Gay Ingram's Blog - Posts Tagged "writer"
A WRITER’S ATTITUDE CHECKLIST
How does one know they are a writer? Beginning writers are filled with self-doubts. You’ve jotted down some thoughts in the past that just seemed to come together in a poetic manner. Or journal writing has been an integral part of your life since your Aunt Marjorie gave you a diary for your ninth birthday. Maybe because a particular topic interests you intensely, you’ve immersed yourself in it and now are eager to share your knowledge with other by writing about it. So, what determines whether a person is a writer or not? The solitary fact that you have this inner urge to put pen to paper and write qualifies you as a writer.
A writer is someone who writes. It doesn’t take having something published to be a writer. All it takes is the desire to write. No outside force can validate you as a writer. If you have a desire to write, only taking yourself seriously as a writer is needed. Here are some habits to develop that will help you feel more like the writer you are.
1.A writer writes on a regular basis. Examine your life and find a time, hopefully during your best energy time. Make an appointment with yourself to write every day at this time. Write it into your calendar – each day at such-and-such time I will devote to my writing, even if it’s only fifteen minutes. Let nothing take precedence or interfere with the appointment you’ve made with yourself to write.
2.During that set aside time, devote your energies to writing or thinking about your writing. Even if you don’t have a designated project to work on or an idea to develop, use this time to concentrate on your writing. Don’t use the time to pay bills or catch up on correspondence unless it is writing related. You can use the time to create a list about things you want to write about. Freewriting or clustering are excellent techniques for priming the writing pump.
3.Have a designated place to write. Always go to this place, be it a separate room or just a flat space tucked into a corner of the bedroom, at the appointed time to write. You may begin with just writing materials and a file folder or two. Add a shelf for the basic resource books you’ll be acquiring or tuck them under your writing surface if there’s no wall space. Do what you can to make this space look and feel like a writer’s space.
4.Everything you write has worth. Remember, you are your own worse critic. No artist or musician has perfect mastery of his or her craft immediately. It takes practice to perfect their skills. The same is true for a writer. Even bad writing can be a learning experience. Nothing you write is a waste of time. Practice writing is practicing your craft.
5.The state of being a writer means you are a writer all the time. Train yourself to think like a writer. Look at the world you live in everyday as a crop to be harvested for your writing. Carry a pen and notepad with you at all times. Don’t trust your memory to remember. If an idea or thought isn’t written down as soon as possible, it will be lost. Even one word written down will help revive the complete thought when you have time to get back to your notations.
Developing these good writing habits will go a long way in building your self-image of yourself as a writer. Getting the next best-selling “Great American Novel” published isn’t a requirement for considering yourself a writer; fulfilling that act of putting words on paper is what makes you a writer. Lift up your head and be proud to say: “I am a writer.”
A writer is someone who writes. It doesn’t take having something published to be a writer. All it takes is the desire to write. No outside force can validate you as a writer. If you have a desire to write, only taking yourself seriously as a writer is needed. Here are some habits to develop that will help you feel more like the writer you are.
1.A writer writes on a regular basis. Examine your life and find a time, hopefully during your best energy time. Make an appointment with yourself to write every day at this time. Write it into your calendar – each day at such-and-such time I will devote to my writing, even if it’s only fifteen minutes. Let nothing take precedence or interfere with the appointment you’ve made with yourself to write.
2.During that set aside time, devote your energies to writing or thinking about your writing. Even if you don’t have a designated project to work on or an idea to develop, use this time to concentrate on your writing. Don’t use the time to pay bills or catch up on correspondence unless it is writing related. You can use the time to create a list about things you want to write about. Freewriting or clustering are excellent techniques for priming the writing pump.
3.Have a designated place to write. Always go to this place, be it a separate room or just a flat space tucked into a corner of the bedroom, at the appointed time to write. You may begin with just writing materials and a file folder or two. Add a shelf for the basic resource books you’ll be acquiring or tuck them under your writing surface if there’s no wall space. Do what you can to make this space look and feel like a writer’s space.
