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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Why do you write?

When I first starting writing seriously, I had the mistaken belief that books were easy to write. That once I had the book written all I had to do was send it out to the agent of my choice, wait a few months and before I could even say bestseller, it would be book signings and the Oprah show. Money would come pouring in and in about a year I'd be living high on the hog.

But wow, did that idea crash and burn soon. I discovered writing well enough to connect with the readers is darn hard work. With a bit more study I learned how the publishing industry really works.

Writing well is a craft that has to be practiced and perfected. Agents are swamped with submissions and can pick and choose who they want to represent. Book signings aren't all they're cracked up to be and if I want to do them, I'll probably have to set them up myself and even then there is no guarantee of success. And as far as the Oprah show...well, I'm not going to hold my breath.

Yet, here I am. Four years later still working hard at learning my craft and studying the publishing industry.

Writing has given me an outlet to express myself. I can play with dragons, catch the bad guys, romance a hunky hero, visit the outer reaches of the universe or write something that will touch and inspire others.

I once read the statistics that many doctors, lawyers and professional people wanted to be able to quit their day jobs and become writers but only rarely did a writer want to change jobs and do something else. I can believe that. What other job lets us play with dragons, become heros and travel to lands far away all from the comfort of our homes. And sometimes we even get paid! How cool is that!!!

Speck

9 comments:

Cheryl said...

Writing a book--easy. Ha, I bet that didn't last long. Though you hear it from people all the time, "I could write that." And you're not doing that because?
I'm not trying to sound superior, but with all the people out there who claim they can write a book, you would think there would be a lot more books in print.

Now, on to your last statement. I can believe those stats with all my heart. I have only wanted two occupations in life--teaching and writing. Well, a mother is always a teacher so I have that covered, and now I am a writer too. I wouldn't give up either job to do anything else in the world...no matter what the pay.

CC

Anonymous said...

Speck,

I remember how niave I was. Filled with false ideas of how easy writing was.

What you say is true. Writing is learning and practicing again and again.

There's nothing I'd rather do.

Good post

Lori

Anonymous said...

Alas, I was awash in simplistic notions regarding the writing profession. I am so glad I took the LR course if for no other reason than I learned how difficult this whole biz is.
Mary is fond of saying if you want to make plenty of money, become a plumber...writing is a poor mans profession.

As always good post Speck, thanx

april said...

i write for various reason one is to express my feelings

www.grammarcorrector.org/check-grammar-for-free-make-your-text-perfect said...

I have a questions; why I don't have write? Writing many things change of the motivates of the people who are more interested to read more article. they are finds more issues from the article. thats why I want to write more...

mikon said...

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Carlie Hill said...

Book writing is not an easy task. it need a lot of intentions and a lot of passion. Without these things you can’t do anything. You can have a lot of ideas at useful link about the book writing and the ways which are the basic path for a successful book.

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