Welcome to the blog of author Tricia Goyer!

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Thursday Tip


One cool thing about being a writer is anyone can do it. When I first started writing I was a 22-year-old mother of two. (Did I mention I was pregnant, too?)

Everything I learned about writing, I learned from "real" writers. I attended a writer's conference. I subscribed to Writer's Digest Magazine. I checked out writing books from the library. These things taught me what real writers do to get real results.

My tip for you today is to do one of the above. Either look into a conference. Subscribe to Writer's Digest. Or visit your local library. Or, if you have some extra cash, splurge and by yourself a new book! The one I'm currently reading (and that I recommend) is Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, Ph.D.

I have one more tip for you. Today when you're sitting down to write spend three minutes imagining you are a professional writer with a deadline. You have to FINISH. What are you going to do to get there? Step through the steps in your head before you start.

If you already are a professional writer, consider how someone you admire would approach the project. Or, if your editor was sitting there watching you, how you would tackle it? (You wouldn't take up 20 minutes for Spider Solitaire, now would you?)

Then post in the comment section if you approached your writing any differently ... and if it helped!

4 comments:

C.J. Darlington said...

I plan to do this when I sit down to write tonight. Thanks for the trip, Tricia. This is a wonderful resource. I've mentioned it over at my blog.

Full Contact, Savior-centric Livin said...

I'm repeating yesterday's goals for today since I didn't make a lot of progress.

As to this post, I am reading "Book Proposals That Sell" by Terry Whalin. I've learned a lot already!

Unknown said...

Wow, that is a great tip. Because I'm not a professional writer, I do approach my goals differently--for example I mostly have weekly goals instead of daily goals, and I think that's okay, but I love this idea.

I did complete my Tuesday goal (today) and also am making progress towards my other two goals for the week.

ebussey said...

Well, today was a bit of a wash. I stayed up way too late getting my blog site up. You can read about my day there.

Working on mom and dad's house over spring break this week, so you may not hear from me, but I'll be writing and reading!