Sponsor |  BlessedOne | Jun 24, 2006 5:34pm | What advice would YOU give to new writers?
Ernest Hemingway said a writer should always
finish what he/she starts. That sounds like
pretty good advice. |
|
| 
Sponsor | | deltascouteagle | Jun 25, 2006 6:06pm | Hmm... Let's see... Advice...
Well I'd recommend reading a few books on the act of writing. Stephen King's wrote a great one a few years back after his accident called "On Writing" I think. Even if one isn't a fan of his genre, he lays out advice that is too important to ignore. Besides whatever you think of his work (some changed my life while others made me throw the book across the room in disgust), you can't argue with his success. It would be like not listening when someone like Bill Gates talks about computers, or Warren Buffet about investing.
Also read a bit about the BUSINESS of writing... things like getting an agent and things like this. I've heard so many horror stories about getting into the business that it's enought to scare anyone off. My understanding is that it should NEVER cost the writer to do this. If someone wants to charge you to represent them it's along the lines of the "fashion modelling" schools that want you to pay them to teach you how, so they can help you get into the business. They're representing your money out of your pocket. There are books about the writer's market released yearly that can be obtained at the used bookstores for a song and the addresses in them of more reputable companies are still probably fine. At least you can find their sites.
Experience (with science not writing) tells me that it is important to get product to the market. You can't do it without product, so first write the stuff. Second, after you get your first customers, realize that you may have to sell it a little cheap to get your foot in the door. I've still got it rolling around in my head, but it'll eject itself sooner or later. I think it was Robert Heinlein or perhaps Asimov who likened writing to an addiction, so for all of my fellow "ramblers" out there.. how was this one? hahahaha
K
P.S. Writing is different for everyone, painful for some and easy for others, but I think when offered correctly, everyone's story is very important... |
|
| 
Sponsor | | Saline | Jun 26, 2006 6:31am | Grammar, grammar, grammar!!!!!
And don't depend on spellcheckers. They only know spelling - not vocabularly. |
|
| 
Sponsor | | abbynormal92243 | Jun 26, 2006 7:08pm | Stephen King said something else: A writer writes.
So my advice: write. |
|
| 
Sponsor | | Denise-R | Jun 27, 2006 7:16am | hi everyone ;->
my advice is don't ask for too much advice. just do it. oh. and read a lot. ha. just broke my own rule. isn't that typical? |
|
| 
Sponsor | | meanbean | Jun 27, 2006 1:52pm | don't kid yourself. a fraud knows their a fraud and will spend too much energy trying to convince you that they're not.
to be genuine, as beautiful or vulgar as the moment requires, strikes the right chords every time.
Saline, i thought grammar requires at least seven exclamation points. ;) |
|
|
Sponsor | | Denise-R | Jun 28, 2006 9:15pm | i like what Charles Bukowski has to say about 'it'...(bolded lines are my doing)...
if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was. |
|
| 
|  vashsunglasses | Jun 29, 2006 7:50pm | | My advice is to write in such a way that you will have fun doing it. |
|
| 
| | lgr | Jun 29, 2006 7:56pm | | writing is a feeling and emotion that comes straight from the heart and soul.............creativity |
|
| |  2785660 | Mar 19, 12:07pm | I don't remember who was the author of this one, but...
"If you're to speak, make your words worth more than your silence".
I think it was Wilde, but I'm not sure. |
|
| Advice to New Writers | 11>| | | |
Writing/Writers → Discussion