Sharing Some Techniques and Tips for New Writers (from Creative Writing and Publishing Course)

Article Title: Sharing Some Techniques and Tips for New Writers (from Creative
Writing and Publishing Course)
Submitted by: Craig Lock Category (key words): Creative Writing Course,
Writing, Creative Writing, Publishing Course, Book Publishing, E-books, Writing
Hints/Tips (enough there for now, craig!)
Web Site: http://www.creativekiwis.com/course/index.html
Craig's blog (with extracts from his various writings: articles, books and new
manuscripts) is at http://en.search.wordpress.com/?q=%22craig+lock%22 and
http://craiglock.wordpress.com
Other Articles are available at: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/user/15565
and http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/profile.cfm?writerid=981
(Personal growth, self help, writing, internet marketing, spiritual, ‘spiritual
writings’ (how ‘airey-fairey’), words of inspiration and money management, how
boring now, craig!)
"We share what we know, so that we all may grow."
*
SHARING SOME TECHNIQUES, TIPS AND ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS
(from Writing and Book Publishing Course)
* these hints and writers quotes were sourced from Thomas Clark, former senior
editor at Reader's Digest many years ago (well before the onset of the “new
digital revolution/age”)…
"The foundations of successful writing are within anyone's grasp. The only way
to do it is to do it."
- Tom Clancy
"My greatest good fortune was that I didn't know that I was doing everything
wrong. If I'd have done a single right thing I probably would have failed. If
I'd known how hard - statistically speaking - it is to get a first novel
published, I might have given up. What success means is really looking failure
in the face and tossing the dice anyway. You may be the only person who knows
the dice came up; but in that knowledge you have something that millions of
people will never have - because they were afraid to try."
- Tom Clancy (again)
"There is no perfect time to write. There is only the present."
- Barbara Kingsolver
"Dreams are the stuff that make life worth living. Give them up and you give up
all that truly matters." "The art in writing is rewriting." Never fall in love
with your first draft - rewrite.
"You MUST believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself and your talent
and your ability to succeed, then you can't expect others to believe in you."
- Joan Nixon
"I write because something inside myself, inner and unconscious forces me to.
That is the first compulsion. The second is one of ethical and moral duty. I
feel responsible to tell stories that inspire readers to consider more deeply
who they are."
People often write to preserve a family's history. You too can learn about the
richness of your family background. (Nice word dat 'dingbat'. My dear wife,
Marie invented it to describe some of the dear and kindly inhabitants
of "Sleepy Hollow"). Write what you care about and understand.
"The simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a publisher, if a
writer tries hard enough. The central secret is to write a book people like you
will enjoy reading."
- Richard Patterson
"Write from your own passion, your own truth. That's the only thing you really
know a lot about. Anything else leads you away from the pulse."
- Marianne Williamson
And some more thoughts on writing from Marianne Williamson: "Courage matters as
much as talent. A real writer doesn't consider giving up as an option."
"Gustave Flaubert said it best: 'We do not choose our subjects, they choose
us."
- Josephine Hart
"Writers come from every walk of life and every background. An excellent editor
once told me the secret of good fiction is to place flesh on the bones of an
ordinary story and to drive it with strong characterisations."
- Steve Martini
Write about the most embarrassing moment in your life. Write a poem of 10
lines, then discuss the next day in class. ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE
MAINTENANCE was initially rejected by 122 publishers. Since then it has never
been out of print. The ideal length of a book is +- 200 pages?? Publishers have
rejected previously published novels, eg. "controversial" NZ writer, Alan Duff.
*
THE CRYSTAL BALL CRACKED
The following are actual rejection notices received for these famous and
incredibly successful books...
* "It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA." The book: 'Animal Farm'
by George Orwell
* "The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling,
which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level."
The book: 'The Diary of Ann Frank'
* "It does not seem to us that you have been wholly successful in working out
an admittedly promising idea."
The book: 'Lord of the Flies' by Wiliam Golding
* "For your own good, do not publish this book."
The book: 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by DH Lawrence
* "A long dull novel about an artist." The book: 'Lust for Life' by Irving
Stone
Some hope for me then... perhaps!
If you believe in your writing, as Winston Churchill said so well...
NEVER give up . Never…ever!
"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."
- Henry Ford
Story flows from character. Character is the most important ingredient in any
fiction story. A good plot with lousy characters is a lousy book. But a
mediocre plot with strong characters makes enjoyable reading."
- Robert Cormier
"Listen to the way people talk. If your characters sound real, the rest is
easy."
- David Eddings
Edit and rewrite - until you get it down on paper, there's nothing to work
on. "Even garbage can be improved."
"There is no shortcut to writing a good novel. The publisher doesn't want to
hear about the idea, but to see the book."
- Richard Patterson
"My manuscript is the only thing over which I have absolute control."
- Sandra Brown
"Writing is hard work. But very enjoyable hard work and completely satisfying -
even though one is never completely satisfied with one's efforts."
- Colleen McCullough
Trust your own instincts. "Be bold. Thrust forward. Have the courage to make
mistakes, even to fail. Nobody is going to die, if your efforts aren't
perfect."
- Garrison Keillor
"When you want to quit: Put your manuscript away for a time. Go off and 'shoot
pool', watch TV, fish - do whatever you want to do and see what happens. If the
urge to write goes away, you have no problem. If it doesn't, you'd better
resign yourself to the idea you'll never be happy, unless you are a writer."
- Garrison Keillor (again)
"If you have a masterpiece within you, you'd better save it on paper. Otherwise
one thing is for sure - none of us will ever miss it."
- Steve Martini
"Courage matters as much as talent. A real writer doesn't consider giving up as
an option."
- Marianne Williamson (once again)
A glimmer of hope for me then!
"When a new writer says to me 'I give up - it's too hard', I reply, 'Fine, give
up' and if the recipient of this advice takes it without flinching, I know
there was no real writer there to begin with."
- Steven Bach
"Write for yourself, not for social recognition or financial success. If you're
any good, they will come. But the work itself must be your primary and major
satisfaction."
- William Heffernan
"Ï write, because I like to make things...and the only things I am good at
making are with words."
- PJ O'Rourke
* *
Mastering the technical bits:
"Begin with a great opening sentence. Make frequent use of sensory perception.
Use strong active verbs. One good verb is better at description than a clutter
of adverbs and adjectives."
- Joan Nixon
If you have a wonderful idea, don't talk about it to friends and relatives.
Write it down. Don't discuss, nor spend too much time with writing groups.
"Start each fresh day by rewriting the last page of what you wrote the day
before.”
I hope this information may be helpful to you in your creative writing, as you
play the best music you have within you. Don't spend your days, stringing your
instrument - start making and playing YOUR own music right NOW.
Happy writing
Craig Lock (Eagle Productions Books)
"It took me 15 years to find out that I had no talent for writing, but by then
I couldn't give it up, because by then I was too famous to give up."
- Robert Benchley
It took me twenty long years of sweat and tears (no blood please, I'm very
sqeamish) to become an overnight success."
- "a nony mouse writer"
"Life is about finding, then following the dream... and one's dream/vision
comes to reality through believing in yourself, making the commitment and then
creating it."
- craig
"Most people die with their music still locked up inside of them."
- Benjamin Disraeli.
"If a man has talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and
uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns
somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded and has a
satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know."
-- Thomas Wolfe
"Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the
dark place where it leads."
-- Erica Jong
"If you have knowledge, let others light a candle to it."
- Margaret Fuller
That's a metaphor, btw!
"A book is small enough to hold in your hand; but when you read it, the walls
fall away and you're in a room as big as the world."
"The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the
light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions."
- Alan Cohen

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