Writer?

me too.

and there is no harm that I can see anywhere.......seems we are speaking the same thing in different ways.

me agapi kai filia

I know its been a while since this thread has been written in but I would like to add something if I could. I am a writer. I agree with the phrase, a writer writes. The act of writing itself is easy, anyone can be a writer but to be a true writer, one who is published is a little harder and not everyone can do that. To me, the act of telling stories in book form has been easy. Since I am new to this, the professional part of writing is difficult. Who is the right publisher? Do I need an agent? How do I promote the book? All those questions make writing hard and even though they are directly connected to writing, they don't make writing, writing. Whether we as writers get published or not, we are still a writer because we write. There is a difference between being a writer and an author, I'm lucky enough to be both.

Amber

Hi Amber, you have certainly summed it all up very neatly. If getting published was as easy as writing, I would not be punching a clock every day to support this addiction I have for writing. It would be paying for itself.

My biggest problem in writing novels is to know when to quit. My first completed novel is now at least a trilogy and to avoid conflict in character or plot, I am shelving the entire writing until the third book is finished. It has been a great adventure creating a world apart from reality.

Share with us more about your success and what it took to get there.

me agapi

anybody can write. To adress the first draft is when the real work starts.
Im by no means a writer, yet I must write my work in defensible reports with bullshit professional "inside " prose. I love what I do, I hate telling others about it.

If I could sit around a camp fire with a blackboard and a couple of colleagues who are interested in the same areas of work, I could spin such a yarn about my findings. Well enough I could spin them that theyd almost be interesting.

The writing craft gets in my way, it always makes me want to add more graphs and maps and equations, art Im good at, writing, not so much.

Writing to me is like a man giving birth out his ass. Its an unnatuiral act when ones livelihood depends on ones prose style and ability to make a reasoned argumen
t on paper.

But , thats just me, and Im probably more of a writer than you acepilot, so dont feel full of yourself until youve got pleats in your brain where the regurgitated trite phrases come shooting out without you even being part of the process.

You might like Proust fm if you could just take that spiel a little less subjectively and without impatience.

Reasoned arguments are easy although I do know that those who deploy them are not aware of it.

Farmerman, I'm with you. Writing nonfiction can be daunting, challenging, and just a pain in the ass. It requires organization, clarity, and true linguistic skill. It also requires a gift for communication. I'm not saddled with academic jargon and whatever else is involved with what you do.

I've written works of fiction too. No less daunting. No less a requirement for organization, clarity, and true linguistic skill. No less a requirement for communication. The added dimensions are emotion and a degree of creativity. Unfortunately, these can blind us to the reality of what we're doing.

I've had several works of nonfiction published. My works of fiction? Not good. I took some time, stepped back, and reread. Stinko. Don't have time to do the kind of fixing that would make it stink less. But I enjoyed the act of writing it tremendously. Lost in another world. I loved it. And I deluded myself into thinking it was good--when I was writing it. Live and loin.

roberta

Ive tried that genre and my problem with"doing" fiction has always been the concept of a story that is simple and understandable and has a good mguffin . I tend to ramble around and use God awful story premises. Consequently , my stuff reads more like a phone book with a few lines of ridiculous plot.

I know I could do a kids picture book because I always have had the concept f "monsters" well impressed in my head. Ill bet that, when I was a kid, my folks were certain that I was a cereal killer in training.

When I was a kid I didn't pay any attention to what my parents thought. I dodged around that stuff as best I could. It was "weather".

so hows your writing spendi? getting any better?

Yea knowing when to end has been a problem for me sometimes too. That is why I love my series so much. I don't have to end. It isn't published yet but I keep writing it anyway so when I do get it published, the other books to the first one is ready to go too. The first 2 are completly done. I need to rewrite and edit the third one and finish the fourth first draft. The fifth and sixth books are in planning stages in my mind while the eighth is just a dream away. I also started another series but only been able to get the first draft of the first book done. It was more complicated so it would take longer. Then I have a couple adult books that I'm working on, one I finished to make a total of 3 adult fiction (the one finished is romance/erotica). Plus I have a children's book I am in the middle of writing.

I like having more than one book in progress cause when I get writers block I can just move on to the next story and pick up where I left it. The past week I've taken a break from all writing to work on the book that just came out. I've been promoting it and going to book stores to set up book signings. I haven't been turned down yet but theres a lot of things I need to gather before they decide either way. So I'm looking at a couple months before I know anything probably.

As for what I had to do to get published. I wrote everything and anything, sent it to publisher after publisher. I recieved rejection letters and each person said the story was good just not for them. It encouraged me to keep going and then I was published by Publish America. It turns out they reject about 40% a year and I was one that was accepted. That was in December. This book took a total of 2 years from having the dream that started the idea to planning the plot and people to actually writing it. The book didn't take long once they got a hold of it and I might of been overly anxious and passed the editing process by my choice (which I shouldn't have but it wasn't that bad). The story line and characters are good so my readers will hopefully be as happy as I am with the results.

Ok this is long enough. I will go for now. Ask me anything you want. I am an open book, litterally.