Built Over night?

There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing, to find honest men to publish it - and to get sensible men to read it.
~Charles Caleb Cotton

I see so many folk jump on the bandwagon of writing only to want to get it done, right here and right now. This career choice isn’t one where you go to college, come out with a degree and then become a rich and famous published author. It’s all about a snails pace mentality. You write every day, you blog possibly, you move forward step by step in hopes to achieve something of a positive result.

Many want a lesson to know about show and tell, they look for answers and feedback, get swayed by being the most popular in a class and are quick to help, and aid in any way they can. But I’m telling you once more, writing is not a popularity contest. Writing is long hard work. Dedication to knowledge in the field.

Don’t walk into a class, with an arrogance of , “My work is so great, I’m saving it for ‘proper’ publication.” You’re in a private classroom, locked out from the public, you’re creatively learning by doing writing lessons, and when someone wants to honor you on a good job, it gets published in a private ezine. And you, as a writer say, “No, I don’t want my work published, I’m saving it for the big leagues.”

We writers are an arrogant bunch. To think for one moment, that a lesson, in a class, where you are learning the ropes, is publishable in the ‘big leagues’?  Let me tell you now, arrogant writers, your writing is protected in a classroom. Even if published by your classroom ezine, does not make it, already published when it comes submitting time to the big leagues of the industry. The Big Guys are looking for polished work. They strive to find perfection in an imperfect world, they want knowledgeable and profitable work that is going to not only make them money, but bring you a few dollars too.

It’s a long hard road to publication, and no, you as a beginning writer are not going to become this great publishable writer over night. The road is bumpy and sometimes unpleasant. There are hurdles to leap over and hoops to jump through. There are hours upon hours of learning techniques and knowledge to form and shape a story into a money-making sold story.

Some steps to take to get where you’re going:

1) To learn about show vs. tell, Point of View, Character building, etc. , don’t wait for an online course to teach you what THEY know, go out and grab information for yourself!!! You can google simple words, ie. Show and Tell in Writing, to give you tons of knowledge.

2) Put all the information into a file and use it as you write and shape your story. If you feel that a sentence isn’t working, it probably isn’t. Dig into the knowledge pool and find out why!

3) Learn what publishers are looking for. You may think your story is the best on earth, but will any publishers want the same old, same old, tried and true crud that is already out there, or are they seeking something new and different in your work?

4) Set aside the popularity contest. Being popular is not what writing is about and will not get you one iota closer to being a published writer. If you need your ego stroked, you’re in the wrong line of business here.

5) Write! Write! Write! -- Being a writer means that you are going to spend hours upon hours writing and learning. A writing career is not built over night. It takes years of patience, blood, sweat, and tears.