Work At A Writing Career

 

Writers might hear lots of things about the writing world from people who have never written professionally or to become published, They've 'heard' about the pitfalls of the writing world and are all too eager to share them. The keyword here is 'heard.' They are not giving advice from their own experience.

Movies and books about authors have contributed to the general knowledge of nonwriters. How many rags to riches stories have there been showing how a young man or young woman lives in a hovel, eating little, but pounding out one story after another with no success? Suddenly, they receive an acceptance from an editor, and they are on the way to stardom. It becomes the stereotype for the starving author.

We all know that not every writer lives that way or finds publication only after a long, hard struggle. Hard work, yes, but not months or years of starving. Not only do the movies or novels dwell on the difficult beginnings of an author but also the glamor and wealth of the ones who have 'made it big.' Not every writer who becomes published many times suddenly lives the life of a celebrity. Some do, of course, but certainly not all. 

If you dream of being a writer who gets published on a regular basis, go after your dream. Work at it a little at a time, think big, and don't listen to the naysayers. 

Some writers hope to make a full career, getting published enough to support themselves as a full-time writer. Others work at a day job and write on the side, also getting published often enough to keep them working at their 'second career.' Housewives and stay-at-home moms can also build a writing life for themselves. So can senior citizens who pursue writing later in life. 

All these different kinds of writers need to set their own goals, think big in journeying through their writing world, and stop listening to those who are quite willing to put a damper on your writing world. 

Be the writer who knows what he/she wants and is willing to go after it. 

Pondering On Your Writing Journey

 

I like both the photo and the quote on today's poster. The horse is magnificent, and the golden hues are wonderful. But, let's ponder a bit on the words.

The Quote:  Good things come to those who Believe, Better things come to those who Wait, and the Best things come to those Don't Give up

Good things come to those who Believe:  I've written many posts about believing in yourself as a writer. It's one of the first steps we should take on our writing journey. Scratch the 'Not sure if I can do this' attitude. Start with 'I'm going to be a writer. I know I can do this by learning and writing every day.' If you don't believe in yourself, neither will your readers. Write with confidence. Write with passion. Write like you enjoy what you're doing. 

Better things come to those who Wait:  There can be a long waiting period for writers from their initial steps in the writing world to seeing signs of success. Few beginning writers get published immediately. Time and honing your skills as a writer requires some patience. Even writers who have been writing for a long time still sometimes wait for those better things to happen. 

and the Best things come to those who Don't Give up:  This part of the quote is one key to success. There are periods when even successful writers are ready to give up. There can be long periods between publications, and that's disheartening. We see times when the well seems to have run dry. Nothing left to write about. There are moments when writers wonder why they ever started on this journey. It's periods like this when you must not give up. The best things could be just around the corner. You don't want to miss them. 

Did you notice that there are four parts of the quote, other than sentence beginning, that are capitalized. Probably because they are of great importance. Look at them again:  Believe, Wait, Best and Don't Give up. What can you change in your writing life to attain all four? 

    

A Door to the Writing World

What is behind the door?

When I opened my devotional booklet this morning of July 1st, the writer began with thoughts on the booklet's name--Portals of Prayer. She said a portal can be a passageway, an approach, an entrance, a gate, or a door. Being the writer I am, thoughts of all those synonyms for portal made me ponder on all of them as they relate to the writing world you and I belong to. 

When we approach a door, we don't always know what is behind that entry. If it's a familiar place, of course we know what we will see when we grasp the handle and push it open. On the other hand, in our writing world, we often stand outside an entryway not knowing what is on the other side nor having any confidence that we are making a good move to enhance our writing successes. We must find the keys.

Let's look at the writing itself. When we first begin our writing journey, we stand on the outside of the portal, hoping to write our way into the writing world. The only way to do that is to write, edit, then submit in hopes of unlocking the door. With our first success, the door stands ajar. To open it all the way, we need to keep writing, editing, and submitting. No haphazard writing here and there, but regularly.

If we want to continue down the path that leads from the inside of the entryway, we must keep on finding story ideas. They're all around us, but it's up to us to use our writer's eye to find them, pull them in, and think long and hard about where we might go with the kernel we've seen..

