right here, write now
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel
Write on the River is pleased to present this chronicle of one man’s writing journey. It’s a close-up view of the writing life as an aspiring writer works toward his dream of publication. Along the way, we’ll learn of his hopes, doubts, strategies and inspirations. We thank Steven Daniel, a local physician, father and aspiring novelist for sharing his experiences with us. We hope you’ll comment on his blog and cheer him along!
The Learning Curve I
Another great guest post on Larry Brooks’ Storyfix.com by Art Holcomb (Dogs of War, Eternal Warriors, Killer Instinct) got me thinking about the arc of my writing career. He used the oft-cited rule that, whether it is knocking a little white ball into a small hole or flying a gargantuan sky bus full of several hundred people, becoming an expert at a given task takes approximately 10,000 hours of study and practice. This is not good news to someone coming to this craft relatively late in life.
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on February 8, 2012.Fellow Travelers
I heard a radio news article the other day about Robert Falcon Scott (now there’s a great character name) who missed being the first one to the south pole by eight days; After an almost 800 mile return trip, he and his fellow expeditioners died, together, eleven miles from their supply cabin. I only have a few chapters to write and I don’t want to die alone, out on the ice…
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on January 27, 2012.Finding Nemo…uh I mean Readers
Okay, so can you really pitch your book to everyone you meet: the tolerant octogenarian next to you on the bus? The college educated science geek you sat next to at the symphony? The kid with acne and bloodshot eyes behind the fast food counter?
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on January 16, 2012.Gratitude
As the year winds down to a close, it is easy to concentrate on the things we accomplished or often more troubling, the things we did not. But I like to take a moment and think about the people that have contributed in some way to the richness of my writing life this year.
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on December 30, 2011.Writing from Within: The holiday phenomenon
I had intended to write about the ideal reader this week but that blog sits on high ground, waiting for the flood of seasonal emotion to ebb. So this, instead is my holiday greeting, my reflections on the relationship between writing and the things that matter most…
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on December 23, 2011.Double Vision: Understanding the Plethora of Publishers
Well I can’t say that I got a lot of writing done this week. But I did wade through the field of publishers to find prospects for my genre. Though educating oneself about the business of writing is important, by the time I got done staring at screen after screen of interrelated company names, I was suffering from double vision.
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on December 16, 2011.Progress Report
Sometimes life is written in short chapters and sometimes life does the writing. Until my next post, here’s a snapshot of my writing life this week: Keep Reading »
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on December 10, 2011.It Takes Two
Writing and publishing are two very different things best done by two very different personality types. To paraphrase Walt Kelly’s comic strip character Pogo: “We have met the publisher and he is us.” One of my recent characters for 3 three minute fiction is a victim of dissociative personality disorder. While that condition represents a tragic extreme, most of us have different sides to our personality. Is there something there that we can all use on our quest to publish?
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on December 2, 2011.The Hours
No this is not about the stunning 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel b y Michael Cunningham. This is about the hours that got away from me this week. Dreams are long…life is short. This is one week where the two collided… and you can guess which one came out on top.
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on November 25, 2011.Air-Writing
We’ve all heard and seen some of our less inhibited friends playing the infamous air-guitar…the instrument of wannabe musicians. I would be willing to bet that most of us at one time or another, in the privacy of our own homes have gone through the clenched-teeth, eye-squeezed-shut, body-rocking machinations of one of Eric Clapton or Keith Urban’s hits. I think I have a new concept in writing, or at least a new name for an old concept that mirrors that activity. I like to call it air writing….
Writing My Own Story: The life of a writer on the journey to publish his first novel. Posted on November 18, 2011.
