Treat Your Writing Professionally

by Edie Melson, @EdieMelson

Despite news to the contrary, I believe this is the best time ever to be a writer. Writing for a living isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but it is possible to make a reasonable income. Becoming a professional writer takes hard work. But if we’re willing to learn the industry and the craft of writing, we can find success. Today I’m going to share my tips that will help you find that success.

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7 Mistakes Authors Make

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

Every writer wants to be viewed as professional, intelligent, and bestselling. Nothing wrong with those goals, and they are worthy and attainable. But when a writer consistently makes dumb mistakes, her credibility takes a nose dive as well as her career.

Take a look at the following mistakes. Are there changes on your horizon?

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A Few Thoughts About Writing

Verily brothers and sisters it is that time of year once again. The time when our thoughts turn to warm weather, the beach (when you read this I'll be in the Caribbean), and wondering if we'll fit in last year's bathing suit.

That, and what ideas to pitch to magazine editors for their late summer/early fall issues.

So, with all that in mind, I want to take a look at some ideas that don't fit a specific category but are important if you want to be a professional writer. Then I want to blend them together. Sort of like making soup.

And like good soup, hopefully it will be filling and give you something to fortify you for the days ahead

Or at least unlike bad soup, maybe it won’t give you any sort of gastric distress.

So, that being said, on with the show.

First, of all Don’t Be “Precious”

I subscribe to a number of writing-related email loops and online groups. And for reasons which will become obvious, I have a separate email address that all of the related communication goes to. The main reason is that I want to keep my business, email loops, and daily "stuff" email separate. I don’t want to have to sort through Praise Team rehearsal email, notes from my family, estimates from the contractor, jokes from my brother-in-law, and “catching up” emails from two particularly good friends when I am looking for a note from my agent or an editor.

The second (and in some ways more pressing) reason is what I call The Precious People. And I don’t mean precious in the sense of, “Oh look at that puppy. Isn’t he precious?” I mean it in the eye rolling, obnoxious relative who came to stay for a week, do we really have to listen to this, don’t make me puke sense.

These are the people addicted to the acronym WIP (for the uninitiated, that means Work in Progress). These are the people who work “my WIP” into every email, Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Goodreads post. The ones who will say, “I am currently working on my WIP” at the drop of a hat. These are also the people who get on the email loops and other online venues and ask inane questions (about my WIP) that they could just as easily answer through a quick Google/Ask/Bing search, or by opening a dictionary or Thesaurus.

The problem is, they want us to know they are working on a book. They want to seem like professionals. They want to be accepted by their peers. They want the reader to say, “Wow! He/she is a real writer.”

Now to be fair, we’ve all been there to a certain extent. Every beginning writer has those moments. But it seems to me that in the days before instant communication, we did things differently. In the days before the Internet people looked up answers. They did the real research. And they used the few (or many) writing friends/acquaintances they had for the important questions.
In short, they “grew up” a little faster.

And while we all want to be accepted, shouldn’t we want to be accepted for the right reasons? For our work and our work ethic? For the quality of our writing, and not the fact that we have a WIP?
Remember, editors and agents read these same loops, and we are all making an impression on them. One way or the other.

It’s About the Work

That leads me to the next thing. The only way to be published is to do the work. As Kathryn Ptacek (award winning editor/author and all-around nice lady) told me when I first started writing, “A writer writes.” Craig Shaw Gardner (he wrote Batman, Batman Returns, Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies, and other neat books) gave me some advice that had a familiar ring: “Tom, a writer writes.” And the late Charles L. Grant said something very similar to me on more than one occasion. “Make it quick, I’m on deadline." (Translation: A writer writes).
 Many people talk about writing. Or they talk constantly about their current project. Or the projects they have started.
But a writer writes.

That’s the key to success.

Bad writing can be fixed. And like playing an instrument or a sport, constant practice develops the appropriate muscles for the activity in which you want to excel. Including writing. As we write we develop a feel for the language. We discover an innate sense for how the words should fit together. We learn to listen for the internal cadence of a sentence.

In short, practice makes us better.

And through writing we develop the habits that will make us successful.

Good Habits are Not an Option

Should you write every day? I think so. Even if it is only fifteen minutes a day. There are some successful writers who agree with me and some who disagree. Some only write when they have a project. Some write before, during, and after projects.

But even those who take time off between projects or only write when they have a contract in hand still have good writing habits, and the discipline to sit down and do the work. When they are supposed to be writing, they write. They have put in the hours of writing time that have helped them develop into the writers they are.

So, even if you don’t write every day, write on a specific schedule. If you can only write from 3:00 p.m. - 3:18 p.m. every third Thursday of the month, then every third Thursday at promptly 3:00 p.m. you need to be about the business of writing. And yes, the example is a bit extreme, but it is nonetheless valid. Write every day. Write every other day. Write one day a week. That’s up to you. But whatever schedule works for you, find it and stick to it. Write in a coffee shop, the basement, under a tree, in Elvis’ private bathroom at Graceland. The where isn’t as important as the actual doing.

