Tips and Tidbits
By Paula Quinn
“I tried to write a book once, but I gave up.”
If I had quarter for every time I heard this from someone when I tell them that I’m a writer, I’d be living in a Scottish castle somewhere in the highlands.
“I had to de-flea the cat, my Pilates class is forty minutes looooong, my dog ate my manuscript, I work for the leader of a third world country and I don’t get Sundays off.”…etc…etc.
Plenty of people want to write a book, but only some have to. For those of us who haven’t a choice, paper attracts us the way light draws moths. We never leave the house without a pen or two because we just don’t know when a great scene might drift into our head. (It’s best to avoid those odd looks when you have to ask strangers for a pen while you’re grocery shopping.) Being a writer takes desire, and commitment. You need to be excited about your book to the point where sitting down in front of your computer, staring at a blank screen is more thrilling than the new amusement park that was just built outside your front door. You’ll need to dedicate more time than a couple of spare Sundays to getting the entire creation done, not just the beginning of it and a bit of the middle. If you need to do research, de-fleaing the cat will have to wait. Sorry, Fluffy. Good stories need a plot line that will entice the reader and keep her or him turning the page, compelling characters that the reader can relate to, and care about, conflict and believable resolutions.
Pilates? What’s that again?
After ten or so drafts, when your masterpiece is finally done, you’ll need the drive of Donald Trump to get your book out there, and the humility of Mother Teresa to withstand the rejections. When those rejections come, and they will, remember Dr. Seuss (rejected by twenty-eight publishers), Stephen King, (over thirty rejections for Carrie) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (literally wall-papered his room with rejections slips), just to name a few authors who, thankfully, never let anything stop them.
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