So how many hopeful authors are out there?
- Gynxie_Masters
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So how many hopeful authors are out there?
What do you guys write about?
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- moderntimes
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This is very important. If people keep thinking of themselves as "aspiring" writers, they'll NEVER step past that point.Kzin wrote:I used to be an aspiring author, but now I'm actually published. HAve been for 10 years.
Instead, just say "I'm a writer" and focus on getting published. Keep working toward that goal. It's the mental image of being an "aspiring" writer or "I'd like to be published some day..." that stifles the enthusiasm. It's that sort of head in the clouds posture that prevents a person from actively seeking REAL publication.
As Kzin, once I was an "aspiring" writer but now I've got 2 novels, many book reviews, short stories, articles, etc published. And by published, I mean not self-published but published by professional firms who actually paid me money for such.
It CAN be done but it's first necessary to quit the "aspiring" label. That is a dead end.
- CharlotteWolf
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So true! I have had several short stories published in online magazines, and a poem published in an anthology of poetry. I wasn't paid for them, but I got to see my name in print!moderntimes wrote:This is very important. If people keep thinking of themselves as "aspiring" writers, they'll NEVER step past that point.Kzin wrote:I used to be an aspiring author, but now I'm actually published. HAve been for 10 years.
Instead, just say "I'm a writer" and focus on getting published. Keep working toward that goal. It's the mental image of being an "aspiring" writer or "I'd like to be published some day..." that stifles the enthusiasm. It's that sort of head in the clouds posture that prevents a person from actively seeking REAL publication.
As Kzin, once I was an "aspiring" writer but now I've got 2 novels, many book reviews, short stories, articles, etc published. And by published, I mean not self-published but published by professional firms who actually paid me money for such.
It CAN be done but it's first necessary to quit the "aspiring" label. That is a dead end.
Even after they were published, though, I still considered myself an 'aspiring author' because I just didn't think that those stories counted. They weren't published by a real publishing house, after all!
One day I decided that I'm a writer, and that's it. I am not going to limit my potential by calling what I do anything less than what it is. Since I started referring to myself as a 'writer,' and, occasionally, an 'author' (because those stories were published whether I was paid for them or not!) my confidence in my writing ability has improved dramatically.
We should always bring ourselves up, instead of down. Dreams become reality when you start to believe in them.
- emmyduffel
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- moderntimes
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Confidence comes by WRITING! Don't wait "many years" to become confident. If you do, it will never happen! It's because you've programmed yourself that you are an "aspiring" or "hopeful" writer and hoping won't get one single word written.
Just start writing. I don't care what it is and you should not think "this isn't good enough so I'll wait till I get better before I actually write" because it's self defeating. You've got to see this. Don't wait for anyone here to boost your morale either. Even though we will be happy to help with that.
You must generate your own morale and you can do that by simply starting your novel or story or whatever. Start immediately. Start with some random chapter, like "Chapter 14" if you wish. Start by writing down a specific event or scene that is buzzing in your mind. It could be a love scene or a fight scene or big battle between ogres and humans or maybe a comic encounter. The subject doesn't matter. What matters is that this scene or chapter or sequence is one that elicits energy in your mind. After you write that 1 small chapter, you'll then need to ask youself "What happened that led up to this?" or "What happens next?" and you answer that by writing "Chapter 13" or "Chapter 15" and then you'll ask the questions again, and you'll write the next or preceding chapters.
Regardless, you need to start actually writing and not thinking about writing. Actually writing is what matters. Honest.
Here's a chapter from my recently completed novel for example. I wrote this chapter long before things had progressed to this point, but the events in this chapter were vivid in my mind and so I wrote them and saved them. This is from my modern private detective novel:
-----
Chapter 25
Throughout the next few days, fragments of it came back to me in disconnected segments like quickly cut scenes in a horror movie illuminated by lightning flashes.
Pickup truck beside us.
Rattle of rusty muffler, stink of fumes.
Ski mask.
Shotgun barrel.
Burst of flame.
Blood.
And more blood.
-----
Naturally this is a critical chapter in my novel and it was stuck in my mind for months, and the entire novel pivots around this scene.
This is just one example. What I'm trying to impress on you is that you need to actually start writing now. Even if it's a few sentences, fragments of ideas, segments. Just start, okay? And good luck!
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