A friend of mine is in the middle of writing a short story and he wants to give up. He has 2,000 words and none of it makes sense. He doesn’t know what he’s writing about. He doesn’t know why he’s writing in the first place. He’s lost faith.
Have you ever felt like this? I know I have.
How do you finish when you want to give up? How do you push through when you don’t know what you’re story is about?
Have you ever thought about becoming a writer? If you’re like me and most of my readers, you probably have. But even if you haven’t, you should think about it.
Writing has done more for my life than I could have ever imagined. It has made me a better person, a better friend, and a better husband. It has even helped me to provide for myself and my family. And it can do the same for you, too.
Here are five reasons why you should consider becoming a writer:
How do you get your writing finished and complete your deadlines in the midst of a frenetic, distracting world? How do you break away from Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, and the other perils of the internet and just write?
We’d all like to live more focused, whole lives, but how do you actually do that?
Today, I’m interviewing author Joanna Penn to find out. Joanna Penn is the author of the ARKANE thrillers, Pentecost and Prophecy. She is also an entrepreneur and professional speaker. Her site for writers The Creative Penn has been voted one of the Top 10 sites for writers two years running and offers articles, audio, and video on writing, publishing and book marketing. To learn more about her fiction, visit her fiction website, JFPenn.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter (@thecreativepenn).
The wisdom of the zeitgeist says, “Follow your dreams. Don’t settle for a job you don’t love. You have to be passionate about what you do.”
However, the truth is that if you look at the people who really love what they do, you find that most of them didn’t follow this rule.
Free writing is an exercise we often practice here at the Write Practice to unblock the mind and increase creativity and fluidity.
But free writing is more than a pill you dole out to cure writer’s block, isn’t it? It has a much more important function than helping you finish a scene or discover an ending that resonates.
Free writing, practiced deliberately can set you free from fear.
In the run up to the launch of Let’s Write a Short Story, I’ve been talking to a lot of writers about writing, publishing, and yes, rejection.
One writer read the following passage from the book:
“Submitting is like sitting naked in the subway,” said one reader. Another said, “I’ve never submitted anything. And after I hit submit, I wanted to hide under my blankets. I still do.”
Submitting is hard.
“That’s exactly how I feel!” the writer told me.
Every writer faces the possibility, nay the probability, of rejection. So what can you do about it? How can you avoid having your short stories rejected by a literary magazine?
Here are four tips…
