interested in working with me. Eventually, he found out through my profile that I’m not a Native english speaker. I never heard back from him again.

As Michael Scott says, “How the Turntables Turn”

I knew I had to try twice as hard to make it on the freelancing writer path because of my origins, and I would pay a dear price for English not being my Native language. I initially received a similar response as I had before, but I was not willing to give up, not this time.

I kept changing and honing the way that I approached clients and eventually, one of my techniques worked and that is how I landed my first client. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to explain to you how happy I felt in that moment. Finally, on thorn ridden path that I had chosen to make my own, I could see some solitary flowers blooming.

True Success is Found in the Struggle

I will not lie to you, trying to make writing a career as a non-native speaker of English was a struggle against the status quo because employers automatically considered my skills to be inferior to someone whose native language was English. It took a lot of patience to overcome that bias and find a client who was willing to look past that.

However, I am confident that the times are changing, and the value of skill and skill alone is finally being seen in the market, one of the most prominent examples being Google not requiring a college degree anymore. I strongly believe that skill is the one true metric by which a person’s capabilities should be judged, and as the boy who came from his short stories being rejected to being a successful freelancer, I believe that times are changing and that is indeed becoming the truth.