Tuesday's Inspiration - Practice #MFRWauthor #amwriting

So you're going to be a best-selling author - Maybe. How do you approach this goal? Some people think there's a magic wand to wave and they'll hit that coveted list. Sure some people sell the first story they ever wrote but they don't mention the many times they had to re-write or revise the story. The real way to gain a readership is to write and write every day. Practice doesn't make perfect but practice is like reaching for that goal just out of sight.

Talent is a must for a writer but no matter how great a talent is, unless the writer shows they have learned the techniques needed to coax the reader into his or her world, the writing goes flat. We've all read books that make us want to scream. The story is great but the writing leaves us cold and more time is spent correcting the writer's mistakes than in reading the story.

Taking courses in writing fiction help but the biggest way to gain what's needed is to write every day at the same time. Sure it doesn't have to be daily but there has to be a routine, a time when your body knows this is the time to write that story. When rejections come, instead of blaming the editor or agent of not knowing a good story when they see it, the time has come to rewrite that story to see where you've gone wrong. If you're really lucky, instead of the cold "This isn't for us." Some editor will jot a note. "Your characters have no real motivation." Or some other note that gives you a clue. So you practice putting words on paper and discovering the characters' motivations.

I had a fairly early success in my writing and sold a number of short stories. Then the short story dried up. I had to learn how to write novels and that took practice. Then I stepped away from writing for about ten years while I helped put children through college. The time came when I could return to writing. Did all I'd learned before return immediately. Not a chance. I had to practice, practice, practice and re-learn all that had grown rusty from dis-use. Three years of practice gave me a sale.

The moral of this story is try to find time every day to write, even if it's only fifteen minutes and if you only produce a hundred words. In the end the practice will find you holding a book in your hand.

Tuesday's Inspiration - The Three P's #MFRWauthor

Rereading old essays by other writers always helps give me inspiration. This one is by John Jakes and mentions what he calls is the 3 P's.

Practice - Not only did I read this but I heard other writers mention practice. Meaning to write every day even if it was only a paragraph or a page. I certainly did this. No matter what else happened during a day in those early years I wrote something. What I did not do was write the same story over and over again. I began with short stories so I took several days to write a story and put it aside. I went onto another one. Then I returned to the first story and read it over. What did I miss and where did I need to expand. I wrote the story over again. Now I write with pen an paper for the initial drafts. What I learned was the more I practiced the better my writing sounded at least to me. So sit down and write every day even if it's not much. There are people who are streak writers but they also have to practice putting their characters through their paces to make a story.

Persistence - This is the second of the P's. A good one to master. Submitting a story once and having it return with a form rejection letter is no fun. But if you give up, you'll never become a published writer. I wrote and re-wrote my first story and my first novel again and again and each time I revised I sent the story out again. Every one of them was picked up. Several of my novels have taken years of submitting before someone decided to publish the story. So have a little faith in yourself and send that story out after you've cleaned it up. Persistence does pay.

Professionalism - The third P. Just what does this mean. The story is semi- accepted. The editor says she likes certain elements but there needs to be some changes made. Maybe your favorite scene has to go. You need to look at this through another's eyes and try to figure what this means. I remember when I returned to writing after a ten year hiatus and sending off the first few chapters and a synopsis of the story to an editor a friend hyped my book to. I had the hero's daughter die in childbirth. This led to the hero's dark moment. I sat and puzzled this over and over. I needed him to believe she had died. How could I do this? Took several weeks before I came up with the solution. The editor was right and made the story stronger. Always remember your words aren't carved in stone and if the solution isn't one you like, find a way to make it work.

Tuesday's Inspiration - Practice, Practice, Practice #MFRWauthor

Talent is a must for a writer but no matter how great a talent is, unless the writer shows they have learned the techniques needed to coax the reader into his or her world, the writing goes flat. We've all read books that make us want to scream. The story is great but the writing leaves us cold and more time is spent correcting the writer's mistakes than in reading the story.

Taking courses in writing fiction help but the biggest way to gain what's needed is to write every day at the same time. Sure it doesn't have to be daily but there has to be a routine, a time when your body knows this is the time to write that story. When rejections come, instead of blaming the editor or agent of not knowing a good story when they see it, the time has come to rewrite that story to see where you've gone wrong. If you're really lucky, instead of the cold "This isn't for us." Some editor will jot a note. "Your characters have no real motivation." Or some other note that gives you a clue. So you practice putting words on paper and discovering the characters' motivations.

I had a fairly early success in my writing and sold a number of short stories. Then the short story dried up. I had to learn how to write novels and that took practice. Then I stepped away from writing for about ten years while I helped put children through college. The time came when I could return to writing. Did all I'd learned before return immediately. Not a chance. I had to practice, practice, practice and re-learn all that had grown rusty from dis-use. Three years of practice gave me a sale.

The moral of this story is try to find time every day to write, even if it's only fifteen minutes and if you only produce a hundred words. In the end the practice will find you holding a book in your hand.

Tuesday's Inspiration ala Morris L. West

I find it interesting ro read these old essays by many writers I've read in the past. Often what they say relates to where we are as writers today. Sometimes reading them brings me to think of my own writing or about advide to those who are just beginning their careers. This quote is from an essay by Morris L. West and I remember reading most of his books many years ago. I may glean several quotes from this essay. Here's the first.

