My View on a Writers Highs and Lows
When growing up and going through Elementary School, no one likes English Classes, and the words you are taught to use in sentences and the punctuation. We all have having to hand write all our works, at least when I went to school in the sixties. Most of us as kids avoided doing our homework and hated writing anything. I wish sometimes I had listened better and learned grammar better all the time. I never figured, I would grow up and go through life and have so many different stories in my head, that I would regret my not paying attention back then!
I have had many, many Occupations in my life starting with being a newspaper boy, to factory work, to military life, and in each part of my life or occupoation I have stories of those jobs too. And as you grow older you collect stories in your heart and head of romances, some brief, some long, some that worked and some that didn’t. Then you collect memories of events and you color them with your own perspectives of them and try to keep them neat in your mind.
But, when you get to the point of finally using all these memories and trying to write them down as a Writer, well you don’t always do it correctly and get disappointed when others, won’t read them or want to buy them, when you compose them in manuscript form or book form.
A Little info, for anyone who wishes to write, first and foremost, change, the names of the people you write about in the memories you use. Second remember your memories are not always one hundred percent correct as you age, so it is ok to embellish a bit to make it more interesting. LOL !
Writing is like sitting down and pouring out your emotions on paper or in a computer for print and slowly bleeding to death as you do. For without the emotions of each story, or scene you lived, in the words you write, no one will read what you wrote. It doesn’t become interesting until you pull the reader into the story; let them feel the love, pain, misery, hurt, or joy, you felt at the time. Writing is a very emotional experience for most writers and for those who read their works. It’s really a process that can heal you in some way, release you in another or immerse your soul in the words you say.
Each character you create must be unique and different and have its own little quirks and ways. One can be mad, one happy, one smart, one a lost soul, if you get my drift. No two characters can react the same way, or talk the same way, especially if you are telling a story that has many in it.
My personal way to write is not as easy or simple as some others for myself. I like to remember experiences I had or lived through, write them down, even if they are erratic and crazy at time and need to be pieced together to be coherent. It’s the bits and pieces of the memory that I can take and assemble again in words people will understand t hat makes it all possible and a real story. It may not match exactly all as it happened, but you can be sure, I will try to get it all in there in some way so it entices the reader and strings them along in the story.
In a way, Writing is a therapy for me, I don’t know about other writers. I know sometimes I need to write down the feelings, emotions and reasoning I go through just to get it off my chest or out of my mind. The mind becomes like a library of facts, times, places, actions and purposes and I can’t keep it all in so I unleash it in words on paper or on my computer in Word. Writing is like my mind is leaking and bleeding all over the paper and there is nothing I can do to stop it from doing so, till it stops itself. I hope that makes sense to all.
Remember this if you write, one you will bleed it out, bit by bit. Two, once you do remember it is not going to sometimes make sense or be right. Reread it, edit it and reread it again, at least three times. Reword what you have to, make it readable and understandable to the audience you are writing it for. Remember what you write for children is totally different than what you would write for a teenager or an adult, so check all the language and don’t make a mistake on it.
A Little more advice I can give as a writer is this, once you think your manuscript is complete and your done writing, have a person who is not connected to you read it over and make suggestion or point out mistakes. You need a neutral person to give you honest opinions on it, not a family member or friend. They will color their opinions or try to pacify you and that is not what you want as a writer. You can’t get better if you don’t know or understand what you wrote wrong in the first place, can you?
Spell check everything, use a grammar program also if you have one if not, get one. And when you do complete your story, or novel or manuscript, which ever you consider it, remember you still need a hook, for the opening pages, as a preview and one as a hook for the back cover of the book too.
Covers are also a key to a Writer’s Work, the story won’t sell, if your cover stinks and doesn’t represent what is in the book, no matter how much you advertise it, if it is not attractive it won’t get the attention you need to sell it. So many things can make a difference in selling a story, manuscript, or novel/book. So slow down, do it right, make each sentence, each part of your story be felt by the reader. If an Editor or Publisher gets into the book, manuscript or story and gets captivated by it, they will publish it. So, one other bit of advice I can give out, if you are on a roll while writing don’t stop till you get it all out, don’t let someone, something break your concentration or thought, Finish it first, and then call them back if the phone rings, in the end you don’t want to lose your train of thought, and go sideways with it do you?
Last word, as a writer I bleed as I said, each word, each thought, each emotion ends up in the story, manuscript or novel/book. It can be uplifting for me, or depressing for me, it can be helpful or hurtful, but as a writer, I see it as my job to convey it to the reader in a clear concise manner, and make it interesting enough they can enjoy it, whether it be a comedy, mystery, thriller, biography or even a historic story. The point for me is simple, if it gathers my attention it should also gather their and hold them for the time they read it. I hope you all agree !
William. M. McCurrach
Macattack56's Blog 