Haute Cuisine or McDonald"s - Observations on Becoming a Good Writer
WARNING: This article is not about "How to make $100 K Writing Articles in 10 Minutes or less!" Now I know there are many entrepreneurs out there who claim that for only $29.
95 they will teach you how to become rich in ten days by writing easy articles.
I know, because I have tried a few of these systems out for myself.
In all honesty I didn't even make back my $29.
95.
The main question here is this: do you want to be a cut and paste kind of writer? Or are you serious about becoming a good writer? "Becoming" is underlined because if you are serious about being a good writer you must accept that you are always in the process of becoming.
This is what this article is about, the two key ingredients necessary for becoming a good writer.
Here is another way of putting some perspective on the difference between being satisfied with being a writer and being a good writer.
The difference; if you always dreamed of being a cook.
All you need to decide is what kind of cook would you want to be? One who flips hamburgers on a grill at McDonald's or being the chef in a high-society restaurant? While both are cooks, that is where any similarities end.
Somewhere along the way, most of us who seek out a career as a good writer imagine ourselves someday being a Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, or even a regional best-selling author.
We have the ideas, the characters, a plot, but, as Peggy Lee sang, "Is that All There Is?" No, it is only a start.
Every want to be writer has access to books, training courses, and college level classes, all designed to teach them how to be a successful author.
Whichever book or class you take will contain everything you could ever want to know about fulfilling your dream.
Everything, right? WRONG! Sure, they all will pretty much cover the same kind of basic steps that you need to follow to be successful, but everything? Read on.
What gets left out is two attributes critical to your becoming a good writer.
These attributes are difficult to achieve; they take a lot of time, and have little reward other than personal satisfaction.
As I think about it, I certainly can understand why they are underplayed.
Becoming a good writer primarily consists of two parts.
First, there is the creative side; that part of you capable of dreaming, who sees the irony in life's situations, or can provide a different twist to a story.
I am in awe of the writer of the cartoon series "Frank and Ernest" where characters of all kinds make amazing plays on words.
At the other end of the spectrum is "Family Circle" where the everyday is made special in how the parents and children communicate.
As both cartoonists can attest to, material is all around us, waiting to be shared.
Hold on though, no matter how well you can decipher the mundane and turn it into the extra ordinary there is still one more aspect necessary to becoming a good writer.
The second part of becoming a good writer is dependent on your answer to this question: "how well do you know the technical side of writing?" This one is where most people get hung up.
When I say the technical side of writing I am referring to much more than basic language skills like spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, verb tenses, and so on.
All of these should have been learned in high school.
No, technical skills goes far beyond these basics.
Do not underestimate the importance of this skill.
It is here where creativity and the technical join together that the writer is ready to go beyond "flipping burgers" and move on to preparing culinary masterpieces.
Bear with me while I share a story that I think will illustrate what I mean.
I have been a "professional" writer, i.
e.
, writing being my source of income, for about ten years.
I am finally on the path to becoming a good writer.
Before that I did a lot of writing as a part of other job duties.
All toll I have invested nearly 40 years in becoming a good writer.
Recently, I took on the role of editing a 20 chapter novel for a client.
As we communicate back and forth it is not unusual for him to bring up a certain anxiety he has about someone else playing with his words.
I have edited about half of his novel and from the creative side; it is everything you would look for in a good book.
Even in its unedited form it is one of those books that you just do not want to put down.
From the technical side, it sucks.
It contains spelling, grammatical, and time line errors.
At times, he writes things about a character without any important background information or context.
In its current state, it is not publishable.
However, at least the writer is aware enough of this to seek out an editor.
Yet, he still has moments of doubt; will an editor change the story so it no longer has the meaning the author intended.
Will his characters lose their edge, or will the entire novel come back to him as a completely different story? These reactions are not only understandable, they are to be expected.
He has put in a great deal of time on this book.
He has strong emotional ties to the story and the characters.
It is his baby.
I recently wrote the author regarding his angst.
An angst that goes far in explaining what I mean by gaining the technical skills.
Here in part is my response: "I completely understand your "anxiety" and do try to remain true to what I sense is both your style and the characters involved.
In writing this note to you I do so hoping that you will be able to relax a bit.
