Hi Folks,
Soon I’ll begin a blog post series on being a professional writer. As a preface, this post will provide an overview. If you have friends who are writers, please tell them about the series. This will be an important series for anyone who is serious about being or becoming a professional writers.
Generally, I’m going to take a different tack with these posts too. Instead of telling you what I think you should do, I’ll tell you what I’m doing—kind of “a day in the life” stuff—and you can take from it what you need.
I write short fiction, but this series is about Writing, not about what you write, whether what genre or what length. All the same rules apply. Here’s what you’ll see over the next couple of months:
Retraining
Writers write. To that end, I’ve had to retrain myself pretty extensively. I’ve been blessed with a pretty good work ethic, but I’ve always focused on OPW (other people’s writing). I still work for other people, editing, proofreading, eformatting and so on, but I’m learning to level my focus a bit. Learn how and why this might be something you need as well in my forthcoming post on Retraining.
Ideas
When you’re writing at least one new short story every week, ideas become important. How difficult is it to come up with at least one new idea per week for a short story? It isn’t difficult at all, really. Watch for my post on Ideas. That one might come in two parts, one on where ideas originate and one with actual story starters for you.
Writing into the Dark
I enjoy what many professional writers call “writing into the dark,” meaning I have no idea where the story is going beyond the opening sentence. I’m free to go wherever the writing takes me, and that feeling is nothing short of euphoria. For a great deal more on Writing into the Dark, watch for my post on that topic, coming soon.
Pseudonyms and Personas
I’ve used pseudonyms in the past, but since I started the challenge, I’ve found it’s better to share the work load with a few of my friends. You can meet each of them by clicking the tabs across the top of Harvey Stanbrough & Friends Writing in Public. During my professional writing series, I’ll also write at least once post dedicated to the how and why of using pseudonyms and personas. Watch for it!
Practice Makes (Almost) Perfect
As is the case with any other profession, writing well takes practice. You can’t write one story or one novel and call yourself a writer any more than you can represent your friend in court and call yourself a lawyer or figure out one problem on your computer and call yourself an IT tech. Y’gotta do the work. Watch for my upcoming post on Practicing Your Writing.
Getting Bogged Down
If I’m writing and I begin to feel bogged down, I follow the advice of Dean Wesley Smith: I Write the Next Sentence, then Write the Next Sentence, then Write the Next Sentence. Does that really work? Most of the time it does. For the whole story, including what to do when writing the next sentence doesn’t work, watch for my post on Getting Bogged Down.
My Own Writing Process
To see how all of these notions have culminated in my own efforts to write a new short story every week, watch for my final blog post in the Professional Writer series, My Own Writing Process. This post will be about the evolution of my own writing process since I slapped myself with the “one new short story per week” challenge. By the time “My Own Writing Process” posts, the challenge will have begun a few months ago, so this post also might be an indicator of progress. Every writer is different, but this might give you a few ideas you can put to use in your own writing.
Of course, a fundamental knowledge of the nuances of the language and how to manipulate it is basic to all great writing. If you want invaluable writing instruction on everything from dialogue to narrative to creating characters, writing dialect and marketing, visit my Audio Lecture Series to see what I have to offer. You can even listen free to “The Electric Secret to Success as a Writer.”
‘Til next time, happy writing!
Harvey
Tagged as: applying the craft, Harvey Stanbrough, professional writer series, The Writing Life, writer’s block, writing, Writing Instruction