Blog a Book

It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.
C. J. Cherryh

Here’s the concept. For starters you need to start yourself a blog. I have one and the settings are set to ‘closed’ where no one can read or comment on it but me. My goal? Write my life story. I don’t know where the idea came from and at first I had it opened to where people could read my gut wrenching, painful past and learn from it, but then I thought I was revealing too much for public viewing so I closed the doors and am writing my novel instead, through the use of a blog.

Many of you have read books like Go Ask Alice and surely, the Diary of Anne Frank. The format is quite simple in a daily journal style format; with some added tidbits meshed into the story. Well that is my goal in Blogging a book. Day after day I’ll write one tale after another, compile posts of substance, possibly 1,000 words a day. Then at the end of the month I will have close to 30,000 words written! Sounds like a plan.

You don’t need any fancy gadgets and sidebars, this is where you are just going to pen your story. You could do it outside the blog, but I know many of you don’t back up your work on a daily basis. This is where all your writing will be safe, and when your computer crashes and you lose everything, the blog will still be there storing all that you’ve written, so a months worth of work will be safe.

Writing a novel of fiction would be done the same way, but not so much as a journal. I’m going for the journal-like route because my biography is non fiction. The style might change after I get it all completed, but this gives me something to write about on a daily basis. I’m done on classes for now, I’m finished leading people in their writing (except for my blog here at Write Right) and I’m moving on to action. The action being that I’m writing every day, no outside negative influences, and I’m well on my way.

If you’re a new writer and this is your first time penning a tale. Do your research! You don’t need to pay for expensive classes to help you along the way. Make google your friend and search out style of writing, voice, metaphors and the like. Surround yourself with positive people which you can find on many writing sites on the web, for FREE! Take it from me, one negative person can take you down, so flee from them! Be forewarned! Surround yourself with positive and positive will be your pillow at night, and all you dream.

There are many storage facilities, also free on the net, GOOGLE is one of them. Make sure you store your work somewhere other than just on a blog. Your files are not safe because computers have been known to crash, with years of hard work wiped out completely, all because no one thought to BACK-UP their work. Sure the websites you store your work at can rarely be hacked, and this is why you choose many sites all with different passwords.

Keep your novel/blog/work safe! And Write Right!

Perseverance

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. 

~Walter Elliott, The Spiritual Life

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. In writing you need perseverance to get any place.

About nine years ago, I met many friends who were all on the same path as me. We were all in a course, learning to write to see where this dream would lead. I had already taken a two year course and as perseverance goes, I jumped into yet another writing course. This one was free, and it had many classrooms full of wanna-be writers like myself. As the classrooms waned, my love for writing didn’t.

I met this one guy, awesome writer, who was going down the road with me, and as we met with many forks in the road, our paths separated as he continued in his day job and love of carpentry, and I was moving full steam ahead in the writing world. Nine years later, we are still friends, but both on different journey’s, as all writers wind up on.

Oh he is still an excellent writer, the love and gift didn’t go anywhere but he is now embarking on becoming his own boss in the Rehab business, and this year I’ve finally said enough is enough and moved on to something else myself. Yeah, I’m taking care of ME first, then I’ll move on to teaching you all, then getting a job in the real world, pending health issues.

My New Year, which began on Easter, left me with a whirlwind of changes that will be made this year. I will persevere in getting to where I need to go and when I get there, you all will be the first to know. If I don’t persevere, then I’ll get nowhere and be in this same situation come next year! So send up some positive prayers for me as I go on and move forward.

To be a writer, perseverance in many fields needs to be acquired first. It’s not just about writing, oh no, there is a lot more to being a writer than that!

You will become an editor -- correcting and perfecting your work before it becomes publishable. Don’t think an editor does it all for you. You have to be ACCEPTED first before they tinker with your manuscript and the least amount of tinkering, the better

A Copywriter -- Yes siree, an essential tool of the writer if he is to move forward in the writing field.
 
free assistance on copywriting are found here
 
A fileclerk? You might say, “No way, not in writing.” But YES way, in writing you need to keep track of all your submissions, accepted or rejected. You’ll need to keep track of money and expenses, for tax purposes.

A negotiator -- You’ll need this skill to work in a proper fee for all your hard work. Are you gonna just accept a $500 dollar offer for your manuscript? Think about it.

A Marketer -- You need to promote YOU and your work. No one can do it for you. And since you’ve taken on the role of fileclerk, you now have the beginnings of where to start. Connect with writers, promote together. Tweet your heart out.

An assistant to other writers -- Yes, you’ll want to help OTHER writers also. Maybe offer them something in a field that didn’t fit you. Hand it off to someone who writes in that field.

With perseverance...you just might make it!

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But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition. 

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.