I have a friend who strongly wants to become a writer, but people try to discourage her. She's awsome and works very hard to cultivate her talent, but everybody around her thinks she should give up. She doesn't want to. Neither do I.

So do you think she will succeed?

I'm asking you this because we both saw that documentary about law of attraction (The Secret), but we are not sure if somebodyelse's wish and thoughts have an influence over this. I also saw people who didn't succeed because the others didn't trust them, but is this happening only because of the fact that one gives up or there is another power? What do you think?

Never let anyone tell you not to do what you love. Writing is a wonderful career. I wish I had been focused when I was younger.

No one can take her dreams away
If she doesn't let them. Reach for the stars and know you can do it.
Other people may try to sway you from that dream and if you give in
You'll always wonder what you could have accomplished with your writing. You go for it.

I cannot tell you if she will succeed or fail. I think she should write because it brings joy to her life and not give any time to the discouragement of others. If writing is her passion, then she should absorb that.

Remember too that success is personal. If she is satsified with her results, then that is her personal success. If she makes it beyond to get something published how much sweeter that is for her. I would never discourage her from writing and I would not listen to those who may say she does not have effective writing skills.

To answer your question about not succeeding - yes, when a person listens to and gives in to the negative feedback, that can only spell a setback, perhaps even a giving up what one desires.

If she's good, and committed, she should succeed.

Most importantly for her cause is, it's who she is, what she does best, and she enjoys it. Why wouldn't she at least try to do her best?

Good luck to her.

She can always be a writer no matter what else she does in life -- teach, be a nurse, work in a library :), be a psychologist, fight in Afghanistan, work in a bakery or restaurant. Writing is something you just do, not that you "hope to do so" or "hope to become a writer" someday.

I am co-leader of a very productive and successful writers' group. One member is job hunting and has Asperger's (autism). Another member is on disability and is a busybody and writes essays, but her strength is fiction (and she claims she can't write fiction -- silly girl!). Another writes charming stories about her husband and daughter and other relatives and about places she's been and things she's done. Still another member is in his 60s and is retired and is writing his autobiography, mostly for his descendants. Another member writes about growing up in a dysfunctional family (his way to work through all the emotional pain he has suffered). A Romanian immigrant writes Christian and inspirational poetry in her native tongue and then painstakingly translates it into English for us. A young woman member is writing a vampire novel. One member recently had an IT book published by a major publisher and has been asked by them to write a book on online social networking. I've been published (and paid) for four books and one long article for a historical society, plus served as a columnist for a monthly magazine for two years. Meanwhile, I raised two kids and had a library career plus went to grad school.

Reading The Secret and going with its philosophy might be fun but has nothing to do with writing. If you're a writer, you write. You don't look for reasons to do it or excuses not to do it. You simply write. Maybe what you write stacks up in the back of the closet for a few years or fills up a drawer or two -- or ten.

Tell your friend to get her rear in gear and ask at her library if they sponsor a writers' group (and if they don't, who does). If there isn't one in her area, she can be the one who starts such a group. Every community has at least a dozen (or more) people in it who are writers and who want to share the joy. (I'll be glad to advise her on forming a group, if that's the case.)

There are so many outlets for writers nowadays -- traditional publishing, local company/business/school/church newsletters, the local weekly or daily newspapers, print-on-demand publishing, online publishing in blogs and web sites, to name a few. Blogs are the big thing right now. Shreve Stockton took on the care of an orphaned coyote pup in Wyoming, posted daily reports and photos on a blog that became a web site that became a best-selling book that may become a movie and will generate more books in the future (http://www.dailycoyote.net/). I've read blogs on everything -- cupcakes, dairy cow raising, gardening, child care, a dinner club, needlework, all kinds of crafts, dogs or cats or horses or a beloved barn owl (Stacey O'Brien's http://wesleytheowl.blogspot.com/). The writing journey begins with a single stroke of the pen or finger on a keyboard.

Listen to Wondergirl. Writers write. It's what they do, whether they think they will be published or not.

At school, when I said I wanted to be a writer, my teachers laughed and told me not to be silly, no-one with dyslexia could be a proper writer. I did other stuff, but always kept writing, and gradually started to get articles published in newspapers. Eventually I became a full time journalist, and now I'm writing novels. I've still got dyslexia, but I've also got a spell checker!

All I can suggest is that she keeps writing, and reading, and keeps working to improve her writing as much as possible.