"Writing is like making love. You have to practice to be good at it." What a wonderful quote. Few people sell the first book they've ever written. Most of us have this stuffed in a drawer never to be seen by anyone. I was fortunate to sell my first novel, but not the first versionof it. The manuscript was returned and revised many times. And I learned from this. I also took time out from my writing career to return to nursing to help put 4 children through college. When I returned to writing, though I remembered many of the things I'd learned earlier I began slowly at first and did much re-writing. What I was doing was practicing so I could be good at putting the words on paper.

What about you? Did you write and re-write many times? Did you expect the first story from your computer to sell and make a million dollars or did you practice your craft, mastering each element until suddenly, you became good at what you wanted to do? Not perfect though. I look bacl on stories I wrote years ago and I can see where they need work. But they were the best I could do at the time. Sometimes they were purchased. Sometimes they were read, garnered nice reviews and sometimes were nominated for awards. They would never have reached this statis if I hadn't practiced and practiced over and over.

Tuesday's Inspiration - John Jakes - The Three Ps

Leafing through short essays on writing by many authors I came upon this article by John Jake Three Essentials For A Successful Writing Career, When I read it while it didn't exactly inspire me, it said what I've shouted out to others.  What are the 3 Ps he mentioned? They should inspire anyone attempting to establish themselves as an author.

Practice. This means writing. To develop a skill one has to practice. I've some friends who have written one book and that's where they stop. It's been rejected and they cover their computer and never write another word. The only way to gain skill is to write and write. I've been doing this for many years and yes , I did sell the first book I ever wrote but I re-wrote that book many times before it was saleable. I also did what I should and as soon as I sent it out began on something new. I practiced for several years before my first sale.

Persistence is the second P. This means keep going. Rejections hurt. I'll agree to that and there were times when the publishing world imploded and rejections came fast and furious, at least for me. One has to keep trying, keep writing and keep submitting. Now these days there are many different ways to go. There are the large NY publishers, the small print houses, the electronic publishers, and self publishing. There's also vanity publishing but that's not for someone who is a persistent writer.

The Last P is professionalism. This means among other things not thinking the words you've written are carved in stone. Listen to critics and learn from them without becoming defensive. I began in the good days when editors responded with suggestions. This is how I learned and in five years from the first time I submitted the book it sold. There are few overnight successes. Professionalism is also the moment when you know there's something wrong with the story you're writing and then again when you know how to fix the problem. This comes through Practice and Persistence.

So, how about you? Do you use the 3 Ps mentioned by John Jakes.

Tuesday's Inspiration - Talent and Practice

Yeasr ago, I wrote poetry, some of it not bad and some not good. I wasn't writing poetry to set myself up as a poet but to hone my use of words. The other day when I was looking through the dozens of books I have on my shelf, I found the book that I read then and practiced some of the techniques. What I learned was about rhythm and developing my writer's voice. I'll use this book to glean some of the things that inspired me back then. The book is The Poet and the Poem by Judson Jerome. In looking over the first bit of the book several things struck me that apply to both writing fiction and poetry.

One is talent. Talent is a must. The forms can be learned so can the grammar and things like that but there must be a spark of talent somewhere to cause the words to have an effect on the writer.

The second is practice. If one is going to write a story one has to write and often re-write. The overnight success is rare and perhaps nonexistent.
A writer needs to write. Practice belongs with persistence.

Here's a quote. "The best prose is chaos threatening to become order."
And so often my stories start out chaotic and gradually become order. What aabout you? Do you enjoy making order out of chaos, searching for the form that best suits what you wantto say?

Friday's Writer's Tip -- Finding time

Being published overnight doesn't happen often. What it takes is practice, persistence and professionalism. Maybe I'll go backwards. Professionalism is listening to the editors who may comment on what you've written and make suggestions for changes to make the writing better. Some writers believe that everything they've written is perfect and no one should suggest a change. I've written scenes that I feel don't work. In the early days I'm glad I was able to be advised by editors who made suggestions on how the scene could be fixed. Then one day a light bulb flashed and I looked at a scene I knew wasn't working and I knew what to do. Now this took time to learn. Probably 20 years. Some people are slow learners.

But another thing was persistence. The first book I sold was revised 17 times. This was a learning process and from those helpful editor comments I learned. What would have happened if I'd not been persistent. But persistence can also harm. A writer can work persistently on a story and work it over and over again and never really make the needed changes. So persistence can be a good use of a writer's time or it can be a waste of time.

Now to practice. A writer needs time to learn their craft. This can be difficult when he or she has a job and a family. The one thing to do is to set yourself a goal of writing for the week. Don't think in thousands of words but in hours per week. Say three hours a week oreven start with one hour a week. This time can be divided into smaller segments or it can be done in a whole block of time. Now that can be hard when one has children wanting things or husbands or wives needing time. But one can find ways to take that time. It may mean giving up something. Say every week you watch some TV program that runs an hour. Consider giving it up to write. Put the Idol or the soap opera aside. Fine creative ways to gain your hour or your fifteen minutes. Remember that the more you write, the easier it will become.

If you really want to succeed it takes practice, persistence and professionalism.