When people find out I wrote a book I usually get two responses:
1. Cool! I’ve always wanted to write a book. I have this great story idea.
2. Where did you find the time with two kids and a full-time career?
If the response is the first one, I invite them to join my writing group (or one online) for support and help with getting there.
For the second question, my response usually ends with “It’s important to me, so I find time. I work my schedule around my writing not the other way around.”
I got this great article in my inbox today by Kristen Lamb talking about the 5 Traits of the Successful Authors. If you don’t follow her blog, I highly recommend it, not just for the great tips, but her hilarious sense of humor!
What questions do you get asked when people find out you’re a writer, or published?
Hi Elke,
I liked Kristen’s post. She was spot on with what it takes to be a successful author.
I think to be a successful author several traits that need to come together, particularly self discipline, patience and persistence. But it also takes confidence too and I think that’s a big stumbling block for people. They don’t think that what they have to write about will be profound or interesting enough to publish. That’s unfortunate because there are so many people out there that do have very profound things to say, they just don’t have the confidence to be an author.
Liz
Hi Liz,
I couldn’t agree more about writers needing confidence. It took several months before the writers in my writing group shared work they’d written. I scolded them (in a good way of course) asking why they hadn’t shared it before because it was great.
I am always wonderfully surprised by how unique each writer’s work and writing is.
Thanks for stopping by Liz and sharing that important point!
When someone writes an piece of writing he/she keeps the idea of a
user in his/her mind that how a user can understand it.
So that’s why this post is great. Thanks!