Thanks For The Creativity

Samantha Altizer
Aug 8, 2017 · 3 min read

As I signed in today, literally getting off a writing high, what hit me in the face were several articles on how to write a book, how to be great writer, and/or be more creative. I looked over them briefly then came here to type to you. Ah my dear friends do you smell that? It is great advice brewing in the morning, and do you know what is amazing about great advice? Everyone seems to have some snippet of it. Yes you too can make a living writing if you only fill in the blank. Normally a price tag is attached the size of Mount Crumpit for the advice. And yes I have paid the Mount Crumpit fee once, and look where I am. I will tell you so far what I’ve heard over and over again, more than any other advice. It is hard work to be a published author. So what is the break down?

One you need to write. Yep, you’re getting more advice and the advice is to go write. Literally, you’ve been here less than a minute and you thought this wasn’t coming up? If you can’t accomplish this step, you may want to redirect your efforts. So writing is great, but you probably want to practice writing for who you think your target audience is, I’m not saying don’t explore other genres, I am saying do most of your writing in your primary focus. You don’t want to get used to writing YA if you want to publish Erotica. One of these things is definitely not like the other.

Two read what you wrote, yes before you even edit read what you wrote. Reading what you wrote will make you stop and think about if it makes sense, especially if you went on a 3 a.m. writing binge. Those binges are amazing for producing sentences that sounded great without coffee but make you scratch your head at what you meant later. Readability is a make or break deal, so rereading is an easy step, also if you find yourself falling in love with your characters while you are reading them, you probably have a good book. On the other hand if you feel like you may fall asleep, see step one.

Three and I am the worst about this, edit. Edit, edit, edit. I am horrible at Grammar, I never got it in school, I have yet to get it through self study, I just stink at it. However, it is a part of writing, and probably why you will never see me personally published by a large print corporation. Even when I feel like I have edited well, I still haven’t edited well. I hope you have better luck in this area and that my writing doesn’t offend you to easily with the errors I am sure it is full of.

Four is also something hard for me to do. Find an audience and build a following. I don’t exactly understand how to make an email list, how to build one, or where to start. I do know most authors today, unless you are someone like J.K. Rowling have an email list, they build it from scratch and it is normally how their books start to take off. I’m lucky I have a few followers on here, that stumbled across my work. (Thank you for being here by the way.) Most traditional publishing companies actually inquire about you having one of these, so if you figure it out let me know, I’ll be happy to hear it.

So those are my four little take away tidbits, now here is the beauty of it all, it is up to you no one else to make your writing work for you. You are the one in control of it, and if you just sit there and take no action, do no research and complain about no one reading your work, then it is on you. If you are actively doing any of these steps, then congratulations you are one step closer to being a published author and I am excited to read your work. Any one published already? What is your advice? Leave a link to your book in the comments so I can take a look later.

Samantha Altizer

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I am an author and creative. Find me on Facebook here fb.me/SammyJsBAT I am there more than Twitter. :)