New Writer Advice: Write Your Ass Numb

I could have said, “Write Your Fingers Numb”, “Write Your Butt Numb”, or something else less forceful, right? Would you be surprised to find out forceful works well most times?

Write what you know. Write how you know. Know what you know. Write like you know. And, like what you write.

If you are just now considering becoming a writer of books – whatever flavor, you have to write until your ass grows tired of sitting in a chair. Ideally you’ll be writing about things that might make a popular book topic – or one that tweaks your turtle.

If you just start writing books -that is the true ideal. Practice. You learn to write books by writing books. Get one or two under your belt and see whether you think you’ve got what it takes. Ask others if they think you’ve got what it takes.

I know people that think they can write a book that I think have deluded themselves. They’re not good book writers.

Am I going to tell them?

Nope. Is it possible they have a break-through and suddenly can write? Yes, it is possible, but of the 4 people I’m thinking about – a meteor hitting them in the thick of the skull is a much more likely occurrence.

There are book writers and there are… those that do everything else.

If you’re a book writer then start writing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re 15 years old or 55, just write. If you can’t force yourself to write exercises that will improve specific skills you’ll need to master, then forget it – just write. Write short stories about something you like. Challenge yourself to write the shortest story ever. Write a journal. Write comments at blogs you read and try to show you’re smart – or, try to piss everyone off.

A writer is a master of communicating something – some idea. The more you write, the more you’re going to understand how to use written words to spark neurons in a reader’s head, leading to reader enlightenment.

What ideas do you want to get across to the world?

Write! For god’s sakes write! Stop reading all these blog posts! lol…

Writing Books as a Small, Home-Based Business

A couple statements from Jim Blasingame of the SBA (Small Business Administration in the USA).

Small businesses make up more than 99.7% of all employers.

Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of all small businesses.

Writing books in a room in your house is a small business that many of you can do, are doing, or will do in the near future.

The year is 2010. A writer is someone that writes. Eventually the idea is to get paid for it, but, you can call yourself a writer well before you get paid for it. Just like a horse trainer that teaches her own horses tricks doesn’t get paid for it until she finds or creates a job for herself getting paid to teach horses tricks.

Van Gogh’s life was painting and yet for a long time he wasn’t paid for his work at all – he finally sold just one painting, the only one he ever sold. Would you call Van Gogh an artist?

This silly notion that you’re only a writer when you’ve sold something needs to be dismissed by anyone serious about the craft. My brother filled many notebooks with original songs, stories, and diary entries, and yet he wouldn’t consider himself a writer. He says he’s a software tester.

So, it’s not automatic… but, if you identify yourself as a writer – you can call yourself a writer to everyone you meet.

Writing books, ebooks, articles, or sales copy can be a small business you can start in your home – in a separate room and call yourself a writer. You can deduct the room for tax purposes if you don’t do anything else there (see IRS for specifics, it’s more involved than that). If you can’t write at home you can deduct hotel visits where you can write, uninterrupted with plenty of air conditioning and relative quiet.

The book world, like the newspaper world is changing dramatically. Paper-based books are going away and being replaced with something infinitely more flexible, more profitable, more instantaneous than waiting for half-a-year for your paperback book to be published with a printing press.

Ebook writers are a dime-a-dozen, but the cream of the crop will rise and make enough to live on.

If you love to write, and have something to say about a topic, or many topics, start writing now and producing ebooks as you go. The experience will help you figure out what topics you can write about successfully. It will teach you about editing. You’ll learn how to call on some force inside – determination – to help you finish each book you start. You’ll start interacting with other writers, authors, and those in the ebook publishing, audio publishing, and vook publishing world.

Start writing ebooks now as an education, preparing you for becoming part of the cream that is rising to the top.

If any of your books have Thailand as a subject, send them to www.ThailandeBooks.com to see if they’ll publish them digitally for you and sell them on their site.

If not, find another digital publisher that can help. I’ll write more about options for self-publishing, born-digital books in a future post. Stay tuned… there are many options to jump on while the jumping is good.