So You Want to Be a Writer

By Dennis S. Martin

A book about all types of writing. Recognizing, discovering and developing as a writer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781312995222

Book preview

So You Want to Be a Writer

So, You Want to be a Writer:

Discovering and Developing the Writer Within

By Dennis Sidney Martin

© Copyright 2014 by Dennis Sidney Martin

All rights reserved

Print Version ISBN 978-1-312-07073-8

E-Pub ISBN: 978-1-312-99522-2

Beginnings

You’re looking for something, aren’t you? Maybe you don’t know quite what it is, but it’s ….something. The fact that you picked up this book and started reading is your first tell. Maybe it was the cool cover or the intriguing title. It doesn’t really matter. You’re here now so let’s get started.

There is something inside you that wants to get out, to be set free. It’s been brewing for some time, or perhaps it’s a recent epiphany. You have a story to tell, a theme to express. It’s burning a hole in your brain and crying out to be set free.

Don’t be afraid. That’s just the writer inside you crying to get out. Come along, and let’s explore this for a while. It won’t take too long. I promise.

Let’s see if we can find and free the writer within. For any writer, the urge, the obsession to write begins at an early age. Maybe it’s just a fascination with words, a compulsion to read everything you can get your hands on, including the dictionary. It generally holds true that most writers are also ravenous readers. Perhaps you began writing in a diary or journal at an early age. Or it could have been a class assignment where you are required to write a report, an essay or a poem. Someone, perhaps your teacher, maybe a friend or classmate tells you what you have written is good, offers encouragement, praise. This spurs you on, gives you a spark.

Before we get too involved, let me share with you a little bit about my own experiences so you won’t think I’m just leading you down the primrose path to nowhere. I wasn’t born yesterday and I won’t assume that you were either. But experience tells and that is one thing I have in abundance.

When the idea for composing a piece about writing first entered my head, the one thing that immediately came to mind was, What qualifies you to pen such a book? Surely, that would be one of the first things people would want to know. So, I set out to answer it to my own satisfaction before anyone else posed the question.

Let me begin by saying that I’ve been writing in one form or another since I was a teenager. Having recently celebrated the 64th anniversary of my birth, that would give me at least a half century of writing experience.

I knew as early as sixth grade that I had a love for poetry. My sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Nuchols, helped introduce me to such wonderful poets as Joyce Kilmer (Trees), Carl Sandberg (Fog) and Ogden Nash (Purple Cow). Later on I formed my own favorites such as Robert Frost and e e cummings.

My actual AHA moment comes in ninth grade English class. Our class assignment is to write a sonnet. At the time I didn’t know a sonnet from a sunset. Nevertheless, I took the challenge.

Ok, let me see. Fourteen lines, structured rhyming scheme, something like ABABCDCDEFEFGG. That is the assignment, any topic or theme. I can’t even remember what I wrote about, but my teacher loves it, holds it up as an example to the rest of the class, shares it with other teachers in the English Department.

I’m feeling like I just won the Pulitzer Prize in literature. Needless to say, after that, I am hooked. Even though I don’t realize it at the time, I have become a writer. The poetry continues to flow so that, by the time I graduate high school I have a whole collection of poems that I title Look Into My Mirror.

One of my classmates wants to read my work. Eager to receive his praise I gladly hand over my manuscript. His critique? He finds my work morose. Morose? I look it up in the dictionary and am extremely disappointed to find out that it means it is gloomy and sullen; in a word, depressing.

A new direction is in order. No way do I want to depress my audience. I want to inspire. Deciding to lighten things up a bit, I start writing more lighthearted fare. Letting go of the earlier anger and angst of teenage life gives my work a new perspective. I am growing.

But then I hit a sidetrack and discover a new passion. I discover the thrill of live theatre.

After taking a supporting role in our high school senior play, I thought it would be fun to take some acting classes in college. As part of the class we are urged to join the College Players, a little acting group that tours local high schools presenting short skits and dance routines. We have a lot of fun doing this, but it is also a learning experience.

Since my drama teacher is also the theatre director, I also get involved with the local community theatre group. Over the next two seasons I participate in eight different productions ranging from drama to comedy to musicals. Never a star, I have a number of supporting roles, but more importantly I learn about the inner workings of stage productions.

