Prepare to Take Off (with your writing that is)

Hang On To Your Pen and Get Ready To Take Off
by Billie A Williams

Statistics, you got to love them – even if you hate them. You can make them say whatever you want —if you are clever at turning a phrase. However, some statistics can’t be manipulated no matter how hard you try.

For instance,
290,000 books were published in 2006 – makes you feel like a needle in a haystack if you are an author. Where do you fit, how can you possibly hope to compete? Take heart!

31 Billion dollars a year is, according to a recent survey, spent on book purchases. That’s a lot of change. I imagine some are purchased for schools, but many of their textbooks are used year after year with minimal replacement. So, you have to think that most books are purchased for personal reasons. All you have to do is write the book you are passionate about, market it like there is no tomorrow, and you may carve out your slice of that Billion dollar pie.

Speaking of writing — did you know that if you have an idea that you think sounds like a great first line, gets you unstuck on your current WIP (Works in Progress) or just takes your breath away—you only have 37 seconds to capture that fleeting pellet of wisdom before it floats away on the ether? And even if you can recall bits and pieces of it — within 7 minutes it will be gone forever.

Now do you know why you are cautioned to always keep pen and paper within easy reach? Amazing! Our brains are veritable libraries housing tomes and tomes of information, but a fleeting nugget of information doesn’t necessarily take up residence in that gray matter. As Mark Victor Hansen says, “As soon as you think it ink it,” good advice I’m thinking.

“It’s not what you think of; it’s what you write down AND take action on that counts.” Jack Canfield. [Emphasis mine]

Action is the key to success. You can sit in the middle of the road and think all you want – you’ll either get run over or dehydrate while your muscles atrophy, but you won’t get anywhere. If you want to be one of those who are getting a piece of the Billion Dollar Book pie, you need to TAKE ACTION.

So what are you waiting for? GET WRITING !

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Billie A Williams, Award winning author of over two dozen fiction works, plus non-fiction and poetry books, articles, columns and recently a 3-Act Play to be released July 2007. http://www.billiewilliams.com/ http://www.word-mage.com/ (where you can visit other authors of her Word Mage writing group)

HABITS FOR WRITERS

I could put a number in front of that title— say-- 10 habits or whatever – but why would I? If you’ve followed my blog for long, you know that I say “Successful Writer’s Write Every day" no matter how they feel, what’s going on in their day, or if they don’t have a pencil to their name. Anyone who wants to be a writer will talk the talk, and walk the walk. So if I were numbering these points I would call number one the “Develop the will to write daily,” priority, number one on your to do list – Let's start by calling it what I prefer to call it, your goals list.

Everyday you meet people who say "I want to write a novel. I have this great idea," yet they never sit down to get page one started. As Rob Parnell ( www.easywaytowrite.com ) has said on numerous occasions “If you want to write novels you have to start NOW [emphasis mine] immediately, and not put it off any longer."

In this world ,we can save money for a rainy day – but we have not found out how to save/bank time for when we want it at some future date – NOW is all you have. If not NOW, When?

Setting goals for yourself is one way to get a finished project. Say you agree to write three pages a day – hey, if you do that everyday, you’ll have nearly 1,100 pages in a year – that could easily equal three novels.

Be sure when you are involved in that goal setting that you commit to finish projects. Getting 300 books, or articles, or essays started—does not equal a finished, saleable project. Check those idea faeries at the door. Write down their intrusion with a great idea and then continue on to finish your current project before you grab up one of her sparkling new ideas.

It has been said that it takes 21 days to create a habit. My challenge to you is, if you want to be a writer – write at least three pages every day for the next 21 days. Pick a time convenient for you —morning, evening — it makes no difference when. What does make a huge difference is that you do this. Twenty-one days isn’t a long time, it isn’t a month, it isn’t hardly worth mentioning time-wise, but once you do it—you have formed a valuable HABIT, a precedence, a ritual, a practice, which will eventually get you to your goal of becoming a writer, perhaps even a published author.

So get started today. What have you got to lose, except perhaps your fear of getting started.