You Don’t HAVE to Be A Robinson Crusoe Writer Wombats CCCXXVI

Illustration by N. C. Wyeth

As a writer, we often feel like Robinson Crusoe. Alone and adrift. But we don't have to be like him with all the resources available to us.

I agree the most important thing a writer can do is write. Tell the stories. Get into the habit of writing regularly. Writing to your strengths is good advice once your figure out where your strengths are. Some writers know their strengths some have to experiment. Get used to putting your work out there under public scrutiny—that’s scary the first few times you do it. The first time your critique partner, or group, reads your work. A lesson you learn quickly about writing is what constitutes good writing and how to go about it; opinions and advice is very subjective and often conflicting. This holds true for most aspects of the publishing process.

I think name recognition is vital for authors. Some of us do it by joining RWA or similar groups, or joining writing forums and participating. Others add blogs.

I recently had a very lively discussion on my blog about the value of joining writing groups like RWA. As one put it, after attending her first RWA meeting,

“...at last I started making some real progress towards getting published. Not only that, I met people who now number among my best friends. They understand my passion for romance fiction. They understand the wild ups and downs of life as a pre-published author (and now as a published author – the roller coaster ride is still as crazy!). We cheered each other’s successes, commiserated with each other’s disappointments, and encouraged each other through the slumps.”

A good thing about blogs is you get used to writing to the public. If you have your blogs set up for certain days, this helps you practice writing to deadlines. If you are serious about getting published, I think any prep work you do to build name recognition is good, especially prior to publication.

The balancing act is not to spend so much time doing the short stories, articles for publication in various magazines, or blogs, your forget the most important part of the process—writing regularly, perfecting your writing skills and writing books for publication.

So do you belong to a writing organization or group?

How have you benefited?

What would be the one piece of advice you would give an aspiring writer or about groups or blogging?