So, just become an author already! Have you ever heard this after sharing your innermost desire to friends and family just one more time? Yeah, sure, just start writing and the rest will work itself out. Well in a way that is exactly right. In order to become a writer you have to write, pure and simple. You might ask, "But what if I'm not any good?" If you aren't any good just sitting there and dreaming about it won't make you any better, but writing will. This article is written with the most loving and tender intentions but I have to agree with your friends, just become a writer already!
Becoming an author was a life-long dream of mine and when I say life-long dream I mean I did virtually nothing about it for my whole life long. Oh sure, I read articles such as this and even a few 'you can do it too' books beginning with romance novel writing and ending with blogging for idiots. I joined writer's groups and subscribed to how-to write publications, but did I actually put pen to paper or fingertip to keyboard? No! You know when I actually became a writer? Not long after I began writing. I wrote everywhere, anytime and on anything. I wrote in journals, on the back of bills and napkins, I even wrote on the back of my hand (I called that my palm pilot!). The point is in order to ride a bike you have to pedal. If you just sit there wishing you were speeding down the sidewalk with wind and bugs blowing through your hair it just ain't going to happen.
Okay, enough lecturing; now for the meat of the matter. This website is here to help you light a fire under your writer's seat. I lit my own fire after becoming thoroughly disgusted with myself but you don't have to wait for that. Let me be thoroughly disgusted for you. In just a sec I am going to give you five tips. These might sound like they are coming from the 'you can do this too' category but you can do it, so they should be taken very seriously.
Tip #1.Don't ever take anything seriously. Nothing. If you think a subject is too dull or a genre too hard to break into talk yourself out of it. If you have been rejected (and I mean by a publisher, not by someone who told you they just wanted to be friends) this means you are well on your way to becoming a writer. Many a famous author has been rejected before going on to become, well, famous. Dr. Seuss' first book was rejected 26 times. Go figure.
Tip #2.Don't write about something you know. That might go against all you have ever heard but if all you know is how to balance a checkbook and empty the lint tray in the dryer you won't get too far, unless you are Erma Bombeck, which takes us back to tip #1. The point is, write about something interesting or make it interesting by the way you write about it.
Tip #3.Research. If you don't know anything (see tip #2) than you will need to learn. H.G. Wells said, "Nothing leads so straight to futility as literary ambitions without systematic knowledge." He also said get a degree in history, biology and psychology too but don't take that too seriously (tip #1). The Internet is such a wealth of information that this part is almost too easy.
Tip #4.Learn how to revise. Unless you are a writer savant the words, as they come, will need to be revised and edited. Sir Walter Raleigh said, "Write. Then revise it and correct it." It helps to read it out loud, especially if it is dialogue. If it sounds like a robot is speaking it better be a robot. I would add to check for grammar and spelling but it takes away from the fun of the reader to spot some improper English phrase and then say, "I could do better than that." Let them have their fantasies.
Tip #5.Is this the last tip? Yikes! Since there is really so much more to learn (and luckily this website will help you figure all that out) I will use a chiasm (tip#3) to say again, write. Don't listen to the voice of doubt either in your head or coming from the lips of a friend or family member. Write until you can't write anymore. Then do it again the next day and the next. You will either get so bored with the process that you will determine you were always meant to be a reader or you will so fall in love with your own words that you will never put the pencil down again. Another writer is born. Joy to the world!