To read Sally Sims' excellent personal essay recently published in the Christian Science Monitor please click on http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1220/p18s03-hfes.html And...here is how Sally went from being an unpublished writer to her first sale---and in a prestigious international newspaper, at that!
"Persistence pays off. When I decided to target the Christian Science Monitor to get published, I'd only been paid in contributor's copies for writing I had done. I wanted dearly to break into a paying market, and a national one to boot. …the Monitor celebrates the personal essay. My first submission, a humorous piece about attending an auction, got no response. By the time I wrote the second attempt, a travel piece on Cedar Key, Florida I'd started working with Roy as a writing coach and then took his LifeStory class. Through that spring and summer I could feel my writing getting tauter with Roy's input and, most of all, his unflagging encouragement. When I wrote the Creche essay, I knew I was closing in. I submitted by email and got accepted in under three hours. Roy helped me immensely, not only in developing my writing and editing skills, but in getting to the point where I felt like a writer—which makes me much bolder. Thanks, Roy !"
Sally Sims, January, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, October 25, 2007
CAN YOU HANDLE WRITING SUCCESS?
Here's what many writers have in common--they've learned to handle being aspiring writers, struggling writers, even failing writers.
But they need to take the next step and learn to handle being successful writers. To do this they (and you and I) need to do three things:
1/ Write. Write a lot, the actual putting-words-on-paper writing, not just the thinking-about-it writing.
2/ Improve and learn. Take active steps to make your writing better. This could be taking a good writing class, forming a supportive writing group, or hiring a writing coach.
3/ Submit your work. If you want to get published you have to make your work available to the editors who might buy it. Your great short story or essay in that desk drawer has zero chance of getting published.
4. And the extra, bonus, step. Don't give up. There's nothing easier than giving up, and few things more bitter than failure.
But they need to take the next step and learn to handle being successful writers. To do this they (and you and I) need to do three things:
1/ Write. Write a lot, the actual putting-words-on-paper writing, not just the thinking-about-it writing.
2/ Improve and learn. Take active steps to make your writing better. This could be taking a good writing class, forming a supportive writing group, or hiring a writing coach.
3/ Submit your work. If you want to get published you have to make your work available to the editors who might buy it. Your great short story or essay in that desk drawer has zero chance of getting published.
4. And the extra, bonus, step. Don't give up. There's nothing easier than giving up, and few things more bitter than failure.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
HOW MYTHOLOGY CAN ENRICH YOUR WRITING!
I'm reading Karen Armstrong's excellent book on mythology, A Short History of Myth. At only 149 pages it is a great introduction to how myths and the myth-making process can enrich our lives.
I strongly recommend it. If we look carefully at almost any powerful story, movie, or play we will see its roots (sometimes hidden) in the mythic concerns that have become important parts of our complexity as humans.
If you've read the book, email me with your impressions. I'd love to hear from you. www.RoySorrels2@aol.com
I strongly recommend it. If we look carefully at almost any powerful story, movie, or play we will see its roots (sometimes hidden) in the mythic concerns that have become important parts of our complexity as humans.
If you've read the book, email me with your impressions. I'd love to hear from you. www.RoySorrels2@aol.com