If I could have just a couple minutes of your time, I would like to share something with you... something I believe may be of value to you in the years to come. If you are a writer or an aspiring writer, I would like to offer you my perspective on the writing process. I do so with great humility, because I am an aspiring writer myself and I do not want to sound presumptuous.

Every since I was a very young child, I loved to read and I developed a love of the classics early. I loved to read Tolstoy, Melville, Poe, Twain and many others of which the list is too long to mention here. I learned from reading the classics that it is less important what you say as to how you say it. I learned from reading the classics that these Authors made sure their characters seemed like real people with many dimensions to their characters. Their characters were like me, flawed, but struggling... people with good and bad, weak and strong characteristics. I could relate to these fictional characters.

When I would finish reading a book like “Moby-Dick” or “The Catcher In The Rye,” I felt inspired; or I felt like the Author had given me food for thought and I somehow achieved more clarity about the world I lived in because of how the Author told his or her story. I believe that in the end, we are all looking to be inspired. Some writers are good writers, but they fail to give soul to their writing. They are very good at doing the research. However, they have filled their work with facts, figures and statistical information, but their work lacks character. Their writing reads more like a text book and that is alright if that was the intentions from the beginning, but if you want to inspire people, you need to make the reader feel like they are having a conversation with a friend. Your writing needs to have an honesty to it. For me personally, I can tell when someone is writing from their personal experiences and when they are writing from research, especially when it is someone like myself who is a new writer.

There is something I want to say to you personally... You are unique and the world needs to hear what you have to say. You may not be an expert on anything, but you still have a lot to offer the world from your own pool of personal experiences and your personal views on the things you have experienced in life. No one can say what you have to say in exactly the way you can say it. This is what it means to discover your voice or your unique style. For those of us who still read, we want to know you, we want to know what your opinion is on whatever it is you feel is important. I want to know you and to be inspired by you. If you have something to say, do not withhold it from the rest of us, share it, but be yourself. Do not try to write like someone else.

Do not spend a lot of time trying to convince your readers that you are an expert or that you have all the credentials to validate what you say. It is alright to mention some achievements, but do not spend too much time on these things or you will start sounding a little full of yourself and frankly, no one likes to listen for a long time to a pompous person or an intellectual elitist. Try not to use a big ten dollar word when a fifty cent word will do. Remember, your goal is to communicate, not impress people with you big vocabulary when it is not necessary. Remember, it is ideas that move people to take some action that will ultimately change the world. You can have an impact on someone and maybe even the world we all share with you.

Before I close I would like to offer new writers a few tips regarding the business end of writing. If you are considering submitting your work to a publisher, there are a couple of things you need to know before making your submission. Most publishers do not accept unsolicited material from unknown writers. If you are an unknown writer, you should always submit a query letter to the Publisher before submitting a full length manuscript. If a Publisher responds to your query positively, you will most likely have to write on speculation. Only well established writers can expect an advance on their assignments. There is a very good resource book that I consider to be a good investment for any serious writer and that is
“The Writers Market.” This book lists most Publishers addresses, phone numbers, what they pay and what type of materials they consider for publication.

Good luck! and remember to write to inspire and write what you know from your own experiences and you will have a very good chance for success.

By: Neocarl