The ABCs of Book Writing: A is for ASPIRATION . . .

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 . . . and ALL that goes with it!

No book truly begins with page one or even with the first word you write down or type into a computer. Many authors, long before they actually became authors, began their careers with aspiration, an unrelenting desire to live and breathe the literary life. Such aspiration can emerge at any age, from childhood to the golden years. It can be a heady personal experience, as it is often accompanied by grand dreams of fame and fortune, seemingly boundless creative energy, enough ideas to make your head spin, and a vision of authorship—your own—that could change your life and even the world.

The writer Jacques Barzun (On Writing, Editing, and Publishing) well understood the psychology of the aspiring writer. The dream of authorship is a worthy one, he had no doubt, but he also posed the cautionary question that new writers must ask themselves: "Do I want to write—or to have written?" He concluded that "practicing to write well and finally writing well will repay." In other words, aspiring to authorship must in reality be aspiring to write. It is fine, probably essential, that your vision of authorship includes grand dreams, but your sights must also be trained on the more earthbound task of developing your craft as a writer.

Nurture your dreams, cultivate your creativity, plant your ideas, and grow your vision of what being a book author means to you. At the same time, prepare to write well:

• Read some good books. Choose your favorites from the present day, but also dip into works of the past to expand your knowledge of all the many possibilities of book writing.


• Take a writing course or attend a workshop. Writing courses and workshops are a mixed bag, but even the least of them will get you writing and thinking about the many facets of the act and profession of writing.


• Above all, learn about writing and how the pros do it. There are many excellent books on the craft of writing. Among my favorites are William Zinsser's classic guide to writing nonfiction, On Writing Well; for aspiring fiction authors, I recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King.

You owe it to yourself and your aspiration to read, to study, and to learn. Strive to write and to write well—or at least as best you can. Keep at it and, as Barzun put it, "Editors and publishers will seek you out, the public will be carried away with love and gratitude."

Hmm . . . these days, maybe not. On the other hand, someone who counts might like your query letter and eventually someone else might write a nice review on Amazon. Either way, you'll be realizing your passion.

Coming next week . . . "B is for BLOCK, writer's"

The ABCs of Book Writing: Series introduction

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Most things, including book writing, begin with the basics.

This blog series is about those basics that apply specifically to creating a book. It is about how—at the most fundamental level, from A to Z—effective books are started, get written, and develop a better than-average-chance of successful publication.

In this series, I am not offering a comprehensive guide to discovering your voice or polishing your style or plotting a novel or composing your memoirs or writing commercial nonfiction or getting published. Rather, this series will be a mix of insights, reflections, a few personal anecdotes, and some practical advice about creating a functional, commercially viable book—pretty much any sort of book. Throughout this series, I will be trying to shed light on both the pleasures and pitfalls, the successes and shortcomings, that typically go with writing a book. While there are all kinds of books (and diverse authors producing them), my aim is to focus on what is most likely to be the common experiences and demands that many authors face, regardless of their genres or intended readers. My wish is to smooth your progress along what I have observed to be the bumpiest stretches of road on the way to successful book writing and publishing.

Starting next week, articles will appear weekly here, in the Helping You Get Published blog,  and I will share them via links on my main Helping You Get Published website and in the following social media:


—Facebook
—LinkedIn
—Pinterest
—Twitter

As much as the content allows, articles will include supporting infographics and/or other visuals.

The first ebook—title secret

until release—will be FREE,

with or without purchasing

any other book in the series.

In writing this series, I am thinking mainly of the first-time book authors who may be approaching the start, and each subsequent stage, of the book writing journey with an uneasy mix of hopefulness and uncertainty. I also suspect that many authors who are not beginners, but who have gone a long while between books, and/or may be changing genre, might find these ABCs to be a useful refresher course. In fact, I am, myself, at work on a series of ebooks on writing and publishing—which will elaborate on what I do not cover in this blog series. I hope to release at least the first three of these ebooks by the end of 2017 or early in 2018. Not only is this my first attempt at writing several books at once, but I am doing so after a hiatus from book writing and while I continue to do my long-standing day job of manuscript assessing, book editing, and literary consulting.

From this point onward, we'll navigate the writing process and the book trade together. From A to Z—from the awareness of wanting to write a book, to zeroing in on publication opportunities—this blog series is for you. And no less for me.

Coming next week . . . "A is for ASPIRATION"

#WhyWritersMatter

On behalf of writers and their role in culture and society  . . .

I have spent my life living in a world where doctors and lawyers and chartered accountants and business owners and electricians and plumbers and so on . . . matter—really matter—whereas writers are these dreamy, impractical types who lack street smarts and, as some suspect, a proper work ethic. Of course it's true that when you're sick or have a burst pipe, no one matters as much as a doctor or plumber. And now, when it comes to enriching our lives, thanks to a wonderful initiative by the Writers' Union of Canada, writers publicly matter too—really matter.

#WhyWritersMatter is a worldwide campaign spearheaded by the Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC), with the support of the Authors Guild (US) and other professional writing and related organizations. The initiative, launched in conjunction with the inaugural Canadian Writers Summit taking place June 15–19, 2016, in Toronto, is asking readers and writers around the world to think about why writers matter in today’s world, and post responses on social media under the hashtag #WhyWritersMatter. You do not have to be a Writers' Union member or author to join the #WhyWritersMatter conversation on Facebook and/or Twitter and/or all your other social media. You just have to value writers!

As a book author myself, member of TWUC, longtime advocate for writers (at HelpingYouGetPublished.com)—and, not least of all, an avid reader—I am pleased to contribute my words and images to this celebration of writers.

Writers connect us . . . Please watch the video below:

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From my other blog, "Writing Words" . . . Mishandling point of view in your novel can lead to other problems of narrative style—for example, telling rather than showing.

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