4.Everything you write has worth. Remember, you are your own worse critic. No artist or musician has perfect mastery of his or her craft immediately. It takes practice to perfect their skills. The same is true for a writer. Even bad writing can be a learning experience. Nothing you write is a waste of time. Practice writing is practicing your craft.
5.The state of being a writer means you are a writer all the time. Train yourself to think like a writer. Look at the world you live in everyday as a crop to be harvested for your writing. Carry a pen and notepad with you at all times. Don’t trust your memory to remember. If an idea or thought isn’t written down as soon as possible, it will be lost. Even one word written down will help revive the complete thought when you have time to get back to your notations.
Developing these good writing habits will go a long way in building your self-image of yourself as a writer. Getting the next best-selling “Great American Novel” published isn’t a requirement for considering yourself a writer; fulfilling that act of putting words on paper is what makes you a writer. Lift up your head and be proud to say: “I am a writer.”
Becoming a Writer Takes Involvement
Anyone can have a desire to write, and most people do at one time or another in their lives. But it takes more than the desire to become a writer. There must come some point in your life that you recognize your writing as an integral part of your life. Being a writer requires constancy, a concentrated effort to get grounded in the craft; always seeking knowledge and experiences that improve your writing.
A writer must commit themselves to “seeing things whole.” Instead of life being just a series of external events, a writer chooses to view his/her life “seeing,” not merely as spectators but as participants, accepting all eventualities as a part of their function as writers.
We look at life with “fresh eyes;” experiencing what’s in our environment with all our senses. Storing up incidents, people, happenings, chance occurrences as fuel for our future writing.
Anybody can have an idea. And, almost any idea can be the foundation for a good story. Anybody can sit down and write about that idea for a day. But the profession of writing requires constancy. Mastery in writing requires a daily commitment, a grounding in craft, experience, and knowledge of the field. Just like any other profession.
A writer must commit themselves to “seeing things whole.” Instead of life being just a series of external events, a writer chooses to view his/her life “seeing,” not merely as spectators but as participants, accepting all eventualities as a part of their function as writers.
We look at life with “fresh eyes;” experiencing what’s in our environment with all our senses. Storing up incidents, people, happenings, chance occurrences as fuel for our future writing.
Anybody can have an idea. And, almost any idea can be the foundation for a good story. Anybody can sit down and write about that idea for a day. But the profession of writing requires constancy. Mastery in writing requires a daily commitment, a grounding in craft, experience, and knowledge of the field. Just like any other profession.
Believability Matters
There is a concept that a writer can put anything down on paper, make it interesting enough, or startling enough, or shocking enough and it will be a success. Imagination is a handy tool to have available when creating a piece of fiction. For some, the products of imagination come bubbling forth as a gushing brook; a freshet tumbling its path down a rock-strewn hillside. One situation sparks another, even more stupendous and climatic than the last.
But through all the weirdness and astonishing events must run a thread of believability. It’s all right to stretch the reader’s imagination but your writing must contain a nugget of believability or the story will be rejected and discarded faster than a streak of lightning.
Anything imagined can be integrated within a story’s structure as long as the writer remembers to embed an element of plausibility, giving the reader a hand-hold to grasp as the words take him/her into uncharted waters.
It isn’t necessary to plod along your plot line, never straying from the norm that we all encounter in our everyday lives. A piece of fiction can take its readers into unfamiliar territory, introduce them to strange lands, different lifestyles, people who think and act differently, life lives that differ from ours.
But through it all, the writer must keep in mind the commonness of mankind. Include those basic elements and truths that are a part of everyman’s psche. These will become your anchors, allowing the reader to follow along with into the unknown world you are creating on the page. As these benchmarks impress themselves on your readers’ minds, they will allow the reader to feel a sense of comfort. In the midst of the adventuring, the reader remains in contact with the believeable.
