Moving Down The Writer's Path

This poster quote should make you sit up and take notice. One of the faults writers tend to have is to want to be a true success in a short time after they began writing. 

I've mentioned more than once the story of a woman I knew who had posted a couple of stories on a website open to anyone to post. She had gotten some nice compliments from readers, so she decided that she'd become a professional writer so she quit her job and stayed home to write. And she wrote and wrote but didn't make any money. She dived into the deep end of the pool without doing a little research, without understanding that you build your writing world slowly, without thinking about her loss of income with no paying job. In the end, she gave up and started a business in her home. 

The writer's journey moves slowly. It sometimes feels like a Turtle Trail. It's those small efforts that are repeated day in and day out as the poster states that help us move along at a sure pace. It might not be the speed we hope for, but remember than any progress is a positive in the life of a writer.

What are some of those small efforts you should be making? 

• doing writing exercises on a regular basis
• reading about writing in magazines and reference books
• writing as soon as inspiration hits
• writing the first draft, then edit and revise several days later
• joining a critique group
• socialize with other writers and listen carefully to the conversations about writing
• studying markets
• immerse yourself in some form of writing every day
• learn from rejections

There are more, of course, but if you do all of the above, you're going to move step by step along your writer's path. Don't be in too much of a hurry. Doing so could come back to bite you. I think about my friend now and then. If she'd followed some of the small efforts listed above, she might have had some real success in her writing world.