writingforyourlife

So, you don’t happen to know Stephen King personally.

So what?  Neither do I.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t sit down over a cup of coffee and ask him hundreds of annoying questions about the art of writing.  It just means you might have to dig a bit for the answers.

And that’s okay.  Because you’re resourceful.  You’re motivated.  You enjoy the pursuit of knowledge.

If you ever wanted to know what pearls of wisdom Stephen King, Virginia Woolf,  Shakespeare or Margaret Atwood have to share on writing, there are a few simple ways to do just that:

1. Pick up one of their books.  Sounds simple, and it is.  Analyze their word choices, novel structures, literary devices.  Find out what makes them tick.
2. Read their biography or autobiography.  Don’t reinvent the wheel!  Find out what an author says about themselves, or what others say about them.  Learn  how they got published and what struggles they encountered along the way.
3. Research their publisher.  You can tell a great deal about a writer by looking at who published them.  Find out their submission requirements, what styles they usually accept, other famous names within their publishing list.
4. Go to their website.  Obviously this only pertains to modern authors unless someone is managing a site on behalf of a deceased writer.  Most published authors today have websites promoting their work, and even offer workshops or other resources for aspiring writers.
5. Read an interview.  At some point in your favourite author’s life, they’ve been interviewed.  They’ve been asked the tough questions, probed for information about the very things you wish to know.  All you have to do is to find one transcript or video.

From now on, you have no excuses to mourn your long, lonely pursuit of publication.  Take what those who’ve gone before you have done, and learn from their example.

So go make yourself a cup of coffee and start picking someone’s brain.

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