But through all the weirdness and astonishing events must run a thread of believability. It’s all right to stretch the reader’s imagination but your writing must contain a nugget of believability or the story will be rejected and discarded faster than a streak of lightning.
Anything imagined can be integrated within a story’s structure as long as the writer remembers to embed an element of plausibility, giving the reader a hand-hold to grasp as the words take him/her into uncharted waters.
It isn’t necessary to plod along your plot line, never straying from the norm that we all encounter in our everyday lives. A piece of fiction can take its readers into unfamiliar territory, introduce them to strange lands, different lifestyles, people who think and act differently, life lives that differ from ours.
But through it all, the writer must keep in mind the commonness of mankind. Include those basic elements and truths that are a part of everyman’s psche. These will become your anchors, allowing the reader to follow along with into the unknown world you are creating on the page. As these benchmarks impress themselves on your readers’ minds, they will allow the reader to feel a sense of comfort. In the midst of the adventuring, the reader remains in contact with the believeable.
The Ten Commandments
I Thou Shalt Write
II Thou Shalt Learn to Write Well
III Thou shalt Learn About the Publishing Business
IV Thou Shalt Follow Advise When Submitting
V Thou Shalt Revise Happily
VI Thou Shalt Seek Agents and Editor Knowledgeably
VII Thou Shalt Learn to Use Rejection
VIII Thou Shalt Not Irritate Agents Nor Editors
IX Thou Shalt Learn How to Wait
X Thou Shalt Refrain Yourself Until Published Work is at Hand
II Thou Shalt Learn to Write Well
III Thou shalt Learn About the Publishing Business
IV Thou Shalt Follow Advise When Submitting
V Thou Shalt Revise Happily
VI Thou Shalt Seek Agents and Editor Knowledgeably
VII Thou Shalt Learn to Use Rejection
VIII Thou Shalt Not Irritate Agents Nor Editors
IX Thou Shalt Learn How to Wait
X Thou Shalt Refrain Yourself Until Published Work is at Hand
Banish The Writer
When you've revised and tweaked your story until it's as good as you can make it, that's the time to banish the writer - yourself - and become the reader - that's you.
Let the story rest for a day or so, maybe even longer. Then find a time when you can begin and finish reading your story in one sitting. It's important to absorb the experience of your story with this read-through.
Only after a complete read-through will you then take up a pen and make notes as you ask yourself a few questions.
Does the title suit the story's tone and subject? Did it engage you, tease you into reading the story? It may be as the story evolved during the reading that you realized it needed a different title. There could be a key phrase or passage tucked inside the story just waiting to be discovered.
Did the story's opening lines compel you to continue? Or is your opening too cluttered, or delays the start of the story? Search for an opening that will launch the reader directly into the story. Then keep the action in forward motion. Take the reader somewhere interesting.
Stories, like life, are about human problems. Characters need to struggle toward those solutions -- and be changed in some why by their struggles. A satisfying story leaves the reader reminded of their own life's struggles and encouraged by the characters' victories.
Let the story rest for a day or so, maybe even longer. Then find a time when you can begin and finish reading your story in one sitting. It's important to absorb the experience of your story with this read-through.
Only after a complete read-through will you then take up a pen and make notes as you ask yourself a few questions.
Does the title suit the story's tone and subject? Did it engage you, tease you into reading the story? It may be as the story evolved during the reading that you realized it needed a different title. There could be a key phrase or passage tucked inside the story just waiting to be discovered.
Did the story's opening lines compel you to continue? Or is your opening too cluttered, or delays the start of the story? Search for an opening that will launch the reader directly into the story. Then keep the action in forward motion. Take the reader somewhere interesting.
Stories, like life, are about human problems. Characters need to struggle toward those solutions -- and be changed in some why by their struggles. A satisfying story leaves the reader reminded of their own life's struggles and encouraged by the characters' victories.
