Experience is a comb which nature gives us when we are bald (Proverb)
Learning writing skills requires time and dedication to work, constant observation. Does not come overnight.
James Martin@brightfuturenow
I began writing long ago, Back in The Day.
Years before computers I was in my chair at my keyboard. My typewriter was mechanical, the kind where you had to change the ribbons once in a while after the letters got dimmer and dimmer and smacking the key harder was not the solution. Each individual letter was on the end of a long metal arm that was flung out to strike against the paper when you put your finger on a letter on the keyboard and pushed.
Mistakes were corrected not by highlighting and deleting rather they were covered with white paint from a small jar with a small brush (like fingernail polish). After waiting for the paint to dry it could be typed over again.
Paper was rolled into the machine and double-spaced sentences were the norm, ( so the editor could make those red-pen notes/suggestions/corrections); as the pages returned with fewer and fewer red marks I knew my skills were advancing .
I was writing Children’s Stories.
The internet had not yet been invented. No place to look anything up. No Google Search. I learned to write using this book.
When research was needed the local library was the place I sat for hours making notes in longhand with books stacked beside me on the table.
I can still remember the daily charge I felt while in the Portland,Oregon Public Library as I purposefully sat in the same large oak chair used by Jean M. Auel as she wrote, Clan of the Cave Bear.
A cover letter to the Editor was required. This included :
- The Editor’s Name.
- The Name of the Publication to which you are submitting.
- The Title of Your Manuscript.
- Date of Submission.
The entire manuscript was then placed into a large manila envelope, postage was moistened and pressed in correct alignment at the upper right and then mailed lovingly with a small, mumbled, well-chosen prayer.
The time-span between submission and answer was sometimes months and I never lost hope. I had ten or twelve stories out and circulating in the system at all times.
Write, refresh the manuscript when it came back, re mail it and wait. . .and wait.
Rejection Slips from the First Reader or the Editor (with so many submissions the Slush Pile was first read by someone whose pay scale was less than the Editor’s) came in a large manila envelope with my returned manuscript.
Remove the rejection slip, toss it into the shoe box, rewrite the cover letter to the next Editor, make sure the pages were okay (not smudged, [ no coffee stains] folded, or torn) and still in numerical sequence, jam it all into a new envelope, lick the stamps and push it back into the mailbox with a kiss.
My rejection shoe-box was almost full when I got my first acceptance. I still have it, as a reminder . . . sitting on a high closet shelf next to another bulging shoe box labeled: ”Pieces of String Too Small to Save”.
Most magazines and related publications paid one penny a word ( this was when gasoline was 42 cents a gallon) or multiple copies of the edition the story appeared in. My closet, coffee table, and shelves held hundreds of copies of the same edition of the same publication; but I was a writer.
Now, with computers, cut-and-past, auto-correct, Grammerly, email, search sites, and auto-editors within whose womb we grow our stories to maturity hovered over by spelling correctors, grammar suggestions. Seems like cheating. How easy can it be? Yet many new writers find something to complain about.
So many of these aforementioned new writers think that because they speak a language they can write in that language.
Not a necessarily correct assumption.
This is easily seen in any comment section where people are encouraged to express their opinion.
I browse them to feel the flow of public reaction to whatever I just read ; it only takes a few to understand how they think yet I stay clicking through the list feeling amazed at the guttural Neanderthal utterances.
You know exactly what I mean. Where was this person when all his/her friends were in school?
Once in a while I visit Editor friends and see what is sent in for publication. It does not look good: The pieces vary from great, well-written, spell-checked, correct grammar . . . to unbelievably poorly-presented gibberish: No idea how to construct a sentence, never learned to spell.
After so many early mistakes there is no reason to read the offering all the way through. REJECT.
However, if these folks have the desire to become a writer today and are willing to commit the time and energy, they have unlimited resources to guide them along the pathway to success.
There are many but this is my favorite platform: MEDIUM.COM
Think that you are falling over a waterfall into a river of writers. Everybody is splashing and trying to get some air. You come upon an island named Medium in the middle of the river and you decide to pull yourself up and out. You are saved and the resources you need to stay alive are all around you.
The cost to join is a mere five dollars a month to gain access to hundreds, nay thousands of articles written by writers for writers.
You can decide not to pay but you are limited to wandering outside the walls clicking on interesting tidbits that you can not read all the way through. Like a hungry bear pacing back and forth outside of a room filled with honey jars, a few days of this and you are ready to join. . . for five bucks.
Here the rules are laid out, strategies and tactics for success are presented by accomplished writers who have polished the techniques needed to connect with the reader. They know why you are here, they know what you need and they have the skills to give you a proper presentation.
As I mentioned earlier, everybody pays five bucks to gain access to the Golden Nuggets waiting behind the wall. And you are invited to produce and present your own works.
Go ahead, write a story and submit it. You are here because you think you are a writer. Write more, get ideas, write more, submit. Explore new topics.
Write about those areas you think about every day: Cars, Cooking, Romance, Cats, Anything. . . and send the story. You already feel that each new story you present is better than the last one.
Eventually your stories will have been written well enough to wend their way up through the pile and you will earn a piece of everybody’s five bucks. Then, if the economic side is your main focus, you may call yourself a writer.
But there are also traps to avoid:
When money is your drive you will be inevitably drawn to the “Get Rich Quick” schemes.
Navigate around these temptations, cover your eyes with your hands and whistle a cheerful tune and keep moving. They are not for you.
But you will take a peek anyway because you are hungry.
Inside you will find grand promises promoting the writer’s scheme for you to make hundreds or thousands of beautiful almost free dollars. Read but do not touch. This is a learning experience. Try to keep a clear head and digest what you see. Assume scammery.
Eventually you will understand the pitfalls and see through the glitzy fluff and be able to delve into the stories that are actually written by writers who have gained success within the Medium Platform and who are sharing their techniques and experience; to remove some stones from your own pathway to success.
Now you are picking and choosing those authors you trust and want to follow, ( you can follow a favorite writer with a single click). You want to read their next story because the last one talked to you, spoke to your Writer’s Heart and gave you a few ,”Ah-Ha” moments wherein you actually fathomed the writer’s meaning and the lesson sunk in.
While at your keyboard you recall these lessons and use them in your own writing. They make sense, and you want more.
Conclusion.
Medium is filled with these necessary stories populated with gems and ideas and strategies and tactics aimed directly at you to help you.
Take advantage of this amazing resource, use it at your own pace.
