WHY DO YOU WRITE?

This is a question that I\’ve asked myself several times. Do you have a story to tell? Do you have a way with words? Both of these things factor into your writing career. Here are some essential things writers must have to be a good writer.

1. Confidence. You must have faith in yourself. Trust that you have a good story. Believe that people will want to buy and read your book. Confidence that you know what you are talking about. That\’s one reason why we are told when we start writing,to write what we know. This is so true.
2. Know what you are writing about. No one could write a book and not know the setting or the plot of the story. It would be hard for me to write a story about the mountains if I had never seen a mountain. I would not know what the air felt like, how the wind blows through the trees, the sound of the wind when it blows hard and makes a hum in the trees. A friend of mine who was blind asked me one day what the grass looked like and what the sky looked like. That was the hardest thing I have ever explained to someone. It\’s the same with a story. You\’re explaining something to someone who may have never seen it.
3. Know your audience. Who is going to read your book? I\’ve struggled with that question when I was writing a proposal. Who will enjoy my books.? The answer is not, \”A person who loves …\” You want to get readers who do not usually read your books, so you have something in your book that will interest different groups of people.
4. Write well. This is so important. I was listening to an editor recently. He stated his company did several contemporary romances, but a book had to be written well to grab his attention. Any book you write should be written well to grab a reader\’s attention. Put hooks at the end of chapters and scenes. Good grammar is essential. Have a good command of punctuation. All these can make or break a book.

I don\’t know about you, but I know you will not get rich writing a book. Not many of us will have books like J.K. Rawlings. Many of us will not make the New York Times Best Seller List, but we write well and have some decent ales.