Saturday's Saunter into How to Write & Blogging

Writing~Baby Step to Flight

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."
– Friedrich Nietzsche

I have met very few people who haven't said that they have a story to tell. Close to 90% of the American public has an idea for or started the "Great American Novel." Less than 10% will finish writing it and of that, maybe 3% will ever see their novel in print unless they self-publish. Sounds discouraging, doesn't it? But with every published work, there were steps that had to be followed. This is the same for e-publishing. It's doesn't matter whether you are J.K. Rowlings or the Writer-nobody-knows.

Many publishing hopefuls keep their first novels in a box under their beds, and that's where it should stay. I can hear you now, "Aw, come on! It can't be that bad!" Oh yes, it can be. Ive taken a lot of heat from wanna-be authors over this statement. Even authors with their first work published go back and compare what they have written in the past and what they have currently published, and cringed! An acquaintance of mine, Bob Mayer, just bought back his rights to his previous works. Before republishing them for e-consumption, he's corrected his previous works!

Ask any published author how bad their first attempts were and they will tell you. Writing starts with baby steps into writing. No one is a born writer. They had to learn how. No matter how famous they are, they didn't wake up one morning and become a published author. They had to learn how to write composition even if it was in grade school, read, edit text, reedit text, seek representation, and deal with publishing and promotion. Name an author who hasn't done extensive research on any given project and I'll show you an author who isn't published. And yes, you can be an author without being "published." Anytime you write, you are an author. You are the authority. The same root word applies to both.These are the baby steps involved with becoming a published author.

Have you ever seen a baby go from the do-nothing-stage to running around terrorizing your house in an instant? I haven't. I'm the mother of four and I've watched the progression with pride of achievement. The first little wobble of the first steps to swaying back and forth to music in their simplified dancing...babies are cute, aren't they? You approach writing the same way. You have to learn to stand and walk before you can dance. Take a creative writing course at your local college, read incessantly, increase your vocabulary, take a refresher in proper grammar, all of it is important in life and writing. Learning is never a waste of time. For an author, writing is a dance that you never tire of.



Now, I'll discuss blogging as a published work. As a blog writer you are being published worldwide. Don't be confused by this, once you open your pages to someone else...you are a published author. No one can write your story as well as you can. This heyday of blogging, myspace, FaceBook, and twitter proves it. I've read numerous blogs over the past few weeks. In writing a blog do you think of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, or do you just write because you can? You have an important point to make, right?

Think about what you are blogging about. how distracing to you is mispelings, gramtec erros adn such whn u r tryin 2 read? If you read the previous line and went, huh? Don't laugh, I've read it online. You get my point. The point is take pride in what you write and correct (edit) it and use the spell checker offer above your compose screen (it's that little icon with the check mark and "ABC" or check mark), preview and proof it before you publish it. I have a writer friend who can't put two sentences together without a dictionary and thesaurus, but that's okay. He's attempting to learn and taking baby steps to achieve it.

You, as a blogger, ask in forums, FaceBook, Twitter, SheWrites, and assorted other sites to find a readership. You obviously have something to share. Take pride in what you have to say and put your best foot forward. A number of literary agents and publishers frequent blogs. The search for the authors of the future may be somewhere in blogs. I got my start with a letter to an editor, too many years ago, and a commentary on a little known subject. It could happen to you also. In writing baby steps are important, learning to write well, and flying into publication are all achievable by following the steps. 

Keep writing and loving the Lord.