I have two questions for professional writers...?

Question

As a professional writer, what is the most interesting fact you learned about your job? Also, what key factor helped you in your pursuit of becoming a professional writer?

Answer 1

What is the most interesting fact about my job now is that in addition to being a writer of my own stuff, I am a ghostwriter for a major sports star, producing a series of books for children. Working with him is a blast, and very unique. Ghostwriting is a very challenging thing to do - making your words sound like someone else's voice. I truly love doing it, and the money he makes from his books is all donated to charity. So it is a great feeling.

The key factor that helped me was a professor in college who pushed me hard - harder even than I wanted to be pushed. But he told me from Day One in his class he saw I had talent and he would accept "fluff" from anyone else in the class, but not from me. And boy did he sent things back to me and make me do them over again!! To the point where I just cried. But he not only taught me to be tough, he taught me how to take my talent and hone it into a marketable skill. I have him to thank for a lot of my work.

And also just good old fashioned blind luck. I just lucked into the ghostwriting assignment. Sometimes, it really is who you know.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 2

The most interesting I have learned about my job is that writing has no face. You can say anything you want and only have yourself to blame if it doesn't turn out right. Also that I can set my own hours and travel the world and not have to worry about going to work punching a time chart. Most of the places I have been inspires me to do great writing and I am planning on visiting Romania in the Summer!

What helped me to become a professional writer is that growing up I have always had a very vivid imagination. And I have always been able to make a story up on the spot. I'm not like the people who had to be lead down the right path by a college professor. To me writing is a God given gift that I realized I have had since I was four years old.

Answer 3

Well I would like to comment only because I just recently became a professional writer (if you can call it that...local reporter for a daily :)), and I think my fiction and my overall ability to write professionally were heavily influenced by college professors, a few in particular. If I never went through fiction classes and worked hard on my grammar and sentence rhythms etc., I would have gone on thinking the first stories I ever wrote were absolutely great (as family members are sometimes inclined to indicate). You must feel a necessity to improve upon yourself, even if you have had nothing but great feedback -- hold yourself up to your own standards, or the few who owe you no sympathies and will tell you the truth. Of course, you must decide what is opinion and what is good to pick up on for your particular style, but that's all part of the learning process.

Another thing that has tremendously influenced me recently is a writer's conference I went to on Sanibel Island (another great thing about college -- normally 300$ not counting food or lodge, I got a student pass for free, all 4 days). I met a few really awesome people and personal heroes of mine, John Dufresne, Robert Olen Butler, Heidi Julavits. Particularly, Butler's method of fiction writing seemed of great interest to me, as he spoke mostly of the subconscious and how to get there rather than the aesthetic things other authors lectured on. I would highly suggest "From Where You Dream," it is probably one of the most influential texts in terms of the way I write fiction. It doesn't focus heavily on style and all of that, so if you are more in need of English help get it somewhere else, but if you can write and you want to write literary art, please read this book.

That's it. I'll leave you alone now.

Answer 4

It's probably not. Being a author is such a lot approximately depicting persons in a practical method, with all in their flaws at the desk. Friends are extra approximately targeting the well stuff and ignoring the issues. Writers can not do this with characters, in any other case they're going to have vulnerable characters. If my pal was once a author, and mentioned "I wrote a fundamental man or woman who is similar to you!" and the man or woman seems to be just a little egocentric, narcissistic and naive, I might NOT be pleased. Even if the booklet was once excellent, and the man or woman was once excellent for the tale... the truth that it was once me might hassle me. She'd essentially be announcing "that is how I see you and that is how I consider you engage with lifestyles." And, she might traditionally get it fallacious, given that I do not even recognise myself good ample to understand the ones matters. Of path, that is no longer actual for all writers. Some writers use truly persons as notion. But I doubt any of them might inform a pal "This is you" Hope that is helping!

Answer 5

The key factor that helped me was a professor in college who pushed me hard - harder even than I wanted to be pushed. But he told me from Day One in his class he saw I had talent and he would accept "fluff" from anyone else in the class, but not from me. And boy did he sent things back to me and make me do them over again!! To the point where I just cried. But he not only taught me to be tough, he taught me how to take my talent and hone it into a marketable skill. I have him to thank for a lot of my work.

Answer 6

I think I just experienced deja-vu.
Or maybe Persi is Monica's ghostwriter.

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