IN THE BEGINNING
So you want to be a writer. So did I. I've probably written
my million words--about eighty short stories and ten full-length novels, and a
couple dozen articles, some published, some not.
To be a published author takes perseverance and a tough
skin. I seem to have both. But not in the beginning.
It hurts to get that first rejection. It's discouraging to
get the first dozen.
Baby steps are needed. A baby learns to walk by practicing
every day, and that's what a beginning writer should do. You learn an awful lot
by simply doing. But it doesn't hurt to read a book a month about writing, some
of the better writing magazines, and now blogs.
Read best-selling authors' autobiographies or self-help
books. Stephen King in On Writing said you should read an hour for every
hour you write. You can learn a lot by reading the current best sellers and
widely in the genre you're particularly interested in.
The ONLY way you'll ever get published is to write. Thinking
about it, talking about it won't get you there. You have to go to that quiet
spot with your writing tools and just do it.
Good luck!
Jan Christensen ©2017
Jan Christensen lives and writes in Corpus Christi, Texas
now, after living on the road in an RV and writing wherever she happened to
land. She concentrates on mysteries, both short and long. More about her
here: www.janchristensen.com
Rejection does discourage all writers. However, it can also encourage us to improve our work. Sometimes, editors are generous enough to observe how this might be done. It's all part of the process.
ReplyDeleteAs to writing, As Mary Higgins Clark has also observed: the way to be a writer is to write. No excuses--just do it.
Jan, you're absolutely right. I especially like the way you state the obvious and don't couch it in a long, verbose essay. If you want to write, do it. There's no other way.
ReplyDeleteI hope your surgery goes well, and I look forward to future posts.