The Art of Writing

I write every day – emails, grocery lists, notes from telephone conversations, text messages, journaling, articles I’m working on and even some parts of my book.  (The real question is which book.) That’s because I’m in the middle of at least four, maybe five.  One is completed and needs to be published but I don’t have an agent.  It’s been read and re-read by published authors and well-accepted but needs, in my opinion, a true editor’s keen eye.  So it too sits inside my computer waiting.

Someone asked me the other day what my favorite part about my job is and I said that interviewing people for the stories I write.  I love hearing their stories and being able to put it down on paper.  Then I love getting an email, phone call and even a text from the subject of my story giving me praise and thanks for the article after it’s published.  That is truly rewarding. (The check from the publisher isn’t too bad either.)  I say this because it makes me accountable to the time they gave to let me interview them.  If the end result is not good for the subject, then I consider the story a failure, no matter how well-written it was.

Recently, a lot of what I’ve written is done in kind (no money exchanged) as I also offer my writing talents to the organizations I belong to such as Girl Scouts.  I am always amazed at how one group can consistently be in the newspaper while another is ignored when I know the other is sending things to the paper for publication.  PR (public relations) is about networking and knowing the right people.  Anyone who writes knows this because in today’s writing world, publicists practically don’t exist.  The first lesson in authoring a published book is how to market that book.

We should always be looking for and be discovering opportunities to write and finding ways to fine tune the art of writing.

Local writer and award-winning author Deborah Levine has created a Facebook Page called Author! Author – a global writers page.  She recently posted this YouTube video “The Art of
Persuasive Writing.”  It is worth viewing.

Three articles were published in a local newspaper this month; two more are ready to be turned for November, in the same paper.  Another local “glossy” bi-monthly magazine has given me the go on an article for their December issue and I’ve volunteered to donate my writing and “reporting” skills to cover some special events coming up at my granddaughter’s elementary school.  They need the publicity and I have the time and talent to offer them my services.

Writing is a gift; it is a challenge; it is commitment.  But I love it!

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