Rules 3 - 6
3) Know your heart and your inner voice.
WHY are you writing? Money is fine, but what else? What are your beliefs and core values? What is your Truth?
The answers to these questions do not come easy and they change over time too.
I’m for example still formulating my answers and refining them, re-configuring some of them. But the questions are smoking alive, burning while illuminating my way.
Without that inner sense of who you are, you’ll never have the courage to make the necessary investment and sacrifice. You need that to create the kind of writing that will benefit you and the world. We can talk more about this important point later if you’d like.
4) Develop your craft. It sounds basic but you’d be surprised…
I was an editor and jury member at certain points in my career and I’d regularly be surprised at some of the materials submitted for review; stuff that was not even spellchecked by God!
Know your spelling and grammar, and have the courtesy in this day and age to spell-check your stuff before submitting it to anywhere.
Learn how to develop an idea, link it to supporting arguments and bring it to a conclusion within the allowed word limits. Learn all the basic writing skills and techniques like “parallel construction” or how to avoid “dangling participles" and "misplaced modifiers” etc.
Enroll in a writing program, if necessary. Put aside some money for your professional training even if it’s just enough to buy one educational book or training CD a month.
Your knowledge is your power; your ONLY power. Feed your mind well to write well.
5) Develop a niche, an expertise, a driving point and an edge. The more the better.
But keep it real and under control. Don’t lose your wheels while trying to develop a dozen of such specialties.
You’re human. Act like one. But don’t hide your light either. The more you write on your specialty, the easier it’ll get and the richer your material will be. It’ll smell roses from a mile. People will feel your authenticity and authority the minute they start reading the first sentence.
As your expertise deepens your preparation time will shrink as well. You’ll be able to turn out well crafted and well-informed articles, speeches, books in no time. That’s what editors love – a writer who knows her stuff and can roar with an assignment like a souped-up Mustang on a speedway.
6) Guard your time jealously for your art and craft. Make choices and live with them.
Isaac Asimov hardly had a day in his life when he was not writing in his room, curtains drawn. But to him it wasn’t torture because that was the most pleasure he had in life.
I’m not saying become a monk but recognize that you’ve got only 24 hours to live.
If you keep watching your football games and soap operas and reality shows 6 hours a night, you’ll never be able to finish that novel after you come back from a full-day at the office.
It happened to me this past Sunday. A friend of mine invited me to a Film Festival, with free tickets. I’m a freak for cinema. But I told him I couldn’t go because I was in the midst of a screenplay I’m currently writing. Either I’d go out, have a “good time,” or sit at home and write another twenty pages. It’s as simple as that.
If you want to be a working writer, get accustomed to making those kind of choices at the drop of a hat, every day.
(To continue…)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit Akinci’s web site http://www.writer111.com to subscribe to his free Monthly Success Update Newsletter, packed with information and tips on copywriting, information design and marketing.
Popularity: 8% [?]
May 4th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Excellent advice! #3 and #6 especially resonate with me. Self-awareness and acceptance are key for allowing one’s self the freedom to express what comes. I battle with self-doubt and it kills my will-to-write at times.
Jack Deere said something I won’t soon forget. He said the origin of the word “entertainment” literally means, “to detain from entering.” Essentially, entertainment is that which placates and deters us from entering into creative productivity. We obviously don’t think entertainment is evil, since that is precisely what most of us are striving to create. But there is a point where entertainment gets in the way.
Balance means saying no sometimes. It means not starving yourself from creative inspiration or expression, both of which you’ll need to create your art.