posted
I think the first thing you need to do is decide what your goals are.
Do you want to earn some extra money writing magazine articles? Do you want to earn enough as a freelance writer that you can quit your full-time job? Do you want to write short stories, novels, or poetry? Do you want to take writing for a test drive and see what happens? Do you want to learn how to express yourself better? Is it a form of therapy?
So, Syn, what do you want from writing?
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
All of those. To be corny, idealistic and childish, I want to chang ehte world with it. I've wanted to be a writer since I was a kid. I have in my head about 5 pr 6 stories. I want to write essays, I write a few poems every once in a while. Mainly I want to- Become a better and clearer writer with a distinct voice. Get my foot in the door. Finish stuff and publish it. Gain confidence and not be afraid of being read by people.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Okay. Good to know. Now, where do you want to start? You can't accomplish everything in the first week or month, so pick something to start with.
If you want to start writing fiction, then grab your favorite writing medium and get going. If you need support from other writers, then find writer's groups that can help you with that. I belong to a few I love, and they all have different purposes. (Purpii? Purpoises? ) If you like, I can recommend a few.
If you want to get published with magazine articles or newspaper articles, for example, then you need a different tactic. And short stories have a different market than novels.
So. Where do you want to start?
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posted
perhaps I could start with refining this difficult story I have been writing since 99... *has the problem of always wanting to do about 50 things at once, work on 50 stories, try to write essays, ect* The problem with this story is it's not very marketable... it's sort of disturbing and a bit intense and I might be too young and inexperience to write it, but I would love to finish it and try to submit it into a contest or something. I also want to enter past stuff into contests like a couple of old essays.
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posted
Get paid to write so I can stop working at the stupormarket. That's my main goal. Getting my foot in the door. Better yet, instead of getting another job that might be worse than the stupormarket except for pay, I want to just write... Even if it's ridiculous stuff that no one really wants to read like my blog. I just want to write without worrying about what anyone will think about it or whether or not it is good or bad... But, I actually want to write well. Mainly it's scathing political articles that are attractive. Something that is about the middle ground.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Good to know. Other people *may* at some point chime in with other comments, but I'll get started.
If you want to write newspaper or magazine articles, and get paid, it's possible. It's usually best to start with smaller, local presses. They will pay low, or may not pay at all, but it's a good way to get writing credits.
If you have a particular type of article in mind you'd like to write, then why not write it and submit it? The worst they can do is say no.
I'd also suggest getting ahold of a copy of Writer's Market, or go to their website at www.writersmarket.com. Start reading up on freelance writing, possibly also joining a freelance writer's group or two. You can find some on the internet. You could also consider taking a class or classes to help you get started.
There's also the writer's forums here that you can check out.
But mainly, the best way to get started is to get started. In other words, start writing.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I was published in a "Chicken Soup" book a few years back. Hey, I know it's not the big-time, but it sure made me happy. Plus, the story was re-printed in the magazine "Woman's World." $500 total for a story that took less than an hour to write - not a bad gig when it happens.
space opera, who really should work more on her writing
Posts: 2578 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Syn, I've just started a writers' club at a local middle school. Dan's got the best advice. After you get some good work done, meet with other writers and let them critique the crap out of you. Then deal with your emotions and revise. Look for markets online, through books, and by networking with other writers. Read all the books in your library about the art and craft of writing (there's a whole section). And never give up!
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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I'm currently reading the first book on the list. And it's really good. I'm needing a kick in the pants for writing tech manuals for work. This is helping.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
[quote]Get paid to write so I can stop working at the stupormarket. [/quote
First of all, don't expect your writing to save you from a bad job. Ain't gonna happen. If you don't like your job work on finding a better one.
I read something once that said the average income of members of SFWA was about $3,500 a year. That may be out of date, but the point is still made. Very, very few people can live off their writing. I mean very few. Very.
I've been published twice now, and each time it was for only one reason - I actually tried to get published. I sent something in. The first story of mine that was published was only rejected once - the second place I sent it to bought it. Then, that same publisher asked me to participate in another project, and I submitted five pieces to them - they bought three.
I haven't been published since and you know what? I haven't sent anything else in.
You must follow Scott's formula. If you don't, you'll never get anywhere. Now, I'm not exactly wanting a writing career anymore, I am in school and looking toward a different career. But, there are days when I wish I could say I had something else coming out in print when people ask me what I've done lately. But, since I haven't gotten off my butt and done anything in a while, there's no one to blame but myself.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
My good friend Scott Card once told me that his advice to aspiring writers is to stop aspiring and write.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Here's what I did (sorry this might be a bit long):
1. I decided at the age of seven that I was going to be a writer. Lesson #1: Never let a seven year old make career decisions for you... they operate on an entirely different budget than the rest of the world...
2. I wrote stories all the time and read constantly as a kid.
3. Later on, I learned to listen. There's nothing like other people's voices to teach you about the tone and flow of dialogue. Speak with people, have conversations with them, men, women, children.
4. I graduated from high school and moved out on my own. I'd get home from work each day and sit down at the typewriter (boy, does that date me) and churn out something, anything. I took it seriously even though no one was handing me a check for it.
5. I went on to college and promptly bailed and bombed out. Got my heart broken, got myself repaired, got broken again and learned a lot from the pain and the healing. And I kept on writing. Except now, I started offering stories to the local newspaper.
6. About a year later, I got a job as a reporter for a local paper. I learned pretty quick that what I thought was a story and what really was a printable (read: purchaseable) story was something completely different.
7. I learned to edit, layout, sell. And most importantly, I learned to listen to the stories around me -- how real people live, react, rejoice, mourn, struggle and succeed. Until you kind of get out of your own skin, your writing never rings true -- it's still just the story of one person at a keyboard.
8. I wrote for 10 years straight, 10 to 15 stories, articles, columns per week. I learned that writing is production, churning out the product. Volume creates career. Quality maintains career.
9. Then I got married and moved away from my home newspapers and magazines. It was time to break away or be forever caught in the place where the ink is never quite dry and the next deadline is already looming. I didn't want to be the 55 year old fellow in shabby clothes still plugging away at the paper with a novel "in the works."
10. Five years later, I have a completed novel, still freelance a bit here and there, and work a job that doesn't use my writing skills as much as before. And here I remain stuck, at a loss on marketing my work. But something else burgeons now and is providing the impetus to get it rolling forward again: a baby on the way. Writing is where my ability to support a wife and child will come from, it is the skill set I worked hard for. And now, the novel will be going out to publishers again and the next is underway. We've got bills to pay and I've got to be the Daddy my child deserves... both my new child on the way, and that seven year old one that made a decision so long ago.
Wanna be a writer? Write. Learn. Cast off your own pretensions and be like a plumber: roll up your sleeves, ignore the distasteful and put in your day's work for your day's wages.
And always remember: What you write isn't yours... it is your audience's. Write for them, not for yourself and you'll never go wrong. And don't worry, what you need to put of yourself will find its way in there, and you'll never even notice until it is done.
Otherwise, good luck and take the world in. It is from where all stories begin.
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