Wannabe writers and makers of things, short long thread here.

In 2015 I wanted to write more about other sports, but found it really hard to find anyone hire me. Not footbally enough for UK, other aussies had got the Aus in Euro market, and so US seemed my best choice.

I tried really hard to crack the US market, but one piece each for Sports Illustrated and the Ringer was as close as I got. Then out of the blue ESPN contacted me asking if I'd be interested in being their non-US global feature writer.

I worked really hard to scour the earth for the best sport stories and ideas. Unique backstories on big players or big events. Cross over pieces (that is what ESPN wanted) or a really strong stories. Every single one was rejected.

Eventually after a year I had this incredible folder of unwritten pieces and no more energy to keep pitching them to ESPN who didn't seem that interested anymore.
From there I offered my services writing these kinds of stories to a few of other major publications, I got nowhere.

And this isn't the first time this has happened to me. I spent over a year trying to get someone to buy this piece, https://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1118422/the-shahid-afridi-of-kansas still my greatest piece of writing. I racked up 50 or 60 rejections along the way.

Anyway, I kept all these proposals and pitches, I kept the lists of potential articles and vague ideas for years. In digital folders, in notebooks, everywhere. With heaps of notes and fleshed out parts and paras.

And then one day, I'm sitting around a pool bar on a cricket tour, and someone asks if I'm doing any non-cricket related stuff. And i tell this story, out of frustration more than salesmanship.

And it was that conversation that lead to another, that lead to another, before I came up with a pitch, and then a few months later we are here. I have a radio show on @talkSPORT tonight at 8pm. Which is based on all these ideas.

None of these ideas started as a radio show, not even close, I would never have even thought that way with my mind focused on writing being on a page of some kind. But by keeping the work, and risking rejection in a whole different medium, I ended up with this new show.

I think the moral of this story is keep your ideas, write them out properly so they always have meat on them, and then understand that today more than ever - there are so many different mediums to get good stories out there. And listen to my show tonight. 8pm, @talkSPORT