Unlock your potential
So many times when I ‘m working with writers or teaching at a writing group people want me to give them some kind of magic formula that will make their writing perfect. They want a set of rules or an equation that will guarantee success. Unfortunately, there is only one formula.
Begin writing. Learn to edit. Spend a great deal of time reading. Write some more. Market yourself. Cross your fingers.
Writing is about spending the time to develop the craft. This means hundreds of hours of writing. There is no getting around it. The sooner you get started at it, the sooner you will get through the awful writing and get on to the deeper levels of craft that are lying beneath.
What kinds of writing?
This is an excellent question. Depending on your genre you may want to explore a number of different kinds of writing to develop your craft. One of the best ways to tighten your writing, and prepare for the queries and summaries necessary to market your writing to editors and agents, is to develop your skills as an article writer. The tightness of the writing required for an article is excellent preparation for writing back cover copy.
How much writing must I do?
I hope you didn’t really ask that question! As a writer your passion should be crafting words. However, if you mean to ask how much writing you need to do before your craft is at the level of publication that will depend on your experience, your natural gift and possibly the topic. For academic writing you will need to establish credentials more than craft. For creative writing you will need to spend time observing how others create an image with their words and then work at it yourself. It won’t come instantly but it will come.
So what this all comes down to taking the first step. Writing the first paragraph. Creating the first story. Getting the first rejection which will lead to your first sale.
It all comes down to a matter of starting it.
Writers want to study the books on craft, read a novel then write a masterpiece. It doesn’t work quite like that. There is a large amount of practice that you need to string words in to images that will make your reader shiver, scream or lose sleep. The fastest way to get there is to start walking. If you’d like to participate in the weekend challenge find out about it here . This challenge was issued for a weekend but will be repeated this week. Post below what you will accomplish this week and do it. Make yourself accountable. Achieve your goals.
This is part 7 of a seven part series on getting readers to pick you and your writing. If you missed the previous posts, or would like to read them again, you can by following the links below:
Pushing past the fear of failure
Comments
Hi Tiffany - this is a fantastic series - and even though I write every day, it's keeping me motivated. Thanks again!
I agree with you whole-heartedly.
There are so many places out there who offer to "teach you how to write" and they do offer some great advice...but the two most important things any potential writer can do is to write as often as he/she can and to read EVERYTHING.
Getting started is the hardest part but as someone once said - "A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step."
Good article.
Tim Baker
Author of "Living the Dream"
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