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You write for you

WRITING is like falling in love, anybody can do it. It doesn’t have to be the preserve of the learning classes nor do you have to write a bestseller to be a writer.

All you need is determination to write down one word after another until you have a finished piece of work that you are satisfied with. And once it is finished, you can re-write, and re-write, until the cows come home, if you like.

However, before you send something off for possible publication you should decide a few things for yourself, to clear the mind, so to speak.

For instance, what sort of writing do you enjoy reading? Having thought it through for a while, a basic advice would be: “Don’t write what you don’t read”.

Don't tell too many friends about your plans, either, or you will find yourself doing more talking than writing.

Set aside a regular time for writing, adhere strictly to it, and spend the time in between thinking about what you’re writing so that you arrive at the allotted writing time ready to go.

Set yourself achievable goals and realise that the more you write the better you become at your craft.

But don't become upset if to begin with the work does not flow easily.

Writing is the placing of one word after another until you have a sentence completed. Then add a few more sentences and you have a paragraph.

Pretty soon, with your treasure trove of paragraphs you will have a finished piece of writing that you can show to others, if you wish.

You might one day be as successful as Patricia Scanlan whose novels are published in hardback during the summer for the beach read market, an unusual occurrence since hardbacks are traditionally published for the Christmas sales market. But it works for her readers.

Some 2,062 copies of the former librarian’s initial summer hardback were snapped up in the first week alone. Each of Scanlan’s twelve titles in the women’s commercial category has featured in the Sunday Times bestseller lists.

Or, you could be like Eoin Colfer whose Artemis Fowl grew out of a market survey by Colfer in bookshops to see what was not available, after which he turned his hand to producing something that might be unique.

There are now Artemis Fowl websites dedicated to readers in Ireland; the US; Belgium; Spain; Denmark; Hungary; Australia; Poland; Brazil; and Finland.

But it all begins with a word and then another and so on.

Just make sure that you like what you are writing and would like to purchase such a book if it were available. After all, you write for you.

Otherwise, why bother?

© Brendan Nolan 2005

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