The door to the writing world is never going to open if we only stand in front of it and wish we could open the entrance and find the path behind it. Thoughts alone will never give us the key. I can't tell you how many wannabe writers spend years only thinking about writing. The desire is there, but so is the fear that maybe they can't do it, or maybe it is the wrong time in life, or maybe no one will like what they write. I was one of them, which is why my writing journey started later in life. Regrets? You bet. I wish I had started much sooner.

Your goal should be to write, edit, and submit often enough to march right through that door with no hesitation. Set your goal, push the door open, and continue your writing world journey. There will be bumps in the road, highs and lows, but I doubt you'll regret starting the journey. 

 

In Writing--Faith Over Fear

 

 

Writers make mistakes as they move along their writing journey. None of us are totally immune to doing something we wished we hadn't in our writing life. 

Sometimes we hurry the process, and it shows. We don't present our best work when we move too quickly. Maybe we toss something in we think is correct but hadn't taken time to do a little checking or research. We could get called on it by a reader. We might grab a title quickly out of the air only to think of a much better one when it's too late. 

These are only a few of the mistakes we make. The more often that an error comes up, the more we fear moving on, or even trying to do so. This is when we need to give ourselves a pep talk. It's when we need to encourage faith in our own abilities. We need to put faith over fear. 

One of the best ways I know to increase your faith in yourself and decrease your fears in your writing life is to make two lists. List A should be made of all the things you fear about writing. In List B, show the pluses in your writing life, the good things that have happened, and what you feel are your strengths as a writer. On which list should you concentrate? That's a no-brainer question. 

We need to pump up our own confidence level and we should do it on a daily basis. Maybe then, we can start believing in ourselves. If you dwell daily on your mistakes and your fears about writing, what do you think will happen? Yes, you'll start convincing yourself that you cannot write well, that all you do is flub up. 

Learn to have faith in yourself. If you don't have it, no one else will have faith in you either. Editors and readers figure it out fairly easily when you write without confidence in what you can produce.

Let's go back to those lists. I said to concentrate on List B, but you might also want to go through the first list and address those fears, one by one. Ask yourself if the fear is justified or are you responsible for creating your own fear? If the fear is justified, what can you do about it? How can you change whatever that fear happens to be? 

Work at having faith over fear, and you'll be both a happier writer and a better one. 

3 Kinds of Writers and a Power Outage

I'm late in writing my post today as our power went out around 8:30 this morning. I thought I could still use my laptop since it was fully charged, but when I turned it on, I discovered no internet! I tried to call a friend on my landline, and the phone had a message about no power in the holder. No tv. No radio.No airconditioner. My cellphone needed charging but couldn't do that either. So, I went for a walk that needs no power other than my own. I came home and sewed on a button that I'd needed to do for days. No power needed for that. We had power at 10:30. 

While I was on my walk, a neighbor passed and said, "We didn't need one more bad thing, did we?" 

The photo poster today made me think about my early morning situation and also about writing. Looking at it line by line:  The pessimist complains about the wind.  Grumbling about the power outage would have brought no results. The optimist hopes for it to change. Yes, I did hope for it to change but hope alone was not going to get it done. The realist adjusts the sail. I think I did adjust by doing things that required no power. Not only did I have something to do, but both were also good things. I needed the walk, and my mini sewing project let me cross that need off my list. 

How does this quote apply to our writing world?

The pessimist complains about the wind. We all know writers who spend far too much time whining or complaining about all phases of their writing life. Many place the blame on others rather than looking at themselves for the answer to why so many negatives appear on their writing journey. For these people, it's time to make an attitude change.

The optimist hopes for it to change. I am always happy to see someone who has hopes to be a better writer, to be able to get more of his/her work published. That's not such a bad thing. However, that kind of writer who puts all their concerns into hoping that their writing life improves still has to work hard to make it happen. Hope alone does not make it so. 

The realist adjusts the sail. This kind of writer is not going to continue sitting in the boat either complaining or hoping for change. He/she is going to get up and get moving, to make better things happen in his/her writing life. It means work, sometimes very difficult work. In the long run, this writer will be the most satisfied and the most productive. 

