Author or Writer, Which Do You Want to Be?

Many writers I know struggle with the idea of calling themselves an author. It sounds so official, like something that must be earned. That's because it is. There is a distinct difference between writing for fun and writing for a career. That is the difference between a writer and an author. What if you are one attempting to become the other, as so many of us are? Then you are an aspiring author.

There is much more to being an author than just a title though. The bottom line is professionalism. If you want to make writing your career you must be professional. Don't worry, this doesn't mean you can't have fun and be yourself, it just means you have to understand that everything you do and say could some day be under the public eye. With search engines like Google out there agents and editors have access to almost everything you've ever said or done on the internet. You want to be sure what they find doesn't give them a reason to reject you.

Part of being a professional is also ensuring that your work is the very best it can be. Don't finish in a hurry so you can start submitting as soon as possible because you have a hot trending topic or theme. When we rush we make mistakes and mistakes are what get us rejected. Part of taking your time is personalizing each and every query as if that agent is going to be The One. Make sure you carefully read and follow each agent's guidelines. Failure to do so is the quickest way to be rejected.

Be thick skinned when it comes to rejections and try not to take them personally. Learn from every tidbit of feedback that is given to you. Don't forget, many great authors like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling were rejected numerous times before they became successful. Use rejection to fuel the fire of determination. Learn, grow, and improve, that is the path to becoming an author.

For more useful tips on how to succeed check out this post by Writer's Digest: 10 Commandments of Fiction Writing. Best of luck!

~Heather

Don't forget to enter to win a copy of Flight For Control at this link. 

Supporting Each Other

This last Monday on the #WritersRoad chat on Twitter we talked about keeping your spirits up while submitting or trying to get published in today’s industry. Anyone who has tried to break into publishing in the last few years knows how incredibly hard that can be. When talking about ways to keep our spirits up one topic kept reoccurring and that was, supporting each other.

Writing used to be a lonely profession but it doesn’t have to be anymore. There are so many wonderful writing communities online now that we never have to face anything alone again unless we choose to. Between Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and all the others, you are bound to find someone to connect with and to share your journey with. All you have to do is reach out.

Supporting each other is a two-way street though, we can’t ever forget that. Paying it forward is very important in the writing communities, but we must do it with honest, good intentions~not because we expect something in return. Be there for your writing friends, talk with them, comment on their blogs when you can, critique for them when you can (constructively of course), and buy their books when the time comes. Good karma comes around and the friendships you’ll forge by supporting each other are worth every second of time spent on them.

~Heather

Spreading Yourself Too Thin

There is so much more to writing than actually writing, that the extra things can become too much of a distraction at times. Between platform building, social media, and marketing your novel, the most important part~the writing~can sometimes be shoved to the side. If any of you have followed the journey of the self-published, self-made millionaire, Amanda Hocking, then you know despite her achievements on her own, she signed with a major publisher. If I ever find myself in her position I'm not sure I'd make the same decision she did, but I understand why she made it.

Even after you've built a great platform, there is a lot of work that remains to be done. Marketing is a never ending monster that must be fed, and that's even with a traditional publisher. Somehow you have to find the balance between all the things associated with being an author, and writing your novels. There are times we all spread ourselves too thin, get caught up in the excitement and going on's of social media, and inadvertently put our writing aside.

It's vital that writing remain the most important ingredient in being an author. That may mean less frequent blog posts, less Twitter or Facebook time, and more dedicated writing time. You don't have to give up any of those things, just use them in moderation and be sure you write more often than you do social media. The balance will tip from time to time and that's okay. Just try to be aware of it and make sure you tip it back to writing. Speaking of tipping, what tips do you have to achieve balance in your own writing lives?

~Heather

Writing Time/Writer's Discipline

Most writers love to write -- why else do it? It's not like anyone who tries it can easily make a living at it, so you need to love it, but life doesn't always allow for doing what you love. For most of us, it's necessary to carve out the time and convince ourselves that we deserve it.

