Links to Put Your Writing Dreams Into Perspective
The first steps to making your dreams your reality, for the aspiring writer
The realm of writing as a career can be maddeningly confusing. Mostly because as you start learning about what this work entails, you start to realize that in order to become a writer, you have to kind of, well, already be a writer. And this lack of a clear starting line can make you very unsure of yourself.
Actually, there is a rather overlooked starting line: reading. Read books, certainly, but the internet also distributes helpful material on writing that reading every once in a while will make you more comfortable in this nebulous realm.
Here are some articles and ideas that will help you add the element of practicality to your writing goals.
Know Your Why
You have to be driven by a purpose, and you won’t find that purpose in writing itself, but in your message and the ideas you are writing about. “I’ll be a writer” is an empty statement. Once you find yourself in front of a laptop or notebook, you’re going to have to write something.
Know Other Writers
Sometimes nothing’s more comforting than the story of someone who’s just as lost or even more lost than you are. So read the success and failure stories of other writers. Just don’t be so keen to compare what they’re doing to what you’re doing.
Know the Industry
Nothing about getting published is rocket science. Still, there are a lot of pitfalls for writers who are ignorant of the ins and outs of the industry, so educate yourself.
Know Your Route
There are lot of different pathways you can take in your writing career, and most of them have to do with your patience and your ambition. Choosing your publishing route is a balancing act of the audience you want, the marketing work you are willing to do, the amount of rejection you can take, etc.
Know Your Goals
It’s probably a good idea to map out your writing goals, but be aware that they may quickly shrink or change. Speaking of knowing other writers, let “Designing Your Writing Career” be your introduction to Holly Lisle, whose site I have been going back to for writing advice for years. She tells it like it is.
Know Your Audience
Getting your work published isn’t the end of the game, unfortunately. Afterwards you have to deal with the business of getting people to read it, so it’s best to be prepared.
Know the Reality
The easiest and worst thing to do is to become hypnotized by shiny things like movie deals and bestseller lists. Understand that these beautiful things are probably not what you want to go for, and wanting to go for them is probably a sign that you won’t get them.
Know Your Odds
What a writer is up against is a scary discovery every writer has. This one deserves two links because the “chances of getting published” idea is stupid to try to quantify, and you might need to read about several attempts to get an idea. It’s probably best to just stick with this piece of common sense: the better your writing is, the better your chances of getting published are.
Know Your Creative Personality
However you design your writing career, one thing should be your main consideration: how you work. There is no ideal writing process or routine or content other than what you do naturally and eagerly. Probably my favorite idea on writing that I have ever read (which you should read all about in Victoria Nelson’s On Writer’s Block: A New Approach to Creativity) is this: Ars requiret totum hominem. Art requires the presence of the total self. And here’s my favorite TED Talk to go with it.
Just to be clear, no combination of these links will make a fraction of a difference to help you become a writer. But if you do like writing, you probably know how one book or one article can shift your perspective enough to give you the push you need.
Good luck.
