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Getting published is the ultimate goal for any beginning writer, but being published frequently is the difference between novice and professional. The first key ingredient to getting published often is to have a good writing discipline. Which, stated quite simply, means you need to write daily. Once you have the discipline to write every day, the next step to mulitple sales is to be organized in your daily work method. Both are the elements that turn would-be writers into top performers.
The Writing Discipline
There is a simple truth about the writing business: the more you write, the better writer you become. Writing is a craft that must be first learned, then finely polished. Just as professional golfer stands on the practice driving range, hitting ball after ball between tournaments to sharpen his skills, the seasoned writer arrives to the place called success by writing day after day. You must discipline yourself to write every day. You must practice the craft every day to become really good, even if for only a half hour.
Developing a writing discipline takes hard work. You must be firmly committed to a time and a place each day, much the same as you would sit down each and every Thursday night to watch your favorite television show. The same as sitting down to dinner each evening. Disciplined writing must be a part of the daily plan. The pure reality is not in what you write each day, but more importantly that you do write everyday. You will develop a sharper ability to write well each and every time you put words into writing.
One of the best ways to maintain a writing discipline is to keep a small notebook with you always. The instant an idea crops up, write it down. When you see a person who has an interesting character, write it down. Then when you sit down to begin your writing session, be it that evening, afternoon, or early morning, take the notes and transpose them into organized writing. Soon you will find there is much you need to write everyday.
An Organized Work Method
As you write every day, you will discover that you will have multiple projects going on throughout the week. There should be work going out, work coming back, and work just getting started. By creating an organized work method, you will find it much easier to keep things flowing, instead of being bogged down with so-called "writer's block". If your work is organized and you are writing every day, there will be little time to feel blocked. There are three easy forms that you can create to help organize your work.
Start with a Submissions Record. This shows the profile of all your work and where it has been submitted and where it is going next, should it be rejected. You will be amazed, once you discipline yourself to write every day, how fast you will have a page filled on a submission record. At a glance, you will see all the fruits of your labor. The work is moving through the system.
If you write articles, you will need a Query Letter Record. Here you can list multiple query attempts on a single idea. Whereas a manuscript is usually submitted to only one publisher at a time, a query letter is merely a sales pitch of an idea and should be sent to many publications at the same time. The editor who expresses the best interest or best offer gets the finished work first.
Once a query comes back with a "go ahead", or the fiction story has been completed, that piece is now moved onto an Itinerary Sheet and a folder is made. This is the document that stays with the work as your official record of its performance. The more organized you are, the better you chances are of selling. Soon you will need file cabinets to organize your published and pending work.
Create a discipline that works best for you, maintain that discipline, and organize your work method. These are the keys to being a highly productive writer.
Submission Record Assign Date Title/Story Magazine/Publisher Postage Yes/No Publish Date $$$ ______ ___________ __________________ _______ ______ ____________ ___ 1. 2. 3. 4.
Query Record: Title/Premise_________________________ Words_____________ Market_______________________________ Date Publication Postage Yes/No Project Income ____ ______________________ _______ _________ ______________ 1. 2. 3. 4.
Itinerary Sheet: Title_____________________________ Words___________________ Market____________________________ Age Group________________ Date Publication/Magazine Postage Reject/Accept Payment Date ____ _____________________ ________ _____________ ________ _____ 1. 2. 3. 4.
The story How to Maintain a Writing Discipline and Organized Work Method is Copyright 1998 by Michael Bavota.
The collection of works called Fish Eggs For The Soul is Copyright 1998 by Brian Rickman.
Copy edited by Sara Fawbush, editor of The Young Writer's Collection.