And read. Read a lot. As Stephen King says, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

The Final Word

At first glance, there are a lot of words but only a few ideas here. But the few ideas are important. If you want to be a writer, write. Ultimately it is all about doing the work. It’s about sitting down at the keyboard with a plan, with the desire to write, and with no illusions about what it takes to be a writer. Because writing is not about waiting for some flash of insight or waiting to hear the whisper of your muse. That’s reserved for amateurs, hobbyists, and folks who write literary fiction.

Writing, if you want to be a professional writer, is about doing the work in a professional manner. Doing the market research, the marketing, and the work. It’s ultimately not about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media outlet. It’s not about chat rooms, blogs, and impressing online communities. Those are only a part of the equation (when utilized properly).

No, writing is about writing. Period.

Let's say that together class: Writing is about writing. Period.

So, don’t talk about doing it. Just do it. On a regular basis. Keep at it until you are successful.
Rinse.
Read.
Repeat.

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7 Highly Effective Ways to Be Your Own Worst Enemy

Thomas Smith is an award winning writer, newspaper reporter, TV news producer, playwright and essayist. His supernatural suspense novel, Something Stirs, is available at a bookstore near you. In addition to writing he enjoys teaching classes for beginning writers at conferences and local writers’ groups. He has been a joke writer for Joan Rivers and his comedy material has been performed on The Tonight Show. Currently in his fifth decade of service, he is considerably younger than most people his age. Find Thomas on Twitter and Facebook.

Writing is part craft and part business. To become a professional writer, whether you’re writing ad copy or the next great American novel, the process is the same. Study the market, produce the work, edit the work, send it off. Repeat the process. And while it sounds simple on the surface, we often find multiple ways to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the system.

How?

Here are 7 excellent ways to derail a writing career.

1. Be overly concerned about being creative. One of the biggest problems with being “creative” is the danger that you use it as a license to do things your way instead of the way they should be done. We are all creative. We create things all the time; grocery lists, notes to friends, e-mails, reports for work. Many times, however, creativity is simply Latin for EGO. “Creative” people often think that rules for other writers do not apply to creative writers. The standards for writing (format, word count, etc.) are there for a reason. The person who invented the flush toilet was being creative, but he didn’t try to make it a piece of living room furniture.

2. Spend as much time as possible waiting for inspiration. Sometimes you will write in a flash of white-hot inspiration, but that is often the exception and not the rule. Deadlines do not care how inspired you are. The professional writer sometimes drags himself/herself kicking and screaming to the blank screen and typing every word is an act of sheer willpower. The fact is, on most days writing is simply what you do because you are a writer. As Stephen King says in his book, On Writing, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

There is no muse that whispers sweet nothings in your ear. There is only the desire to do the thing you claim to love doing. The truth is, inspiration tends to visit those who are busy writing.

3. Develop the I am so much more talented than those other writers attitude. Some writers feel they have arrived, and cannot for the life of themselves figure out why other folks are selling and they aren’t. To compensate, they sometimes see their work as better than it is (sometimes on purpose). Often a writer who insists on doing things their way instead of abiding by the rules, paying their dues, etc. climb up on their pedestals and proclaim to anyone who will listen, “They are all hacks but me.” But be careful. Publishing is a small universe. And like Santa, editors keep track of who is naughty and who is nice.

4. Learn the I just don't have any ideas mantra. Let’s be brutally honest here: Ideas are easy to come up with unless your head fell off.  You have ideas every day. It's just that a lot of story/article/book/play ideas seem average or even awful at first because they require a little work to make them "sing" and we want them to come into the world fully formed. However, it is in the process of writing and rewriting that the little gem shines through. Not having any ideas usually means the ideas you have just haven’t set off all the bells and whistles in your head yet.

Often when we say "I don't have any ideas" it means we haven't allowed our minds to wander or we have tried to force an idea to happen in the midst of committee meetings, taking the kids to soccer practice, and organizing the PTA meeting. We forget to play the what if game. For example: What if I found a human head in the dryer at the laundromat? What if I found an elf sitting on the rim of the sugar bowl? What if I picked up an instrument in a music shop and was suddenly able to play like a prodigy?

5. Remind yourself and others you don’t have enough time to write. This one should actually be at the top of the list, but no matter where it falls, it is probably not true. You may not have enough desire to write (and that’s OK), but when you look at your daily routine, how much of your time is spent doing other things? Things like watching TV, going home for lunch, texting, lurking on Facebook, Tweeting what you had for breakfast, vacuuming because it’s Thursday and not because the carpet needs it? Try getting up 15-30 minutes earlier or going to bed 15-30 minutes later. Don’t use “I don’t have long stretches of time to work” as an excuse. Writing 15 minutes a day is writing. You can knock out an essay in a week at that rate. Mystery and Appalachian story writer, Sharyn McCrumb is a case in point:

“Until 1988, I had little children in diapers, I had fifteen hours of graduate work every quarter and term papers on Chaucer, and I had a full-time job. Besides that, I was writing a book a year.”

