The Writing Experience
George Angus
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 George Angus
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Why this E-Book, why now?
One of the things I've learned over the past few months is that there are a lot of folks who dream of writing. They have a calling. Not necessarily a booming voice telling them to gather books two by two, but more of a tickle, a pulling, a gentle gnawing. They may be driving a truck, working in a diner or staying at home with the kids. Still, they feel a void. Something is missing. They have a great story within and they need to express that story.
Something I've discovered is that this desire is wrapped with anxiety. For some, this anxiety is no more than a subtle sense of disappointment and for others the emotions are much stronger. Powerful emotions such as fear can paralyze someone and keep them from their destiny, their calling. Sometimes the anxiety takes the form of feeling overwhelmed. Often, it is self doubt.
This book will put all of those emotions into proper perspective. Prepare to be inspired. Together, we will gently break down the walls brick by brick.
From: The Thomas Wolfe Reader
“I cannot tell any one how to write books. I cannot attempt to give any one rules whereby he will be enabled to get his books published by publishers or get his stories accepted by high paying magazines. I am not a professional writer; I am not even a skilled writer; I am just a writer who is on the way to learning his profession and to discovering the line, the structure and the articulation of the language which I must discover if I do the work I want to do.”
Meet
the Author
Thanks for trusting me enough to obtain this e-book. It's my most sincere hope that you will find it helpful and inspiring.
My name is George Angus and I am a writer.
I make my living from the words that I write and from teaching others. I find both to be extremely satisfying.
I had no idea that I would ever be a writer. In fact, I argued with my high school teachers constantly about how unnecessary it was to study English. If I could read it and speak it, that was good enough. The only class I ever failed was Basic Paragraphs in my Sophomore year.
My writing career took off some 15 years later when I wrote an article for our company newsletter.
Since then I've written everything from magazine articles to web content.
How to use this e-book
The very first thing I'll tell you – and this is important – there is no wrong way for you to use this material. Different is not necessarily wrong. You may think that the writing exercises are just so much hooey. That's okay. No offense taken. Draw from these pages what you will. All I ask is that you reflect upon the lessons here and apply what you learn in situations that will benefit you most.
I have deliberately made every effort to make the material in this book new and fresh. It is not just a re-hash of the blog posts at Tumblemoose. With that said, it would be hard to ignore the value of those posts, so at the end of each chapter I provide links to posts that support the chapter topic.
There are chapters containing writing prompts and exercises. Take the time to do them. Start a journal and write the exercise by hand, or open a new folder in your word processor. These exercises can be great story fodder.
Finally, I want to know what you think when it's all said and done. I would like to know what worked and what didn't. Also, did you find value here for the price you paid?
Email George at : george@tumblemoose.com
Table of Contents
Why Write
Find Your Place
Set Your Routine
A Writer Reads
Conquer Your Fear
Edit and Revise
Market Your Work
Picture Prompts
Writing Exercises
A Writer’s Library
Web Resources
Why Write
For some, this is the easiest question in the world. They've known from a young age that they wanted to express themselves in the written form and they've maintained a driven and focused attitude. They took all of the right classes, they journaled, they kept every idea for a story tucked into a folder. Chances are they received some sort of encouragement early on and that encouragement spurred them along to get things done. There is a good chance that it is the only thing they have ever done or will ever do.
For the rest of us, things aren't that simple. Things aren't that easy. We think we want to write, we think we are probably good at it, but we lack something to move us in the right direction. In moments of quiet reflection, we think that if whatever visible barrier is broken down, we could really write. We consider the glorious dream of seeing a byline or in some way seeing our words in print for others to read. We truly believe that if we could find the formula to make the barrier go away, we could fulfill our purpose.
Some of us will wrestle with this for years and ultimately the barrier will hold firm and a life's promise, a life's gift will remain unopened. For others the barrier will be breeched – either one brick at a time or in an explosive convulsion of clarity and motivation.
The barriers that we put in place – make no mistake, you own them – take many different shapes and forms. Some of us even have multiple layers to our barriers. In order to free ourselves we need to examine them a bit closer.
Here are some of the barriers or reasons why a writer doesn't write:
A lack of confidence - You may not feel that your work is worthy of anyone seeing it, let alone it being published.
A lack of time – The bills have got to be paid, so there's this 9 – 5 gig that keeps getting in the way.
Poor grammar skills – A feeling that a few dangling participles will sink the writing ship.
A sense that the time has passed – Heck, I'm too old to start writing, it will take years to get published, so what's the point.
The market is too competitive – There are already so many authors out there, how could there possibly be room for another?
It's a bad time to try and get published – The publishing world is in a shambles and all of your efforts will lead nowhere.
No doubt there are other barriers as well. As we progress through this book, we will examine these barriers and explore the tools that you can use to chip away at these very real concerns.
Mini-Exercise: Take the time right now to pull out a notepad and write down what it is that's stopping you from writing. Don't worry about how negative it sounds, just do it. No one is looking over your shoulder here – Honesty Counts!
What does your list look like? Is it a true reflection? Now that you have it completed, tuck it away in a safe place for a week or two. Come back to it then and re-examine what you have written and see if it still applies.
Some of you are saying, “Hey, George. You've gotten it all wrong! I'm writing like a fiend. I've got a drawer full of manuscripts. I'm nearly done with six novels and my husband thinks they're all great!”
To that I say, “Bully! Kudos! So, are you happy with that or would you like to see them published?”
If you write on a personal level as a creative outlet and that makes you happy then all is good and sally forth. As long as you want to write, you are doing the writing, and it makes you feel good.
Regardless of whichever scenario fits for you, let's saddle up and move on to the next chapter.
Tumblemoose posts related to this chapter:
http://tumblemoose.com/harriet-tubman-keeps-my-writing-going/
http://tumblemoose.com/whats-stopping-you-from-writing/
http://tumblemoose.com/the-rigid-writer/