Six months ago while I was on vacation, family and friends encouraged me to take some of my blog posts and my writings and put them into a book. It is amazing how little encouragement it takes to get you to consider the craziest of ideas. In fact, the amount of encouragement seems to vary inversely to the amount of alcohol that you have in your system. At the time, we had been celebrating rather passionately; so all I needed was a thimbleful of encouragement. When someone began saying "You know, these aren't too bad. Why don't you put them ...?", my life suddenly exploded from realization of tremendous possibilities ... and from striking my head against the door frame as I tripped. Either way, I knew that my life had a new, very exciting calling.
While my head felt fine that next morning, I still felt that giddiness of excitement. And into the next day. And into the next week. And into the next month.
Unfortunately, excitement is a poor substitute for knowledge. For the past six months, I've tried to put a decent book together. "Trying" being the operative word. I mean I enjoy placing words in various sequences and then watching the joy that comes to my readers' faces. Afterwards, I awake and think how wonderful it would be to do just that outside of dreams. Yet, if I were a punctuation mark, you would probably consider me as a semi-colon based on my half-assed attempts to create a book. You would definitely not consider me as an author, let alone a writer.
Oh sure, I've written a few papers, published a few blog posts, even earned a shekel or two in the process. Still, I have never thought of myself worthy of the title "writer". So what to do?
As rush of time threw me into this April, I contemplated two options: take on the task of becoming a skilled writer in a do-or-die effort, or have a pity party. Obviously, who wants to go to a party where the beer is warm and full of tears. So, I stopped acting as a semi-colon and dedicated myself to an ongoing process of developing my craft and my skill.
This means practicing as much as possible – no excuses. It also means slavishly reading and listening and learning from the great masters of the field. In fact, one of the reasons that I am writing this post is because of an inspirational book I read this week called "You are a Writer (so start acting like one)” by Jeff Goins. This is one of those books that someone should have given to me six months ago – upside my head – with kind words of "Read this, you lazy dolt, so you can get a better understanding of what you're about to undertake!"
To say that Mr. Goins’s book is inspirational is an understatement. Not only does he persuasively encourage (all without a drop of alcohol), he also goes that extra step with practical advice, such as the 3 tools that every writer needs. He even gives step-by-step instructions in getting started and in moving your publishing enterprise along.
After reading Mr. Goins’s book, my excitement about writing and publishing is now enhanced with knowledge. I had no doubts that becoming a successful author will take lots of hard work. I also have no doubt now that I can do this. In fact, the book's key phrase has become my mantra through brief moments of discouragement and frustration: I am a writer! I just need to write!
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