Writing Basics

This is an exercise in learning how to get past certain roadblocks and get what is in your head down on paper. Additionally, I will show you my own technique to continue to build the story using questions. I will cover critiques, your own belief in yourself, and how to write what you want to write; even if it may not be the day you want to write it.

I am the creator and author of The Earth's Survivors saga, Billy Jingo, Glenville, America the Dead, The Guitar Work series, Genesis Earth, Dreamers, White trash and dozens of other novels and short stories and other writings including lyrics, plays, prose and humor. I write a weekly blog along with some other writers. Writing is my one real goal in life and has been since childhood. Life simply didn't take me where I wanted it to. Adults didn't help me when I needed it, and of course I did even more harm to myself than any of those things did by believing in them. Believing they were gospel. But there is a way I could have avoided that and it is actually very simple: Ignore it.

I had no guide to bring me into my own career, but once I found my way out of addiction I began my journey. I am not a popular author in the sense that I sell millions of books, but I do have fans that are very loyal and keep in touch with me. So, the things I write about here actually work, actually come from my own, real experiences.

I think that 99% of writing ability comes from the gut. That core belief that, One: You can do this, and, Two: It doesn't matter who disagrees with that statement as long as you continue to believe in it. For all of your life, in everything that you do, you will have critics. Why? Call it part of human nature. Some people are miserable unless they have their hands in someone's life. They don't care about the consequences they may cause you. It doesn't matter to them if you fold up your tent and move in. You actually mean nothing at all to most of them in a very good way.

How can that be? It can be very simply. You are a step. A step that raises them above the crowd: A way for their lonely voice to be heard. That is all. And it is not personal, because if they cannot get to you they will move on to someone else. The individual person means very little.

Now the second kind of person just means harm. Again, most of the time, it doesn't matter if it is you or someone else. They will come along and tear you up if they can. I had this happen to me once and was so shocked that I couldn't think what to do at first. Finally, I got myself in gear. This is the age of the internet and you truly cannot hide if someone wants to find you. Trace this account to that account, to that page, to this account, and soon you'll have them. It was, in my case, another author who was angry that my books sold better than her books: My introduction to authors and how some of them see each other.

The point is this. These things hurt you only if you allow them to. If you internalize the fact that you are good: Remember that the term good is subjective, and realize that most of the time it is not personal, you will be fine. For those few times that it does seem personal? Well, like I said, it is easy to trace that feedback to an account, trace that to a website, trace that to another account, and eventually you will come to the person hiding behind it.

You are a good writer: