Somebody comes up to you and says, “I wanna be a writer. I really wanna to be a writer!” What do you say?
24 thoughts on “Reader Friday: I Really Wanna Be a Writer”
Well, then write.
What Phillip said. After, you know, laughing hysterically first. Evil laughter.
“You like to beat your head against a brick wall too, huh?”
“What’s stopping you?”
I ask what they’re reading
What Sandra said.
Find a story and get started. That usually stops them.
Kinda big for a jockey aren’t you? Unless you’re thinking of racing them budweiser horses.
Writer? You mean like someone what fixes other folkses wrongs?
I say: “Good luck with that.”
Everyone want to be a writer. But do you “need” to write?
Grab a journal or a computer and write! Don’t worry about some deep need to BE a writer or let anyone dissuade you with their deep “insider’s” angst-filled image of writing. Just write.
Sit down and write. Read How-To books and magazines like Writer’s Digest. Attend workshops and writers conferences. Get involved in the writing community. Make a decision that you’re going to be a writer and then do it.
Go ahead. Good luck.
Funny thing is people often say that, even to me who’s a complete amateur. And when I ask why they don’t is usually “lack of time…” And frankly sometimes the question I ask myself is if they really want to write or just having written/be able to call themselves a writer…
Writing (the hard part) needs to be far more important to you than BEING a writer (the easy part).
“Then get thee to the Killzone.”
Seriously.
Somehow I ended up as the last moderator standing in a Facebook writing group that attracts the greenest of the green.
I send them here. No matter your genre, there is something for everyone in the archives.
“Let me read something you’ve written, and I’ll give you my opinion.”
Never, never, would I say that.
From one of my favorite books, “If You Want To Write” by Brenda Ueland, written in the 30s:
The critics rap us savagely on the head with their thimbles, for our nerve. No one but a virtuoso should be allowed to do it. The prominent writers sell funny articles about all the utterly crazy, fatuous, amateurish people who ‘think’ they can write.
And so now you will begin to work at your writing. Remember these things. Work with all your intelligence and love. Work freely and rollickinly as though they were talking to a friend who loves you. Mentally (at least three or four times a day) thumb your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters.
Then write!
GREAT. Do it. I will give you one insight. Writing is the only thing I’ve done that gets harder the more you do it.
I say “butt-in-chair” and tell me more when you’ve written the first draft. 🙂
I used to wanna be an Oscar Meyer Weiner, then I realized it sucks to get bitten every day. Think through your wannabes ‘cuz to wannabe ain’t the same as to needtabe, wannabes can get away from ya, needtabes are like stalker lovers, you ain’t escaping their kisses till the day ya dies.
Get running shoes. Wait. Get great running shoes. Take one last look at your story and sprint in the opposite direction.
If that’s impossible to do, you might have what it takes to be a writer.
Well, then write.
What Phillip said. After, you know, laughing hysterically first. Evil laughter.
“You like to beat your head against a brick wall too, huh?”
“What’s stopping you?”
I ask what they’re reading
What Sandra said.
Find a story and get started. That usually stops them.
Kinda big for a jockey aren’t you? Unless you’re thinking of racing them budweiser horses.
Writer? You mean like someone what fixes other folkses wrongs?
I say: “Good luck with that.”
Everyone want to be a writer. But do you “need” to write?
Grab a journal or a computer and write! Don’t worry about some deep need to BE a writer or let anyone dissuade you with their deep “insider’s” angst-filled image of writing. Just write.
Sit down and write. Read How-To books and magazines like Writer’s Digest. Attend workshops and writers conferences. Get involved in the writing community. Make a decision that you’re going to be a writer and then do it.
Go ahead. Good luck.
Funny thing is people often say that, even to me who’s a complete amateur. And when I ask why they don’t is usually “lack of time…” And frankly sometimes the question I ask myself is if they really want to write or just having written/be able to call themselves a writer…
Writing (the hard part) needs to be far more important to you than BEING a writer (the easy part).
“Then get thee to the Killzone.”
Seriously.
Somehow I ended up as the last moderator standing in a Facebook writing group that attracts the greenest of the green.
I send them here. No matter your genre, there is something for everyone in the archives.
Terri
Nano project: “Dial 1-PRO-HAC-VICE” Wordcount – 2015
I know what I wouldn’t say;
“Let me read something you’ve written, and I’ll give you my opinion.”
Never, never, would I say that.
From one of my favorite books, “If You Want To Write” by Brenda Ueland, written in the 30s:
The critics rap us savagely on the head with their thimbles, for our nerve. No one but a virtuoso should be allowed to do it. The prominent writers sell funny articles about all the utterly crazy, fatuous, amateurish people who ‘think’ they can write.
And so now you will begin to work at your writing. Remember these things. Work with all your intelligence and love. Work freely and rollickinly as though they were talking to a friend who loves you. Mentally (at least three or four times a day) thumb your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters.
Then write!
GREAT. Do it. I will give you one insight. Writing is the only thing I’ve done that gets harder the more you do it.
I say “butt-in-chair” and tell me more when you’ve written the first draft. 🙂
I used to wanna be an Oscar Meyer Weiner, then I realized it sucks to get bitten every day. Think through your wannabes ‘cuz to wannabe ain’t the same as to needtabe, wannabes can get away from ya, needtabes are like stalker lovers, you ain’t escaping their kisses till the day ya dies.
Get running shoes. Wait. Get great running shoes. Take one last look at your story and sprint in the opposite direction.
If that’s impossible to do, you might have what it takes to be a writer.