Step Up The Pace In Your Writing Journey

Yesterday afternoon, I visited two ladies from my church congregation. We had a pleasant visit despite the fact that they are now living in a Memory Care Unit at a Senior Living Complex. Physically, they are fine, but severe short term memory loss makes life difficult for them and for their families.

As I drove home, it occurred to me that, since none of us knows when we might have similar problems or something else that slows us down, we need to push our writing journey into high gear. Are there stories yet to tell? Do you have a possible book swimming in your head but you haven't started writing it yet? Is there a big writing project that you know you want to get to 'someday?'

How often have you, like me, pushed pet projects into the background for lack of time or strong motivation or that 'just not ready' feeling?

I'm sure you've all seen that poster quote that says So many books, so little time. Serious readers can relate, and they are the ones that have bought the coffee mugs, shirts, and tote bags that feature the quote. What about one for writers that says So much to say, so little time? If you're a writer, you DO have a great deal to say in the form of the printed word. Maybe we all need to pick up the pace a bit.

Older writers know their time to accomplish all their goals is limited. Younger writers feel like they have all the time in the world. Hopefully, they do, but unexpected events can interfere at any moment.

I came home feeling like I needed to speed up my writing journey a bit. I don't mean for this post to be a downer. Most of you know I am a positive thinking person. My reason for writing about this today is to make us all work a little harder, a little longer so that we can achieve all that is possible in our writing life. It's not an admonition, but something to think about. 

Writers--Venture Into New Territory

If you're a writer, you were once a beginner  If you kept with it and worked at learning the craft, you moved on to being an intermediate writer. Hopefully, you kept going and are a super writer today! 

I was interviewed by a newspaper reporter this morning and one of the things that emerged from our question and answer session was that I originally wanted to write for children. I did that for a few years and then I decided to venture into other areas of writing. I tried writing about writing, which I'm still doing today. I made a stab at adult short fiction and I wasn't very good at it. Then, I tried my hand at memoir and personal essays followed by poetry. It turned out that creative nonfiction--memoir and personal essay--was my strong suit. 

What if I hadn't moved out of the comfort of the first kind of writing I'd tried? I still enjoy writing short stories for middle-grade kids, but now I write more creative nonfiction than anything else. I've had more published in that category than any other along with articles on the craft of writing. 

I would have lost so much had I never tried a different category of writing. I probably wouldn't be writing this blog. Nor would I be teaching workshops on writing at my state authors convention. Nor would I be having as many acceptances after submitting. Probably not as many rejections either!

Many writers write only one kind of story or article. Or only poetry. I think they may be missing something big. We need to step forward and attempt other types of writing. Never written a memoir piece? Why not give it a try? After all, every one of us has memories that can give us the basis for a short memoir story. 

If you've always written nonfiction, what's to stop you from writing fiction? Lack of experience? Lack of self-confidence? Fear? You can overcome all of those. If you decide to try writing personal essays, read all you can about the form. Read examples of personal essays. Educate yourself to give you a springboard.

If you've never written poetry, who says you can't? Anyone can pen free verse. You don't have to be knowledgeable about meter and rhyme and other things.  A free verse poem comes from the heart. It's writing your feelings or describing something meaningful to you. There's no reason you can't give it a whirl. If you find you like writing poetry, start learning more about other forms and keep practicing.

Note that I said 'keep practicing.' When you try a new type of writing, it takes some practice to reach a point where you are satisfied with what you've written, where you feel it is of a quality that you can submit it for publication or for a contest, and that you feel satisfied. That goes for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction--whatever category you want to try. Don't give up too soon unless you know that you really don't like that particular kind of writing. If you don't like it, quit. There's no rule that says you have to keep on, but you'll at least know you tried it.

Even if you're completely happy with the kind of writing that you do now, move into new territory. There is no guarantee you'll like it, but it's worth trying. It could be that you find a whole new part of your writing world like I did. We don't need to be pigeonholed into only one kind of writing. Someone once said Variety is the spice of life and it became a well-known adage still alive today, so there must be something to it. 

You were once a beginning writer; you can be a beginner in a different kind of writing, too.

Predictions For Writers

Groundhog Day 2018

The groundhog saw his shadow this morning so we're in for six more weeks of winter.  At least, that's what legend tells us. Old Phil is the Predictor in Residence in Pennsylvania. I kind of figured we'd have another six weeks of winter no matter what he told us today. It's a safe bet if you live in the northern half of the USA. 