As I have said before and I think this comes through in my completed editing tasks, I think your story is wonderful.
I too have grown fond of the characters as well as the plot.
With that said I want to assure you that it is never my intention to change your vision of what this story is all about.
My role is to edit, correct, supplement, and rewrite what it is you want to say, what should be said, as well as what should remain silent.
My experience as both a writer and an editor is that there are so many creative AND technical skills involved that until the writer has gained sufficient experience (experience = time) they often can miss important nuances and details that make the characters and the story more plausible and readable.
As I edit I always make the best possible effort to remain focused on what I sense you are meaning to say, what it is that you want to say, and those characters acting and saying it.
Just one small example is in chapter 9 when Sands [his main character] pulls the Bible from inside his shirt.
I felt that as the writer you knew what your characters response in the situation would be.
In fact you knew it so well you assumed that your reader would know it as well.
As I have been working with this character I have come to understand him and his responses.
I have seen him as a loner, unsure or uneasy with friendships, but somehow drawn to Sands (the lead character).
He is also a follower of both his culture and its religion which, although never stated but by inference is that of a Muslim.
As this kind of person Ahmer would truly believe that Sands' Bible stopping the bullets was a miracle, thus his first response would be "Praise Allah, it is a miracle" and not simply "It is a miracle.
" Anyway, this is how I try to depict each of your characters.
My job is not to change your story but to aid you in making it more readable for those who also read it.
" This is the technical side written about in this article.
It is demonstrated by the authors ability to develop a third eye to assist in seeing what your reader needs to see.
It affects character development, story line, readability, and sales ability of a story.
It is this all-important skill that separates the just alright content from the really good content.
Achieving this kind of technical level requires practice, practice, practice.
The most common question I encounter is "How long will it take me?" My answer, "As long as it takes.
" A flippant answer, perhaps, but never the less the truth.
Some studies show that it takes at least 10,000 hours of focused study to become good at something.
If you are serious about becoming a good writer you will need large doses of perseverance served often.
It also helps to have a mentor, someone you trust and who will take the time to explain why certain changes are necessary.
Add creativity and technical skills to your bag of tricks and you can be well on your way to becoming the good writer you want to be; or even a good chef.
95 they will teach you how to become rich in ten days by writing easy articles.
I know, because I have tried a few of these systems out for myself.
In all honesty I didn't even make back my $29.
95.
The main question here is this: do you want to be a cut and paste kind of writer? Or are you serious about becoming a good writer? "Becoming" is underlined because if you are serious about being a good writer you must accept that you are always in the process of becoming.
This is what this article is about, the two key ingredients necessary for becoming a good writer.
Here is another way of putting some perspective on the difference between being satisfied with being a writer and being a good writer.
The difference; if you always dreamed of being a cook.
All you need to decide is what kind of cook would you want to be? One who flips hamburgers on a grill at McDonald's or being the chef in a high-society restaurant? While both are cooks, that is where any similarities end.
Somewhere along the way, most of us who seek out a career as a good writer imagine ourselves someday being a Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, or even a regional best-selling author.
We have the ideas, the characters, a plot, but, as Peggy Lee sang, "Is that All There Is?" No, it is only a start.
Every want to be writer has access to books, training courses, and college level classes, all designed to teach them how to be a successful author.
Whichever book or class you take will contain everything you could ever want to know about fulfilling your dream.
Everything, right? WRONG! Sure, they all will pretty much cover the same kind of basic steps that you need to follow to be successful, but everything? Read on.
What gets left out is two attributes critical to your becoming a good writer.
These attributes are difficult to achieve; they take a lot of time, and have little reward other than personal satisfaction.
As I think about it, I certainly can understand why they are underplayed.
Becoming a good writer primarily consists of two parts.
First, there is the creative side; that part of you capable of dreaming, who sees the irony in life's situations, or can provide a different twist to a story.
I am in awe of the writer of the cartoon series "Frank and Ernest" where characters of all kinds make amazing plays on words.
At the other end of the spectrum is "Family Circle" where the everyday is made special in how the parents and children communicate.
As both cartoonists can attest to, material is all around us, waiting to be shared.
