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If you want to write professionally, make no mistake, you will be joining a very competitive world. Try to get over the ‘rubbish’ you see in print that isn’t a patch on your stuff, and the soul-destroying lip-service the publishing world and media pay to the bigshot established writers. You can be fairly certain they earned it. Concentrate solely on your own writing. It’s probably not as good as you think. But it still might be publishable and, better still, actually find a market, because that’s what it’s all about: will the world listen? Is what you are writing distinctive and entertaining enough to grab the world’s attention. Or, to be precise, a small section of the reading public, that is all you need- your own little niche market. The world is a big place and even if nine people out of every ten loathe your work, you could still be a bestseller, so don’t think you have to please everyone. Write what you want to write, and write it well.
Writing
well means writing professionally. It is not enough to be creative- you have to
take that as a given- you must be market savvy. Where does your work fit in? Is
it different enough? Am I using too many big words just because I know ‘em?
Time and again, the market professionals say: give us the same but different.
By this, they mean: something for which there is already a market, but which is
distinctive enough to stand out. In other words: fresh genre writing. Ask yourself:
which genre does my work fit into?
Some
of the more sensible articles I have read on good professional writing practice
can be found at Fiction Factor. Lee Masterson- one of Fiction Factor’s
founders- has given me permission to feature some of her articles here,
alongside my own poor contributions. And I’m not being falsely modest. I know
I’m published and literary-trained, but I am a novice when it comes to the
business of writing about writing. And it doesn't come easy to me. Anything I say about writing is very much of a personal
nature and tends to concern the creative side. But I will be sharing any
marketing insights I may gain in the future, things that might help me to break
in to that most exclusive club- bestseller writers! Actually, I’d settle for a
midlist position right now. But then I am somewhere off the bottom of the
scale. All that could change! But, more often than not, all that could stay the same. So, in the end, we write because we want to write, we write for our own pleasure, because it feels good and we just want to get that buzz of creative enthusiasm again. Unless I'm missing something!
So here are a few articles on writing. I'll be adding more, so please check back for updates.
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