Are You A Writer?

I have only met one person who said he loves his work and he isn’t a writer. One definition of work is: sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result. That sounds a lot like the problems we set before the protagonist characters in our fictional creations. Another definition of work is: an activity you do regularly, especially to earn money. That’s the definition many writers can relate to…except for — the earning money part.

 Some local authors have achieved the earning money part but most have not. For those of us who remain hopeful that one day money will fill our bank accounts like it did for Hugh Howey from his novella Wool, we must keep writing. He cautions writers that his first book wasn’t a success, in fact, like many successful authors, he wrote several novels and short stories in various genres and voices before Wool. He also read a wide variety of books, all the while writing every day.

His advice like our writing guru Dennis Foley is to read a lot, write a lot and hang out with writers. Howey also recommends becoming a pro. Read up on grammar and commune online at places like KindleBoard’s Writers’ Café, www.kindleboards.com. Attend conferences, take classes. Publish online. Set goals – like selling ten books a day across twenty titles. Keep track of your accomplishments as you approach your goals.

 Writing is something a writer is compelled to do whether earning money or not. That is not to say a writer loves to write. It is a compulsion…writers cannot stop.

If you are a writer, you have no doubt found you are different from non-writers. You look at landscapes with a different eye, at trees with music; even your darkest days are brightened with rainbow thoughts swirling with the characters living in your mind. You are not schizophrenic. You have a compulsion. You are a writer. There is a treatment for the disorder…write. It isn’t work. It’s like being in love.

Betty Kuffel