Hold on though, no matter how well you can decipher the mundane and turn it into the extra ordinary there is still one more aspect necessary to becoming a good writer.
The second part of becoming a good writer is dependent on your answer to this question: "how well do you know the technical side of writing?" This one is where most people get hung up.
When I say the technical side of writing I am referring to much more than basic language skills like spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, verb tenses, and so on.
All of these should have been learned in high school.
No, technical skills goes far beyond these basics.
Do not underestimate the importance of this skill.
It is here where creativity and the technical join together that the writer is ready to go beyond "flipping burgers" and move on to preparing culinary masterpieces.
Bear with me while I share a story that I think will illustrate what I mean.
I have been a "professional" writer, i.
e.
, writing being my source of income, for about ten years.
I am finally on the path to becoming a good writer.
Before that I did a lot of writing as a part of other job duties.
All toll I have invested nearly 40 years in becoming a good writer.
Recently, I took on the role of editing a 20 chapter novel for a client.
As we communicate back and forth it is not unusual for him to bring up a certain anxiety he has about someone else playing with his words.
I have edited about half of his novel and from the creative side; it is everything you would look for in a good book.
Even in its unedited form it is one of those books that you just do not want to put down.
From the technical side, it sucks.
It contains spelling, grammatical, and time line errors.
At times, he writes things about a character without any important background information or context.
In its current state, it is not publishable.
However, at least the writer is aware enough of this to seek out an editor.
Yet, he still has moments of doubt; will an editor change the story so it no longer has the meaning the author intended.
Will his characters lose their edge, or will the entire novel come back to him as a completely different story? These reactions are not only understandable, they are to be expected.
He has put in a great deal of time on this book.
He has strong emotional ties to the story and the characters.
It is his baby.
I recently wrote the author regarding his angst.
An angst that goes far in explaining what I mean by gaining the technical skills.
Here in part is my response: "I completely understand your "anxiety" and do try to remain true to what I sense is both your style and the characters involved.
In writing this note to you I do so hoping that you will be able to relax a bit.
As I have said before and I think this comes through in my completed editing tasks, I think your story is wonderful.
I too have grown fond of the characters as well as the plot.
With that said I want to assure you that it is never my intention to change your vision of what this story is all about.
My role is to edit, correct, supplement, and rewrite what it is you want to say, what should be said, as well as what should remain silent.
My experience as both a writer and an editor is that there are so many creative AND technical skills involved that until the writer has gained sufficient experience (experience = time) they often can miss important nuances and details that make the characters and the story more plausible and readable.
As I edit I always make the best possible effort to remain focused on what I sense you are meaning to say, what it is that you want to say, and those characters acting and saying it.
Just one small example is in chapter 9 when Sands [his main character] pulls the Bible from inside his shirt.
I felt that as the writer you knew what your characters response in the situation would be.
In fact you knew it so well you assumed that your reader would know it as well.
As I have been working with this character I have come to understand him and his responses.
I have seen him as a loner, unsure or uneasy with friendships, but somehow drawn to Sands (the lead character).
He is also a follower of both his culture and its religion which, although never stated but by inference is that of a Muslim.
As this kind of person Ahmer would truly believe that Sands' Bible stopping the bullets was a miracle, thus his first response would be "Praise Allah, it is a miracle" and not simply "It is a miracle.
" Anyway, this is how I try to depict each of your characters.
My job is not to change your story but to aid you in making it more readable for those who also read it.
" This is the technical side written about in this article.
It is demonstrated by the authors ability to develop a third eye to assist in seeing what your reader needs to see.
It affects character development, story line, readability, and sales ability of a story.
It is this all-important skill that separates the just alright content from the really good content.
Achieving this kind of technical level requires practice, practice, practice.
The most common question I encounter is "How long will it take me?" My answer, "As long as it takes.
" A flippant answer, perhaps, but never the less the truth.
Some studies show that it takes at least 10,000 hours of focused study to become good at something.
If you are serious about becoming a good writer you will need large doses of perseverance served often.
It also helps to have a mentor, someone you trust and who will take the time to explain why certain changes are necessary.
Add creativity and technical skills to your bag of tricks and you can be well on your way to becoming the good writer you want to be; or even a good chef.
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