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You can be one, if you do the things that successful writers do…
Prepare
1) Read as much as you can and study the books you like best.
This is one of the best things about being a writer. You have to read. A lot. It’s required. Reading helps you learn your craft. By reading you learn what works, what doesn’t work, what’s new, what’s old, what you can do, what you can’t do.
2) Read books on writing.
Not essential, but you need to learn the craft some way. There are a lot of good books on all aspects of writing, and they will help you learn things that you’d otherwise have to learn the hard way.
3) Attend writing workshops. Take classes on writing.
More good ways to learn the craft. Also great ways to get feedback on your writing, to network, and to develop a support community. And with all the rejection and frustration that comes with writing, you’re going to need that support community.
4) Get experience, fill the hopper.
Almost all experience is valuable to a writer. Go to the amusement park. Hang out at the mall. Travel. Attend sporting events. Go to the opera. Run for Congress. Sit on the porch in your pajamas and stare at the sky. Everything you do provides material for your writing. And when someone accuses you of wasting time, you can explain to them that it’s research.
5) Collect good reference books.
Oh yes, as a writer you are also required to buy books, whatever books you want. Again, it’s research. But make sure that many of those books are the kind that you can grab at the spur of the moment when you need information that you can’t get easily off the internet. I have every kind of dictionary imaginable-almanacs, trivia collections, guides-hundreds of great, fun, useful books at my fingertips.
6) Pay attention to people.
People are the subjects of, and audience for our writing. The better you know them, the more you’ll connect. Study them. Watch them. Listen to them. Talk to them.
Write
7) Record any ideas you get. Keep them accessible.
Ideas come at the oddest places. Be prepared to write them down. You don’t want to lose the idea that’s going to make your career.
8) Get in touch with your characters.
Think about them, study them, know them well enough that what you write about them will be consistent, likable, compelling, real.
9) WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE.
You think this wouldn’t have to be on the list, but there are a lot of writers who talk a good game, but don’t technically write. If you want to be a writer, by definition you must write. And the more you write, the better you’ll be. And the faster you will sell. If you don’t want to write, if you don’t like to write, then don’t. Find something you enjoy doing more, and do that instead.
10) Send things out.
The publishers are not going to come knocking at your door. Send your manuscripts out. When they come back rejected, send them off to someone else. Keep them moving. An editor can’t buy them if he doesn’t see them.
Get Support
11) Join a writer’s group.
For the feedback, for the commiseration, for the knowledge, for the friendship.
12) Join the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
The national professional organization that most serious children’s book writers and illustrators belong to.
13) Talk to other writers.
Meet them at signings, at conferences, at meetings, wherever you can.
And Then
14) Be patient and persistent.
Getting published sometimes takes years. Many writers don’t get published because they give up too soon.
15) Try to keep your life in balance and yourself happy. Keep your writing in perspective.
No amount of writing success compensates for you, or your family, being miserable. Writing, and reading, should make your life better. If they don’t, you’re doing them wrong.
Not every successful writer does every room one of these things. But these are all things that help successful writers be who they are. And they can help you be what you want to be.
Posted in February, 2008
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