Probably, many people think or believe that they would like to write professionally, or at least they dream about it. However, that is as far as it goes in many cases. The problem lies in the ability to manifest their vision for an assortment of reasons. The purpose of this article is to discuss these roadblocks and to offer suggestions for overcoming these obstacles so that any potential writer can start writing.
It seems that the biggest task is getting started. Many people feel intimidated into quitting before they ever got started. The individual may sit, looking at a blank piece of paper or computer screen, thinking, "Now what?" He or she may wonder how it is a writer just starts writing or that the real writer is just gifted and just sits down and starts writing, almost like magic. Perhaps the aspiring writer pens a short story that they felt good about, only to show it to a friend or family member who laughs and tells him or her not to quit his or her day job.
The whole crux of the matter is that it is no easy job to learn how to write and most of us who are writing have stood where you are, feeling frustrated and terrible about not being able to do write that break-through novel. Now I have hinted at the first problem: many people who want to write think that they are going to start out writing a book. I know the cliché is as old as the hills: "You must learn to walk before you learn to run." Nevertheless, this is true with writing.
Many people think that they can enroll in a college writing class and that is going to teach them how to write. However, the purpose of the class is to teach you proper grammar, not how to be creative, so after investing the money for the class, and even passing the class with an A or a B, the aspiring writer is still pretty far from the goal of being a writer. By the way, college is a good way to learn how to write, but you get better at writing the more classes you take. However, there has to be another way to become a writer without investing large sums of money and earning a college degree.
From my experience, I can tell you that I spent a lot of money by subscribing to Writer's Digest and buying a ton of books on writing. Nevertheless, I still had to learn what I read and put it into practice. I got into this pattern of buying new books and reading them, but I never started writing. Finally, acting on a recommendation of a friend, I bought this book by Julia Cameron entitled, "The Artist's Way". You may be wondering why I mention a book that seems like it would be geared towards artists, when, in fact, it is geared towards all creative artists, whether they are painters, musicians, or even would-be writers and poets.
Ms Cameron teaches you that in order to tap into your creative mind, one of the things that you will need to do is start a practice called journal keeping. You have heard the joke where someone asked a musician, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The musician replied, "I had to practice." The idea, to me, is that writing a couple of pages a day does give a person practice, but somehow, her methods, of which writing a journal is only a part of, work towards liberating the creative mind. The purpose of "The Artist's Way" is to guide you along a Spiritual path that leads you into discovering your inner creative self. I also have in my library, by the same author, "The Right to Write," and "The Vein of Gold." By far, "The Artist's Way" was very beneficial for me in actual practice, but another book also helped me a great deal.
"Writing the Natural Way" by Gabriele Lusser Rico provided ways for brainstorming. Each chapter in the book specifies various exercises throughout and, while I probably did not write anything very significant while working my way through the book, it was extremely beneficial in giving me tools that I could use to help myself tap into my creative thinking. The author employs right-brain techniques to release your expressive powers.
There are a couple of books (either one will probably do) that can help you with the actual mechanics of writing. One is "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" by Joseph M. Williams and the other is entitled "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk. I have never been one to read a book on grammar and try to force myself to remember all the rules and exceptions when writing in English. For this part, I learned grammar the hard way.
I had an instructor who was constantly taking points off on my written assignments for unspecified grammar errors. I was a returning student at a more mature age so getting used to formal education was a bear. I had Microsoft Office 2003, but the school sent me Microsoft Office 2007, and I was having a little difficulty navigating to where I wanted to go. I specifically needed to find out how to adjust the way Word detected grammatical errors because the instructor was constantly taking off points, which caused my grade to slide.
I finally figured out how to get Word to check for every error, including style. I was in for a rude awakening on just how loaded with errors my written assignments were. At first, it was very frustrating trying to figure out how to make those green wavy lines go away, but my persistence paid off, and along the way, I became a better writer. In addition, I found some other software on the internet, and I bought it. It is by a company called White Smoke. It does not catch all the errors that Word does, but it catches errors that Word misses, and now I use it for everything I write, except for email. Now, you do not have to learn the English grammar rules my way: you can get either of the books that I mentioned already.
Once you start learning how to write, the next big hurdle is being published. If you start out small, such as a short article, the chances are great that you will write something well without a spending a great amount of time. In addition, by writing a short article, you will be the most likely writing something that is of high quality, increasing the likelihood that it will be accepted for publication. There is a big difference between the feeling that you get when an instructor gives you a good grade for an assignment and the satisfaction that what you have written is accepted for publication.
Another advantage to starting out writing short articles is that there are many more avenues for publication than there are for books. Besides the numerous periodicals, both in a magazine and online, there are also web sites such as Associated Content that are willing to accept articles from anyone. Incidentally, I learned about Associated Content when I was doing an internet search for a writing job. Just a word of caution, which is not meant for most people, but I feel that I should mention it. Any work that you submit for publication must be your own. Most publications will ban you for life if they catch you in the act of plagiarism.
Whichever publications you submit work for consideration, make sure that you read and understand the terms of agreement. In particular, make sure that you understand what rights you are surrendering as far as re-publication. With Associated Content, some assignments that I write and submit for publication I am giving them all the rights, whereas other pieces, like original pieces of fiction, I am retaining the rights so that I may publish them elsewhere, if I so choose. Some sites will not allow you that privilege and some may not accept works that have been previously published.
In addition, writing short articles can be compared with an entry-level position that you will find when beginning a career in a new industry. Unless you have many letters following your name, such as Ph. D., most publishers and literary agents are not going to be very open to receiving your book for publication. By the way, self-publication is becoming more commonplace, and it is even getting better as the old way of printing books is becoming outdated. A writer only has to present his or her book in an electronic format, such as Word or Adobe, and the book becomes instantly available via the internet. Of course, it will still help you immensely if you have published numerous articles so that people will see that the book is by a name that they recognize.
One important thing that I should mention is that no matter what I write, I do some amount of research in order to make sure what I am writing about is accurate. Forgetting to mention something is a lot more forgivable than writing about something with an error to it. For example, I am writing a story that is set in the early twentieth century, and I mention that a character in the story polished his red Model T Ford, making it look like he had just brought it home new, someone out there is going to know that when that car was made, the only available color was black. Taking short cuts in research are going to catch up with you, and it just is not worth the damage to your reputation that cutting corners will cost you. Someone out there will know that you fudged.
As for researching, it has become easier with the vast amount of information that is available on the internet. Just make sure that the information you are using is reliable. Wikipedia.org is not very accurate because anyone can write what they want or modify what has been written and the materials have not been accurately verified through research. Most colleges and universities do not accept homework from students who use this as a source for their research. You can learn how to use search engines by going to pandia.com (a meta search engine), and reading their tutorials on using search engines. You may need to verify some information through other sites in order to assure the accuracy of the information presented.
In conclusion, this has been my path to success so far. I am not anyone famous, but I have a lot of fun, especially in the writing of this article. Most of my articles that I have written have not paid very much, but I am working on a book that someone else has already written. I am typing, editing, and helping to market the book when it is finished, although I think the last will be the easiest part as it looks like this will only be available electronically at first. If you are doing this type of work for someone, you will want to research what the standard rate is, in terms of how much per word that you type and edit. You will want to be competitive without selling yourself short.
I encourage anyone who has been having difficulty getting started with writing. Do not allow procrastination a foothold into the castle of your dreams. Start writing something today, even if you start by writing in a journal. These small steps are a necessary part of your development that will give you the skills that you need to write something bigger.
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