Granted, there are those who really don’t enough time in the day to write. Some people care for elderly parents, special needs children, or work three jobs to make ends meet. THEY have an excuse. But most of us don’t fall in that category.

6. Don’t learn to accept constructive criticism. Sometimes what we write is pretty good. Other times it’s not. And it is easy to be so invested in what you want to say that you miss what you’ve actually said. Chances are your mama, daddy, brother, sister, husband, wife, children, pastor, and best friend will all tell you what a good job you have done on your story, Stumpy the Tree Lizard and the Lost Treasure of Swampy Bottom (whether they actually read it all or not). And once you’ve had your ego stroked, it’s time for a real critique. Join a critique group (one that will tell you the truth), find a writing partner, or hire an English teacher at the local high school, college, or community college to read Stumpy’s adventure. Then take an honest look at their comments and do what needs to be done. (Remember…even Dean Koontz, Frank Peretti, Jonathan Maberry, and James Patterson have editors).

7. Develop the Nobody will publish my writing attitude. If you know that for a fact, then don’t do it. BUT (and that’s a Kardashian-sized but), you have to consider there are tens of thousands of magazines and thousands of publishers out there, and the writer who comes across as a professional and has the perseverance to keep trying has an automatic advantage over the competition. Just because you haven’t sold (or sold enough) YET, doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Most writers have had the thought that no one will publish their work. The successful ones ignored the thought and got back to work.

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Ever Built A Platform?

As a writer, you need to build a platform to support your career over the long run. That’s why it’s important to build it right.

Don’t jump!
Many eager writers hear about the need to build a platform and, being intrepid folk, leap right into social media with little thought.
But that’s the wrong approach, according to T. Suzanne Eller (right), a Christian Writers Guild mentor, who wrote about conquering social media recently in the Guild’s member newsletter, WordSmith.

Build it and they will come. Right?

Maybe that worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it doesn’t work for social media. Before you start a Facebook fan or group page, start tweeting, or blogging, you need a blueprint. To create an effective social media platform that will draw your niche audience to your message, you need to answer:

• What is your message?
  
  
  
• How do you communicate it throughout your social media platform?
  
  
  
• Who is Googling questions for which you have answers?
  
  
  
• How do you reach that person with content and value?
  
  
  
• How do you help that person find you?
  
  
  
• What will draw readers and create synergy and word of mouth?
  
  
  
• How much time are you willing to devote?
  
  
  
• How can you avoid mistakes that will alienate potential readers?

Suzie’s right. You need a plan when building your platform.

Build it right and they will come
Because of her experience, Suzie wrote the Guild's new course, Building Your Social Media Platform, to teach writers how to effectively use social media. She is also one of the professionals who will provide one-on-one mentoring for the course.

If you need help in this area, the Guild invites you to consider our course . Alternately, another platform guru, Randy Ingermanson, will teach a four-hour course on the same subject at the Guild’s Writing for the Soul conference this February in Denver CO.

Of course, there are other places to receive platform-building help. Find a way to make it work for you and your writing.

In what ways have you built your platform? I love Facebook and plan to start a blog next year. What tools do you use? Which do you avoid?

Michael Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief for the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild. He has written for newspapers and other print and online outlets. He edited several nonfiction books, was the senior editor for a faith-based financial services and insurance organization, and is the editor of Afictionado, the ezine for American Christian Fiction Writers.

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So, you want to be a professional

I’ve been told there are only seven basic plots. What amazes me, are the variations on those plots that writers come up with—the twists and leaps they make within those seven structures.

As part of my job, I am the first reader in the Christian Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel contest. The winner has his or her manuscript published by Tyndale House and receives $20,000. This year we received 140 entries. One conclusion is unmistakable—those who entered (all are Guild students or members) are creative people.

But what was also clear is that some of those professing to pursue professional writing are doing no such thing. Instead, they’re shooting themselves in the foot with unprofessional presentation.

What I found in our novel entries were typos on the first page—often within the first three paragraphs. Or, if not a typo, some kind of inappropriate formatting:

• A nonstandard typeface (use only Times New Roman or Courier, 12 pt)


• 1.5-line spacing rather than 2-line spacing


• Full justification instead of ragged right


• Margins set at something other than 1.25” all around.

All easily correctable.

The competition is stiff out there

Editors and agents have mounds of submissions on their desks to plow through. Why give them reasons to set yours aside—reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of your story or the strength of your writing?

Our goal at the Guild is to train writers to develop their skills to the professional level editors expect. If you’re serious, you’ll take steps to ensure an editor won’t put your manuscript down.

1. Join (or form) a critique group.


2. Purchase, read, and use any of a number of excellent books on standard manuscript formatting.


3. Proofread your work. Better yet, form a partnership with a writer friend and proof each other’s work. Then proof again—and again.


4. Take classes. You can do this through writer’s conferences, online courses, or through a local university.


5. Join a professional writer’s organization.

If you do these things, your take on one of the seven basic plots could end up published—rather than tossed in File 13.

For more on this topic, Les Stobbe, a longtime industry stalwart, recently shared from his perspective as one receiving those unprofessional book proposals. (Read his thoughts here.)

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