Since I started getting involved with the world of Twitter I’ve discovered there are lots and lots and then some more groups, schools, individuals ready to help writers succeed. It got me to wondering, should an author really need so much help?
I am already aware of all the MFA programs that exist, but the world of social media has really opened my eyes to the wide range of writers’ services. You can get a writing coach, an editor, a teacher, a writing team, on-line course, low residency MFA’s, full-time MFA’s. You can get help with your blogs, your poems, your marketing. Lots of people offer help so others can avoid making their own mistakes. Offer advice on just the right ingredients to include in your story, for your fictional character. The list goes on and on. I’ve really only just begun to describe them. Although any list I make would be incomplete with adding the value of self-publishing, the role of eBooks, and traditional publishers.
I must declare that this all seems like a lot of helpful people hoping to instill a wee bit of doubt in to the pot and cause just enough anxiety in the mind of the want-to-be writer so they wonder if they can “really” write well enough. Can they really have the “best book ever written.” Maybe they ought to get a bit of help from an “expert.”
Part of the blame is too much information, part is too many people that think they can write that really can’t write, and part is the wish to go viral, to become famous, to leave a mark in the writing world. All grand and fine ambitions, but to be a good writer is inherently a solitary activity which involves mining your heart and creativity, requires time spent alone researching ideas and getting carried away in a truly unique and one-of-a-kind creation or discovery.
If a person never gets the feeling of being at one with their writing, flowing and immersed in their subject, then they ought to avoid sharing their writing at all.
I am quite certain that many writers want to jump to the end of the writing process. One way I know this is that they can’t relate to the work most successful “authors” have had to put in to create. Another way I know is that many authors won’t buy other’s writing. If you’ve written a book, you know how important and empowering it feels to have someone buy your book.
I think there are so many tactics, tricks, teachers of writing because so many want to skip to what they feel is the “famous” part. To be in the news, and on the road touring to crowds of roaring fans. What they’ll discover, mostly, is that this is when the hard part begins and even harder if what you’ve written hasn’t consumed you and caused you to be fully determined to share your writing. Alas, a small twist then: Sales tip 101, care deeply about what you’re selling. Yep, guess, I just offered some advice too.