work for aspiring writers?

Question

I am a college student in southern california, and i am very interested in writing as my career. How should i start making that happen? I am taking classes for creative writing and english, and i intend to go to UCR for its creative writing B.A. and maybe master's, but is there anything else i can do?

Answer 1

A local library should have a copy of Literary Marketplace - The Author's Bible. It is better than Writers Market because it is much more complete. It also costs 10 times the price at 300 dollars. Spend time with it. Bring a notebook. Start searching for magazines seeking stories, anthologies seeking stories in your genre, any small way you can start to get your name out there. You won't make a lot of money along the way, but you will start building a name and reputation and that will be terribly important when you are ready to sell the next great American Novel.

The next best thing you can do - to borrow from Stephen King - is READ - good and bad. Read everything and anything. Even bad books will help teach you how to be a good writer. When you are done, analyze what you hated about it and remember not to make the same mistakes. To be a great writer, you must first be a great reader. Pax- C

Answer 2

Get yourself to a good writing site and join an in-person writers' group which specializes in your genre(s), whatever you most enjoy writing. (People who write romance, poetry, or cozies can't really critique war or adventure well, for instance, unless the writing's so bad they're just teaching you how to write.)

Do not settle for a student group, no matter how convenient; aspiring writers don't compete with one another but with seasoned writers, and you have to get as good as they are to make sales.

Absorb what you can from the site and the group, and write. Write badly, just to get it all down, then stop, think about it a few days at least, and do a rewrite. Repeat until it cannot be improved, at least not by you.

Now share it for critique with people who actually know what they're doing, preferably at both the site and with the group. Yes, it'll sting--accurate critique often does--but if you're open to it, you'll learn from it, and the next rewrite will fix a host of problems you didn't know you had.

At that point, send it out (Writer's Market will tell you where) and start the next one.

Answer 3

get the book...Writer's Market
and start sending out your stuff.

Answer 4

Practice writing--experiment--be patient.
And above all, read.