Writing tip of the day

[Matt Devitt]

Create a story you want. Like anything in life, if you don't enjoy it, you won't want to do it, and you'll end up putting in less effort. When you think of a story, you don't need to plan out every detail, but having a clear start and end point helps keep you on track and also gives you motivation to keep going.

 

[skip.knox]

That is one way of going about writing. There are others. A great many very famous and successful and admirable authors wrote for mass markets because they had decided they wanted to be a "writer" and if that meant pumping out a short story a week, then that's what they did.

As for myself, I can't say I enjoy every part of the process. There's more to writing than just putting words on paper--I don't need to list all the phases of getting a story written, polished, published, and marketed. And living with the thing forever after. The later stages are another place where the old, traditional publishing model was easier on the author. Back "then" (choose your decade or century), once the story was in print, the author did not need to spend much more time and effort but could get on to the next story.

And as for the writing itself, I always invoke Dorothy Parker: I hate writing, but I love having written.

(and yes, I know she did not say precisely that, but the sentiment fits me perfectly)

 

[pmmg]

My writing tip remains, write every day, finish it, and dont seek feedback till its finished.

You can see more at Goldie's Words of Wisdom

I did not want to step into this one, cause I thought you might have more tips, but a bit of time has passed, so I figure its open to anyone.