Would you like to have a Predictor in Residence in your writing world? A being of some sort who would whisper in your ear and predict what editor is going to accept your submission for publication. If only! How about a fairy who can scatter a bit of pixie dust over us that will make us the best writer we've ever been before or hope to be? 

Even the fairy tells us we need a bit more than her sparkly pixie dust. She says includes Faith and Trust. I'd go along with that. You need faith in yourself as a writer and you should learn to trust your instincts as to what you write and where you submit your work. So, our sweet fairy is a predictor, too. 

What if we could look in the crystal ball and know what our future as a writer will be. Would you really want to know? Would you work as hard if you already knew what the outcome would be? The crystal ball might tell you what the result of the next years will be but it isn't going to tell you how to get there. That's up to you, the writer. 

The real Predictor in Residence is you. Only you know how much effort you're willing to put into your writing journey. Do you want to move at a snail's pace or go by leaps and bounds like a jackrabbit? 

Have fun with all the imaginary predictions but be realistic about how you progress on your writing path. 

A Quote With Three Pieces of Good Advice For Writers

This three-pronged quote gives food for thought to all of us who write. Let's look at them one at a time.

Believe:  I've written many times about the importance of believing in yourself. If you don't, who else is going to? If not, you might give up submitting your work. Remember that the only way to get published is to submit. And keep on submitting. Believe that some of what you submit will end up in print. It may not happen at the very beginning of your writing journey but it will if you keep working at the craft, keep growing as a writer. Do all you can to gain self-confidence. Google articles on same if you must. Remind yourself of the good things that have happened in your writing life. Read that wonderful children's book, The Little Engine That Could a dozen times or whenever you feel your self-confidence slipping.

Patience:  Yes, here it is again. That keyword for success in the wriitng world--patience.  Instant success in the writing world is pretty rare. Most of us have to work at the craft for quite some time before we achieve success. If we start submitting to smaller circulation publications, we have a better chance than if we send our precious words to top paying magazines who take only the highest quality works. Yes, it's hard to wait for good things to happen but it's well worth it. Practice patience in all things but especially in your writing life.

Best things:  This one appears obvious, doesn't it? Don't give up--three little words packed with power. She/he who gives up is going to be the biggest loser. Perseverance has always been the other keyword that I equate with patience in my writing world. Easy? Definitely not.

In fact, none of these three points is an easy task. You'll have to work at each of them, and not for a day or a week but all the time. Our writing journey is an ongoing process and the tools we need to write well can be added to as time moves on. We also need to keep reminding ourselves of these three points. It might be beneficial to print the quote and keep it near your writing area as a reminder. We often get excited about good advice but, as time goes on, we forget and slip back into old ways.

Keep working toward good things, better things, best things.

Pondering Our Writing Journey

Wouldn't it be nice if, once we decided to pursue a writing career, that we move from the bottom of the ladder to the top in an express elevator. You know the ones in those skyscrapers in big cities. You step inside, hit the button for the top floor and in an instant you're there. No stops or bumps along the way.

A writing journey doesn't work like that. We have lots of starts and stops, lots of slowdowns and bumps on our writing path. Sometimes we even slide backward several steps, then have to make up for lost time.

Once we do find some success in our writing efforts, I think the slower journey has benefited us. We can look back to see where we started and where we traveled to get to whatever success we've found. When we do, we should take some pride in what we've come through to attain something good in our writing world.

The hard part is getting through that slow journey, step by difficult step. Keep in mind as you do so that any goal you have is worth some effort to achieve. If it's too easy, it's not going to mean nearly as much to you, is it? If you hit a goal after lots of hard work, you can be proud of your accomplishment. It may be trite to say, but nothing worthwhile comes easily.

As you move along your writing path, know that each new step you take is bringing you closer to where you want to be. Maybe you'll never reach the peak of the mountain but as long as you continue to work and grow in your writing, you'll be a lot higher than the day you started out.

One goal we as writers should set for ourselves is to conitine to grow as writers, to keep on learning our craft, and to continue working at a steady pace. If we do all those things, we are going to continue climbing rather than sliding back to the beginning of our writing journey.