Wednesday, February 2, 2011

What I have learned...or at least what I remember...

When I began writing seriously I knew that it would be harder than just writing a story in my notebook. BTW I start every story with pen and paper. I don't move on to the computer until the outline is almost finished and the first chapter is done. What did surprise me, however,  is how important it is to network. Almost every author has a blog, facebook, or twitter!

Things are changing. When I had first researched query letters (the letter an author writes to get an agent ) everything was done by snail mail. Now it seems that more and more agents prefer e-queries. And lets face it, that is better for the earth and easier for me as a writer.

Besides all of the books I have read on writing, I have also found that there are so many people out there blogging about how to become a published author.

I used query shark to perfect my letter. http://queryshark.blogspot.com

I used agent query to look up the agents I was interested in. www.agentquery.com

 Not to mention countless blogs that have helped me learn how the publishing world works, and what I need to do to achieve my dreams....see my blog links.

The funny thing is that I still feel like I don't know nearly enough to fully capture my potential. I am constantly asking for advise from other authors or agents.

Everyone has always told me to enjoy writing and to write for only myself, but I think that is a bit ridiculous. I will always write for myself, yet I need to keep in mind my target audience, and what I need to do to catch an agent and hopefully a publishers eye. I am not saying that I would compromise what I want to write about. I am just saying that I shouldn't ignore what people want.

I have been a huge procrastinator lately. I can't say that I have writers block, because the ideas are constantly flowing, but I am finding it hard to sit and put my ideas into words. Write everyday. I haven't been doing that, and I think that it has bitten me in the rear. Hopefully this blog will help me get back into the swing of things :)

The industry is changing. Not all stories are meant for printed books. The Internet has created an entirely new way for authors to get their work out into the world. In some ways this is exciting....in others it makes me sad. I love the feeling of hold a book.

I have also learned that I need to over come my fear of rejection. It is not only from agents that rejection bothers me. It also comes from friends or acquaintances. I am scared that they will hate my writing, or that they won't want to read my blog. Honesty. Its hard for me to even admit this. Yet, I know that if I don't get my name out there, send more queries, participate in the Internet world of writing, I will get no where.

2 comments:

  1. Ok, so I bookmarked those 2 sites you mentioned! :) (no google follow though! booo on them! lol)
    You SHOULD write for yourself!! What they mean is, if you really like and you're really into the story, it will show and others with like it! Don't worry so much about target audience and all that! Just get it down and worry about doing that later, when you tweak! ;) Have you ever read The Artist's Way? by Julia Cameron, look on Amazon, it will help you a lot! :)
    good luck!!

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  2. Well I have learned a hard lesson about waiting to decide on a target audience. When I wrote my first novel my two main characters were in their 20's. I was hoping to write a YA novel since that is something I enjoy reading, anyways, because of their age it wouldn't work. I haven't read that book, but I have read a few others, and Roni Loren gave me advice on what else to read and I just ordered those off amazon. I will order the one you suggested next! Thanks Lara!!

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