How could I make a career of writing?

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Do you know how to research?

If not, your writing is will more than likely not go far.

You write a story about something, and see if someone wants to buy it.

How to attract readers?

By research, do you mean for citing a piece of non-fiction?

How do you pitch a book? Where do you pitch a book? Or were you being sarcastic?

If you take this one away from me then I don't think I have anything else to give.

I would go with Kindle Direct, or you could publish on your own blog.

This world needs truths, not more opinions. Can you provide?

There's a huge difference (and probably several years) between can write and have written.

As a writer, the first thing you must do is write. Not just a post here and a blog there. You have to write VOLUMES.

As for getting readers, that's what publishers do. You send in your work (copyrighted, of course), and they have scouts that read everything and feed it up the chain if it's worthy. So you'll know, 99% is not worthy. If you're one of the 99%, rinse and repeat.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Do blogs have revenue potential given enough time? It seems like everybody and their little sister has a blog these days. I guess I worry about oversaturation, and there is something appealing about the completion of an actual tome.

Edit: thoughts?

Last Edited by masterpalerider on 05/21/2017 12:41 PM

Lots of avid readers in the world, and good news, books are making a comeback.
Thread: Sales of Paper Books are Increasing, and Sales of E-books are Decreasing

So in your opinion would you say that standard publishing methods are still viable? I don't say this to be contrarian, but isn't a lot of what they pick going to be acceptable mash for the 99%? Or will good writing rise to the top, regardless?

I agree with your other advice, thank you for replying.

Stephen King writes 6 pages every single day. No more. No less.

Following that practice will give you vast material resources over time. It doesn't have to be one consecutive work. Say you're short on inspiration one day. You can write 6 pages describing a setting, or a character, or an encounter, or a conversation.

Most writers don't start out with a complete novel in their head that they then just transfer to paper. All you need to start is a basic outline, or even just a beginning. The bulk of the story writes itself as you go.

I'm your man.

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing.

There is no honor in pushing a pencil for a living.

Hard, physical labor is the only thing that builds true character.

Put the pencil down and grab a shovel.

With a single publisher, it's a flip of the coin. Maybe it's the best work ever written, but you caught the scout on a bad day. or your work ends up at the bottom of an endless stack.

Send the same work to 20 different publishers, or even 50, and you'll get a more realistic assessment of your work.

Study what's out there. There's good and bad and everything in between. It's the volume of work you have to draw from that makes the difference either way.

No problem, best to you and your writing endeavours.

I didn't know that about him, interesting.

Just to make sure I understand, are you saying that with a rough idea of the story in mind, I could parse my scheduled writing out for characters or settings related to that story, or were you advising the practice of just writing anything whether it pertains to the long-term goal or not, for the sake of practice?

Thank you very much.

You can begin right here with posting ...

Yes.

Do you think I have not been truthful?
Or is there something you would like to know?

Thank you for taking the time to reply in such detail, Fest. Very much appreciated.

Write what you know about.

become a cop and write speeding tickets

I would like to know if you are interested in a career or the writing, b/c I do not see anybody getting rich while being truthful or genuine.

Like someone else mentioned on the last thread "OMG you are talking to yourself.
This is ONE OF THOSE weird threads.
It will probably get to 1000 pages."

So what does that tell you? It tells me you have caught the attention of a lot of people just with those few words you wrote on the past opening thread!
We can all doubt our abilities and put obstacles in the way but just the like the old saying goes "the proof of the pudding is in the eating"


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Someone once said to me that the way to make a small fortune in writing is to start with a large fortune. He was correct. LOL Some writers do quite well.

The biggest thing about your comments is that if you don't know what you want to write about, then you won't get anywhere.

A great story is comprised of at least two important components. First, you must have a great story to tell and a burning desire to tell it. Without that, you're dead in the water.

Secondly, there is the craft of writing. Both are important.

For the craft part, I'd recommend an out of print book called SentenceCrafting to enhance anyone's writing skills. Look on Amazon to see if you can obtain a copy.

It's a simple exercise book. It's so simple that most people might think there is little of value in the exercises. How wrong they would be to think that!

The simple exercises make your brain more supple when it comes to crafting sentences in a way that makes what you say highly readable.

We tend to have rigid grooves in the brain for sentence creation. It's important to expand on that and make multiple grooves.

Last Edited by Booger Cancer on 05/21/2017 01:05 PM

I can't argue with you there; the two do seem to be mutually exclusive.

If it matters, I'm not looking for riches, per se. My needs and wants are few and cheap. Am I naive to think that I could earn a livable, though meager, wage by utilizing my writing? (Honest question.)