Resources to Guide You in your Writing Career

Photo by Iñaki del Olmo on Unsplash

Many times we find we have a natural aptitude to something and we really want to make a real go of it. For those of us who love the written word, that desire to put words to the page and, many times, see it published and get things moving can be overwhelming. With that desire to write and publish, we would be crazy to not hope to see some sort of an income come out of it.

The first step to any career is research. There are a good number of write for hire opportunities out there, but the competition is fierce. Fiercer yet is the competition for freelancers. We often find publications that want to publish our work, but that competition will not pay us anything other than putting our words into print - and on top of that, they want to keep all rights to our words.

For me, the desire to write is only overcome by the desire to read. Those two desires go hand in hand. In order to be a good writer, one must read like crazy, and not just in the genre in which he or she writes. Expanding knowledge in creative writing happens when we read lots of words that we, perhaps, have never before seen. These days, it's still important to have a vast vocabulary on which to draw when writing.

I prefer reading and writing historical fiction. Do you know that the English language in 1692 varies greatly from the English language of today? Yeah, you do. I subscribe to word of the day by Word Genius. I can't tell you how many new words I have learned, as well as the origins and history of the words. It's a great way to expand your writing vocabulary. Other places would be to, well, peruse a good thesaurus. Did you know that the word "peruse" does not mean to casually glance down a row of something as we were previously taught to believe? Here's the real meaning: "to examine or consider with attention and in detail : study." (merriam-webster.com)

Keep learning the craft. Writing a novel or a good short story is more than simply sitting down at a computer and tapping out 100,000 words or more. Some of my favorite learning tools are:

Writer's Digest - a fantastic magazine that has been helping writers learn and keep abreast of current writing events and contests

Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway

The Weekend Novelist by Robert J. Ray and Bret Norris

NaNoWriMo - Writing a complete draft in 30 days in the month of November

First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Wiesner

I have also joined a local writing group as well as the American Christian Fiction Writers group. Both have come to be invaluable sources of encouragement as well as learning experiences.