Five Secrets of Successful Writers

By Lori A. Basiewicz

 1.      Learn to go without sleep.

Writers are strange. They talk to themselves and see things others do not. They even see things that are not there. This is okay. They are writers. They are extremely sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation does strange things to the mind and for the writer, the only way to handle the visions is to describe them on paper.

Start on your hallucinations now to speed your success. Set your alarm clock an hour early in order to write and stay up late so you can write even more. In no time at all you will see many interesting and unusual things that can only be described by words.

2.      Hate your muse.

It is okay to hate your muse. Muses are evil creatures. Forget the nostalgic images of demure winged-fairies flitting just beyond sight while sprinkling pixie dust on the heads of creative individuals. True muses are more devils than angels. They can be downright sadistic.

They know when you have a big meeting the next day and need your sleep. They know pens and pencils cannot write when wet. So, they wait. Patiently they wait. Until just the moment when you are drifting off to sleep or are lathered from head to toe in the shower with no reasonable way to get to anything to capture your ideas. This is when they pounce. At this moment, they will provide you with the best angle for the article you are working on or the entire manuscript for a best-selling novel. And if you do not get it down right at that instant, your muse will take it away as quickly as he provided it.

So, it is okay to hate your muse. But do not fight with him. This is his game and the only way you can win is to cheat. Be prepared. Be ready to outsmart him. Keep pen and paper hidden nearby at all times. Stash a tape recorder in the bathroom. But never ever forget to put a fresh tape in the recorder or replace your out-of-ink pen. If you do, your muse will know and that is when he will strike.

3.      Get a cat (or a dog).

Cats are linked with writers and other literary types as the pet of choice. This is not because writers like cats. Most writers cannot stand cats. They are annoying creatures. But, like the hated muse, they are necessary evils of the writing business.

Successful writers are not tied to the keyboard 24/7. In order to write about life, they must experience life. Successful writers often forget this rule, so they need something to remind them. Cats (and sometimes dogs) perform this function remarkably well. They are great distractions. They need to be walked and fed and combed and played with. Their insistence on standing between the writer and the monitor reminds the writer to get up and move around occasionally, to get up from the monitor and come back later, to see the current literary masterpiece from a fresh, new angle.

While children perform many of these same functions, you do not have to worry about hiring a babysitter if you must leave suddenly to get ink for the printer or to conduct an interview if you have a dog or a cat.

4.      Do not be a confidante.

Successful writers look for stories everywhere. In magazines, television, on the subway, in the love letters their mother kept from their old boyfriends, and in their friends’ lives. A friend asking if you can keep a secret is a gold mine. Remember everything they say. Take notes. Secretly record the conversation. Do not answer when they ask what you are doing. Just keep them talking.

Before long, you may have lost all of your old friends when they begin to recognize themselves in your stories. But that is okay. By the time they catch on, you will have exhausted their stories and will need new friends for fresh inspiration, anyway.

5.      Never read what you write.

Most people hate the sound of their own voice. Writers are the same. They hate the look of their words on paper. Writers who do not read what they have written are far more likely to get published than writers who agonize over every comma.

Successful writers have a tried and true secret for avoiding this pitfall: they never read what they write. They might edit it once, or even twice, but always from a safe distance. But they never ever actually read it. Just one, maybe two, possibly three, drafts, then they send it out into the world for someone else, preferably the editor of a national glossy or a large New York publishing house, to read.

Lori A. Basiewicz is a professional freelance writer. When not catering to her cat or plotting world-domination, she attends classes at the local university, writes magazine and newsletter articles, travel reviews, and short stories. She is currently working on her first novel. In her free time, Lori takes horseback riding lessons and begs the voices in her head to be quiet so she can sleep. Contact her at Lori@QuoinCommunications.net.

Sponsored links

Ring binders

 

Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer!

How to find a book publisher

Home

Text on this site Copyright © 1998-2007 Absolute Write, all rights reserved.
Please contact the authors if you'd like to reprint articles on this site.  All copyrights are retained by original authors.  And plagiarizers will be rounded up, handcuffed, and stuck into a very small and humid room wherein they must listen to Barney sing the "I Love You, You Love Me" song over and over again.

writers writing software