WRITING IS WORK - BY RITA KARNOPP #writingtips

If you’re honest . . . you’ll agree . . . writing is hard work. If it was easy – everyone would be doing it.  Actually lately it seems everyone is.  The problem I’m seeing with that is those new authors think all there is to writing is to write.  For them writing is going to be a breeze. 

There’s a lot more to writing than one would think.   There is plotting, dialog that’s exciting, pacing, internal and external conflict, character development, a beginning, middle, and an end?  Really?  Yep! 

Wait ‘till you’ve been dragged down the bumpy road toward finding a publisher a few times.  It’s not easy at all.  You can’t get into the door – unless you write a good book.  They don’t expect it to be perfect, but they do expect you to know ‘basic writing skills.’

Might I add a pet peeve of mine that has developed after months . . . even years of writing?  Maybe you’ve seen it too?  The author who decides their book is the next Gone With The Wind (Maybe we all think that).  They can feel a bidding war over their book coming on.  If that doesn’t happen right away – they decide those publishers and editors don’t know what they’re talking about (even though they’ve been in the business successfully for umpteen years).  This author won’t want pay to have his/her book professionally edited, so they decide to self-publish!  Yep!  It’s going to be so much better in print!

I just finished writing my sixteenth book . . . I know people who’ve written over a hundred!  I’m certain, with no doubt, each book – whether your second or your thirty-second . . . will take plotting, dynamic dialog, pacing, internal and external conflict, characterization, a beginning, a middle, and an end.  With each book we write – we improve and learn something new about writing.

My point is; we need to learn the craft of writing.  Writing isn’t a hobby, a spare-time activity, or something to play at. It’s work.  Don’t ever get the idea writing is easy.  If it is, you’re not working hard enough. The stuff that comes easy takes the most rewriting. And stuff that comes hard reads the easiest.

People tell me all the time that they’re going to write their book - when they find time to write it.  And of course they will be that one-in-a-thousand writers who’ll sell their book to the first publisher they submit to. The reality is - they’ll get a real shocker when they sit before the blank computer screen.

So don’t be one of those people who won’t study the craft of writing because they know everything there is to know already, or the writer who writes and rewrites but never finishes a book, or worse – the person who just talks about writing because they like the attention they get from telling people they’re an author.

If you’re serious, read about the writing craft, learn all you can before you think about writing the next great novel. 

And above all, know you’re going to have to work at it.  Like anything that’s important to you – if you want to write that book, set a goal and do whatever it takes to achieve it.