I am involved in everything from set construction to stage management, lighting, sound and properties. I even act as Assistant Director for one production.

You might wonder what all of this has to do with writing. Well, it just so happened that I tried my first foray as a playwright during this period. It’s just a couple of one act plays that are not very good, but it’s a beginning. Later on I will refer back to my experiences in community theatre when I begin writing plays in earnest. More on that later.

My next twenty years or so are crowded with a stint in the military, marriage, a career and other obligations. Even though I don’t find a lot of time for writing, I never lose my passion for it. In fact, one of my poetry collections during this time is titled Passions

Then I turned forty.

Somewhere around age forty it occurred to me that, if I am ever going to make my mark as a writer, I’d better get started. Call it a mid-life crisis. I am still writing an occasional poem but want more.

At the time my wife and I are season ticket holders with two different theatre companies. We seem to be going to the theatre all the time. One fateful night we happen to catch a touring company production of Les Miserables.

Even before intermission I know that I want to see this marvelous musical again; which we do. I am inspired. Not long afterward I say to myself, I want to do that. I want to write something like that.

I decide I am going to write a musical about one of my childhood idols, Joan of Arc. I read, I research, and I agonize over Saint Joan until I feel I had a personal relationship with her. I finish the play, 50+ pages of poetic dialogue that I think is pretty good. My biggest problem is that I don’t write music and can’t find anyone with the time and talent to collaborate. That play is still out there waiting for the music to be written, but at least the words are there. I have written my musical.

Undeterred, I proceed to write three more plays for musical adaptation. I also continue to write other non-musical stage plays. At last count there are a total of fifteen.

Also during this time I submit occasional poems in contests, but find that many contest are sponsored by vanity press organizations who are more interested in selling overpriced compilations books to amateurish poets (anyone really) who wants to see their names in print regardless of their poetic merit.

This is not to say that legitimate poetry publications are non-existent. There are many fine literary presses out there that are looking for quality poetry and are willing to pay for the privilege of publishing it. All I can advise is to check out the guidelines and make sure your poetry is a good fit before you submit. We will talk more about this later on.

A New Challenge

Having conquered the realms of poetry and playwriting, I decide I am ready for a new challenge. For most of my adult life I wondered if I had it in me to write ‘the great American novel’. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? After all, I have certainly read enough of them to know how they are structured.

So, I read a book on how to write a novel. Then I read another and another and another. Man! There are a lot of books out there on that subject.

Finally I have an idea in mind for a story. I let it germinate and grow into a rough outline. I develop characters, write character sketches, develop backstory, research the subject (Wiccan magic) and related items. Research leads to research which leads to more research. All of this happens before I write page one of the book.

Then I begin to write my story. About 8 months and 235 pages later I feel that I have a finished draft. Then begins the grueling review and editing process that lasts several more weeks. The point is, I do finally finish, and I do it writing mostly on weekends after a hectic workweek.

It is so satisfying when I finally cross the last t and dot the last i, I just know I have to do it all again. And I do; two more times in fact. My three novels are now self-published and available in all formats at most major Internet bookstores.

So what does this all mean?

It’s very simple really. If you are reading this you already know that you have an inner urge to write, to create. As I said before and will say again, creative feelings are instilled early on. They may take some time to develop and come to the forefront, but they cannot be suppressed forever.

What better time than now to begin expressing your inner writer? Get a plan. Get a pencil and paper or sit down at that keyboard and start recording your thoughts. Write in your journal every day. Don’t have a journal? Get one. Read books about the subject of writing. Take a course at your local community college.

Any of these things are good starting points, but the main thing is to begin NOW. Just do it. And don’t be surprised if your search reveals ‘the writer within’.

How Will You Use This Book?

If you are like me, when you open a book like this, one that breaks down into different focus categories, you have a tendency to skip over certain parts and focus on the items that interest you the most.  Well, my friend, you can do that with this book, but I hope that you don’t.

I have made every attempt to give as much clear and concise content as possible without inundating you with superfluous dribble that I have found in many books about the craft of writing.  Whether