Happy Monday, readers! This morning we have a fabulous treat for all of you joining us for the Uncontrollable Blog Tour. S.R. Johannes is sharing some fabulous insight and advice for the writers among us. So, without further ado, here’s the good stuff:
Writing is hard. (duh right?!)
I never thought that until I started. All you need is love to GET started. But, if you want to stand out you need more, you need to study the craft and be a sponge for learning. Jump in. There are so many online workshops, conferences, and books. Join critique groups, get critiques, and soak up whatever feedback you can’t. Do it all. You can only get better. You can never learn too much.
That is one thing about me. When I jump in I immerse myself and like a sponge soak up what I can.
I have not always been writing fiction, but I have always written. I’ve been a copywriter for over 15 years writing marketing copy for various products. I didn’t start writing fiction until my daughter was born and I actually had time off to play around. Studying my craft, getting critiques, and joining SCBWI were the best things for me and helped moved me forward as a writer.
If I could go back, I think I would have gotten an MFA instead of a MBA. Since I can’t, I have to find other ways to learn and grow.
The biggest thing I have learned during my last 8 years of frustrations, queries, rejections, agent representation, acquisitions, revisions – is that – if you get rejected or don’t sell your book, it DOES NOT mean your book is not good enough. Publishers and agents look for what is “marketable” and what they think will “sell”. It doesn’t mean your work is not great or sellable. I never realized this until this last year and I wish I knew it sooner because it would have saved me a lot of tears.
I hung my talent on every rejection and every no. I took feedback to heart and kept telling myself I wasn’t good enough. I beat myself up every time a no came across my desk. It wasn’t until I let all that go and had faith that my book was where it needed to be – that I realized I was good enough and was actually better than I thought.
I fretted over pieces and parts of Untraceable for so long only to find out those pieces are what readers love about Untraceable. Who knew? So try to have confidence in your work to keep going or else it can paralyze you. Take criticisms as opportunities to get better not as roadblocks to your success.
Find out what you love and what you are good at and go for it. Get to be the best at it. Do one genre awesome. I am good at thrillers. I could probably write other stuff but it is not my strength so why force it? I love thrillers and they work well for me.
But most importantly, don’t give up! Keep plugging along and eventually you will find your way.
Now, it may not be the way you had planned or envisioned, but you will find your own way when you are supposed to.
Happy writing!
Uncontrollable is coming soon! If you haven’t read Untraceable, grab your FREE copy today & catch up on all the excitement. Now we want to hear from all of you: What issues keep you paralyzed, unable to finish or publish your work? What inspires you to push ahead and keep trying? Please leave us a comment.
