Things Your English Teacher Won't Tell You

So you want to be writer. Good. No, great! There has never been a more dynamic time in the history of storytelling for someone to create. What does that mean, exactly? It means that the publishing industry is an industry in flux and that no one, not the big publishers or the writers are quite sure where the changes are going to take us. Years ago when I started writing (years and years and years ago…) there weren’t a lot of options. You would start with writing a few short stories, submit them, and hopefully sell a few, collecting enough rejection slips along the way to paper the room you wrote in. Then, after you were established a bit you could branch out into novels, submitting them to agents or trying your luck on your own. And gathering even more rejection slips along the way.

Then came the internet.

Suddenly there were new venues open to writers. Today you can submit your work to traditional publishers, or to smaller indie publishers or set up your own company and self publish. You can do one or all of the above. You don’t need to have an agent, a publisher or even an editor to put your work out in front of people. That’s the good news. The bad news is, since anyone can publish their work there is a lot of work out there.

Lots and lots and lots of work. Short stories, blogs novels of every shape, size and description, all genres welcome. So much materiel, in fact, that no one is quite sure how to get their work noticed and read.

So what’s the answer? Sure wish I knew.

But, one thing that hasn’t changed, the absolute best way, maybe the only way, to have your work rise above the background noise is to write well. And not just well from a technical aspect – a great story after all isn’t always a pretty story – but you need to create stories and characters that people care about. You can be the best writer in the world, but if the story you are writing is dull or the characters lifeless, no one is going to bother reading past the first few pages. And for that you need two things.

An imagination and a love of stories.

Let’s face it, you obviously have been gifted with both or you wouldn’t be here. We are all born with imaginations, and if you don’t enjoy stories – whether as printed words, film and video, graphic novels or comics or perhaps in audio form, then don’t waste your time becoming a writer. There are a lot of better ways to make money and fill those empty holes in your life. Writing is a a long and very crooked road, each step and each mile adding a bit more to your craft. Every word you write, every page you finish, every story or novel or panel you create takes you one more step along the path. It isn’t always easy and it isn’t always fast and it isn’t anything like you expect it will be when you type or scribble that first word. But, stick with it if you can, because despite everything there is no feeling quite like giving part of your imagination to the world.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully I can help you along on your journey.

Justin