Sylvie Donna, Co. Durham

It was actually the money-back guarantee that finally persuaded me to sign up for the Writers Bureau Comprehensive course in February 2005. I had around zero confidence in my ability to write and bizarrely, it seemed logical to complete the course, merely so as to claim back my refund at the end and somehow prove to the world that I'd been right, after all. Three and a half years later – and only halfway through the Writers Bureau course – writing and related activities generate most of my income and I feel things are only just beginning ...

For me, the idea of writing to develop my creativity was inextricably linked to the idea of bringing in some money. Having three young children to look after (with no help from family) had pushed my life to its limits, not only in terms of the lifestyle I was forced to inhabit each day of my new, mothering life, but also in terms of finance. After a stimulating and demanding career which had brought me into contact with countless people every day, I found myself picking pasta up off the kitchen floor and wiping whiffy bottoms – all for no pay. While I loved my babies, to be honest, there was little in terms of mental stimulation to keep me going and the feeling of pushing a pushchair round town with only £10 in my pocket was not a particularly inspiring one.

The first Writers Bureau assignment took me down to my local market. When the feedback arrived I was pleased to find that my new tutor had appreciated my attempt at description. Those flashbacks to nasty, nitpicking English teachers of my past could be allowed to fade just a little ... while I tackled Assignment No 2. What a lot there was to do! Having clear-cut guidelines was central to my development, though, I have to admit. Each assignment – of all the 12 I've so far completed – has taken me several weeks to complete and an enormous amount of mental energy but it has guided me in the right directions and forced me to be proactive, which has nicely counteracted my natural tendency to sit and wait for life to come and get me ...

I would generally follow the advice in the course materials to the letter, but I have to admit there was one thing I could never follow: the instruction to wait two days before sending anything off. It was memories of unsent envelopes discovered two years past their 'must-post-today' date which put paid to that no doubt well-intended suggestion. If I'd left each envelope unsent for just one hour, who knows what could have happened? Splodges of half-eaten rusk, slops of coffee or staggering baby shoes covered in mud might all have found their way onto the virgin white of the unsent envelope. Or else, the envelopes would have been buried under piles of other papers, to be sorted NOW! (er ... just after I've done this), sometime soon, next week, or never.

The first few weeks and months of the course were fraught, I have to admit. Having been extremely pessimistic pre-course about my prospects of publication, after I'd actually begun to send things off I was suddenly filled with wild flashes of optimism. Each two-line email of rejection was scrutinised with care for signs and tips and my early acceptances were glimpses of light and delight in my otherwise drab existence. When, after six months of emailing, I was finally contracted to write regularly for the Weight Watchers website I sat at my computer and cried. I felt truly humbled. Not only did they want me to write for them, they were even prepared to pay me! Three years later, I find I have already earned over £18,000 simply from this one success and the discipline of writing for the 'slim set' has forced me to take my own weight control seriously – which is just as well, given my new sedentary lifestyle!

In addition, in my early months with the Writers Bureau I earned commissions to write for an odd collection of magazines, journals and newspapers, including Cat World, The Sunday Sun, Confectionary Production and The Lady and I was asked to ghost write two books too. My topics ranged from ferrets to cricket and were quite frankly fun to do. (It was while I was photographing a ferret in a neighbour's house that I suddenly thought, "But I'm afraid of animals!") My A-Z of Cricket for The Lady did wonders for my street-cred with my husband, who must by then have concluded I'd become a blob. And my day's work experience at a local newspaper (when at 40+ I pretended to myself that I was really only 16) was a real day to remember ... especially since I managed to scoop some amazing quotes from insiders when the journalist I was shadowing rashly let me loose!

Assignment 10 of the course presented a very special challenge. The instructions told me to 'decide on a subject about which I wanted to write a non-fiction book'. This decision was hardly difficult since I'd actually spent the previous ten years researching birth and collecting material. But did I dare expose my idea to the world? And would I be able to face my tutor's feedback?

Given the energy and commitment that had gone into compiling the papers for this one assignment, my tutor's comments left me feeling rather flat and deflated. But they were not at all discouraging. However, I have to admit I continued to receive rejection letters from publishers in the year or so that followed ...

Then I had an idea. If no-one else would stick their neck out, why couldn't I? Somehow, the idea to self-publish took hold and before long (some time, I suppose, after deciding to buy not just 10, but 100 ISBN numbers) I decided to become a real publisher. Another year or so later, I've published two books and have marketed them at three conferences already. They're both available on Amazon and I've even organised 'Search Inside' and Google Book Search. As if this weren't enough to satisfy my yen for boxes of books in every spare corner of our home, I've also commissioned several books by other authors.

The first book – which I'd focused on in Assignment 10 – benefited greatly from the experience I'd gained from the Writers Bureau course. By that time, I'd come to really understand the importance of writing for a very specific reader. When a friend asked me to recommend a book on pregnancy the logical next step seemed to be to rewrite the book for her personally. So instead of passing her the old book (in draft form) which had been written for pregnant women in Britain, America and in every other country of the world, er ... and also for their partners, their midwives, obstetricians and researchers ... I rewrote the whole thing for a single person: a pregnant woman in the UK. Needless to say, this change in perspective improved the book dramatically, so I suppose it's also thanks to the Writers Bureau that I've had quite a few lavish testimonials on the book from some rather well-known people.

My life now feels full of possibilities. I feel as if I'm pregnant with my own future (while my real babies are all born and thriving). Although, I'm broke as I write this account, I know the money is there for the making. Six commissions from Weight Watchers pepper my engagement diary, I have a consultancy job to do to help another new writer get published (for which I'm charging money!) and two people have asked me to write up their life story. When I have time, I will send off those short stories I've already written – and write more – and write up my own life story. I definitely also want to chase up some more editors so as to get a foot in a few more editorial doors. Hey, this is fun! Thank you, Writers Bureau.