Profession or Hobby?

You’re writing a book. Are you approaching this as a profession or is it a hobby?

Given how difficult it is to be successful, it might be healthier to approach writing and self-publishing as a hobby, something you do for fun.  However, are you approaching it seriously enough you don’t harm others?

Self-publishing is gaining respect because of writers who are approaching writing and publishing professionally. They make sure their books are edited. They pay attention to genre and industry standards for formatting. The hobbyist who publishes a rough draft rife with errors and formatted poorly hurts every serious self-publisher, not only by putting a dent in the self-publishing image, but by making it that much harder for a reader to find the good books.

You can approach writing and self-publishing as a hobby and still produce a well-written, professionally-produced book. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

A good critique group can help you polish the writing. Your library, book clubs, and English teachers at a local college may be able to suggest good editors and proof-readers. When it comes to formatting, you can buy templates or do it yourself using your word processor—if you know how to use styles, show all formatting marks, paragraphing, and other tools. If you don’t, head back to the library and local college and ask for a word processing guru. In any case, make sure you have copies of traditionally published books in the same genre to use as examples of how it should look. Pay attention to details.

This takes more time and effort than throwing up a rough draft, but friends who buy it may actually read it, and you won’t be hurting other writers.

www.sherimcguinn.com www.amazon.com/author/sherimcguinn

#professionorhobby #genre #selfpublishing #editing #formatting #critique #Writing

What Makes a Good Writing Class

I’ve taken courses and workshops in English, journalism, fiction writing, poetry writing, technical writing, grant writing, and probably more that I’m not thinking of this moment. Quality has varied, but many were excellent. Based on that experience, here are some elements I consider essential for a good writing class:

1. The instructor is a good teacher, someone who builds on your strengths rather than focusing on your errors.

2. Once you have basic skills, the instructor helps you refine your writing style rather than forcing your writing into a template or their personal style.

3. The instructor is a writer, preferably someone who’s published or is in the process of trying to be published, so they know what it’s like to risk rejection repeatedly.

4. The instructor regularly writes the form they are teaching, be it short or long fiction or non-fiction, plays or screenplays, or academic work.

5. Students are there because they want to improve their writing. If it is a required class, the majority of students become enthused as they see their writing improve.

6. Everyone is expected to write for every class meeting, whether that’s bringing in new or revised work and/or doing spontaneous writing in class.

7. The class as a whole or in small groups critiques each other’s work with the instructor modeling and supervising constructive critique methods. The emphasis is on the work, what works, and what can be improved. This way you will learn from everyone’s writing.

If you have other criteria, please post them.

www.sherimcguinn.com www.amazon.com/author/sherimcguinn

#goodwritingclasses #writinginstructors #howtowritebetter #whatmakesagoodwritingclass #goodwritingteachers #writingclasses #writingteachers #critique #Writing

Levels of Edit

The world goes on while we write: The term “buckets of rain” became real to me in 1972, when Tropical Storm Agnes stalled over Pennsylvania for days. So I checked – total rainfall that caused massive flooding back then was less than Houston got in the first twenty-four hours. Cousins – glad you’re safe.

On to levels of edit. I’m going to repeat one piece up here:

Don’t submit rough drafts for critique or editing!

If you’re working with a critique group, it’s rude. If you’re paying for an editor, it’s a waste of money. Always read, revise, and correct to the best of your ability first.

At least use your word processor’s spelling and grammar checks. These are flawed – you need to look at each suggestion before accepting corrections – but there’s no excuse for asking people to read something that looks like you threw letters and words into a blender, then poured them onto the page. Grammarly has a free app that gives feedback on grammar and Natural Readers has a free download that will read your documents aloud. It’s mechanical and makes pronunciation errors, but if you have a problem with commas, you’ll hear if you’re missing pauses or have too many.

Sheri McGuinn I write. http://www.sherimcguinn.com http://www.amazon.com/author/sherimcguinn

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