Once you've done that and you have your writing time scheduled in your daily routine, do you stick to it? If you've got young children or a demanding job that can pull you away from any routine you set up for yourself, or even if you've just got an already pretty full life, it's not that easy. Fact is, it's not that easy no matter what, in my opinion. Not until it becomes an addiction of sorts.

Jeff Davis (The Journey from the Center to the Page) is a great teacher and writer whose class I took at the Taos Writers Conference a couple of years ago. He gave us a tip for sticking to a writing schedule. He said a good friend of his, who lived down the road from him and who is also a writer, kept tabs on him. Jeff would get up in the morning and do his yoga and go to his writing desk and at 6:00 a.m. the telephone would ring -- it would be his friend calling to ask if he was writing. No getting to it later, or another day, that phone was going to ring every morning. The message was: find an incentive to get you to stick to your discipline.

I decided to adapt Jeff's system. A writing buddy of mine and I set up a regularly scheduled telephone conversation every weekend. (She lives in a different state, btw. It doesn't have to be someone down the road.) We report to each other --with complete honesty -- on what writing progress we've made on our projects during the week, and we pledge to each other what we will do in the coming week. When we started doing this, our pledge was fifteen minutes a day, five days a week. We figured no matter what else was going on, we could find fifteen minutes. Now we're at an hour minimum.

This system really works. It's amazing what saying it out loud to someone will do for you. I managed to find those fifteen minutes -- no excuses -- and, surprise, surprise, once I did, I started writing at least that long each day, even if the writing seemed like nothing but dreck. Fifteen minutes became an hour or more, and after months of doing that the most amazing thing happened -- I developed a sort of 'writer's muscle'. Try it, you'll see. You'll have strength and stamina to write longer and longer the more you do it. It will feel natural. And if you miss a day you'll feel bereft! In other words, it becomes kind of addictive. Thank you, Jeff!

Linda

Just Do It

Like many wannabe writers, I’ve always had the best of intentions to write a novel. The first chapter always found its way onto my computer, but the next time I sat to work on it, I edited what I had previously written. This process went on for many years. The moral of that story is I had many versions of a first chapter.

For years I have been crafting stories in my head, with the greatest of intentions to put them to paper. But I never did. Not because I didn’t try, or because I didn’t have a strong enough desire, it was that life just got in the way. A husband, three kids, a couple master degrees, and starting my career over at seven different airlines, always got in the way.

A few years back a friend told me that I should attend the Maui Writer’s conference, and I agreed. But the price, and the time commitment, and life… it all got in the way.

The great thing about life is we all have a choice. Of course we have obligations and commitments, but what I realized is if I wanted to succeed as a writer, I needed to invest in myself and take the plunge. I made the right choice.

The Hawaii Writer’s conference was by far the best investment I had made in years! With William Bernhardt as my instructor, I took away an education of a lifetime. I realized that my delay in writing was actually due to my inability of knowing ‘how to’ put my story together. And the women in my class, Heather and Linda, gave me the greatest gift: a realization that I belong in their world, the world of writers.

The place where imagination, creativity, research, and a lot of hard work, come together to make dreams come true. These women have assisted me with the basics, provided encouragement, and indulged my many questions. Our conversations of plot and character arcs took me to a new level of enjoyment. I realized that this is the world in which I belong. I am living in a fantasy with my characters, bringing them to life, and love every minute of it.

Making a commitment, to William Bernhardt, to write everyday gave me focus. And with my new skills, along with the commitment to myself, in three months I’ve finished a 400 page novel, and am on the 3rd revision! It won’t be long until I too am submitting to agents. I even joined a writers group. And yes… I am making this work with grandkids, holidays, birthdays, floods, and studying my new airplane. If I can do it… you can too.

It’s more than wanting it… it’s all about making a commitment and just doing it! Believe in yourself and go for it. Life is too short to do anything else… but write!

~Karlene