William E. Simpson
My advice for aspiring writers is to start by reading what best selling author Ryan Holiday had to say on the subject in his article titled: 'So You Want To Be A Writer? That’s Mistake #1' ... here is the link
http://ryanholiday.net/so-you-want-to...
Second to that, if you're still compelled to write driven by a passion and a story that is bursting out of you, and not by some expectation in life related to being an 'author', you should give it your best shot and let the chips fall where they may. Who knows, maybe you'll be as successful as Ryan or?
For me, the opportunity to do a little writing came by happenstance. A National Geographic casting producer read an online article I wrote and that led to a TV show, which then led to my first book deal with Ulysses Press for the 'Nautical Prepper'. That sorta peaked my interest... getting a check to 'go write' a book. The following book (Dark Stallions - Legend of the Centaurians), which dealt with a totally different genre (YA Fantasy), was the result of an experience I had in the wilderness with wild horses... and that seed, that experience, germinated into a passion to tell a story...
https://www.newswire.com/news/bizarre...
Dark Stallions - Legend of the Centaurians was a story that I felt I was ill equipped to write as an indie author. I have to say here that having a publisher on the first go-round made launching into a writing enterprise easy by comparison to doing a book indie style. When you have a publisher the advantages are many... including editorial support that is unbiased, and who are not trying to make a living by selling their advice. They just want the book to be the best that it can be, since it will become part of their catalog. Indie authors are now the new fodder for writers turned salespeople. In many cases, these are authors who failed to make a living writing themselves, so now they are selling all kinds of services to unsuspecting aspiring writers using shiny websites full of claims and advice. But when you dig past the shiny cover material and ask the hard questions, like 'show me your actual experience and financial success writing', they have none to show. In some cases these advisors have books that have books ranking in the millions on Amazon... not exactly what anyone would label as a bell-ringer.
Shockingly, as I learned by reading resumes, many creative writing professors at colleges and universities have no commercial writing success themselves, so they default to a career 'teaching writing'. Go figure!
From my chair, if I am gonna pay for writing advice or 'teaching', I want it from someone who has a record of success... Of course there's the problem; those who have made it big as writers have little time to provide one-on-one help to aspiring writers by providing story critique or editing services, etc. So now I have come full circle to what Ryan Holiday quoted in his article:
To quote Schopenhauer again, “to have something to say” is “by itself virtually a sufficient condition for good style.” I’ll take grade school dropout writing passionately in his prison cell over some empty, superior Yale MFA any day.
My advice is to take Ryan's advice, I think he's hit the nail on the head.
Cheers! Will
http://ryanholiday.net/so-you-want-to...
Second to that, if you're still compelled to write driven by a passion and a story that is bursting out of you, and not by some expectation in life related to being an 'author', you should give it your best shot and let the chips fall where they may. Who knows, maybe you'll be as successful as Ryan or?
For me, the opportunity to do a little writing came by happenstance. A National Geographic casting producer read an online article I wrote and that led to a TV show, which then led to my first book deal with Ulysses Press for the 'Nautical Prepper'. That sorta peaked my interest... getting a check to 'go write' a book. The following book (Dark Stallions - Legend of the Centaurians), which dealt with a totally different genre (YA Fantasy), was the result of an experience I had in the wilderness with wild horses... and that seed, that experience, germinated into a passion to tell a story...
https://www.newswire.com/news/bizarre...
Dark Stallions - Legend of the Centaurians was a story that I felt I was ill equipped to write as an indie author. I have to say here that having a publisher on the first go-round made launching into a writing enterprise easy by comparison to doing a book indie style. When you have a publisher the advantages are many... including editorial support that is unbiased, and who are not trying to make a living by selling their advice. They just want the book to be the best that it can be, since it will become part of their catalog. Indie authors are now the new fodder for writers turned salespeople. In many cases, these are authors who failed to make a living writing themselves, so now they are selling all kinds of services to unsuspecting aspiring writers using shiny websites full of claims and advice. But when you dig past the shiny cover material and ask the hard questions, like 'show me your actual experience and financial success writing', they have none to show. In some cases these advisors have books that have books ranking in the millions on Amazon... not exactly what anyone would label as a bell-ringer.
Shockingly, as I learned by reading resumes, many creative writing professors at colleges and universities have no commercial writing success themselves, so they default to a career 'teaching writing'. Go figure!
From my chair, if I am gonna pay for writing advice or 'teaching', I want it from someone who has a record of success... Of course there's the problem; those who have made it big as writers have little time to provide one-on-one help to aspiring writers by providing story critique or editing services, etc. So now I have come full circle to what Ryan Holiday quoted in his article:
To quote Schopenhauer again, “to have something to say” is “by itself virtually a sufficient condition for good style.” I’ll take grade school dropout writing passionately in his prison cell over some empty, superior Yale MFA any day.
My advice is to take Ryan's advice, I think he's hit the nail on the head.
Cheers! Will
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