Why you are failing as a writer

 

Why you are failing as an author

by JJ Ritonya

 

You’ve written your book, article, short story or submission. You’ve proofread, edited and proofread again. You’ve sent it to friends, editors and friends of editors for spell check, proofreading and, of course, editing. Now you’re ready to send it off to the publisher, Ezine, anthology, website or other publishing entity only to receive a rejection letter/e-mail a few weeks/months later.

So what’s the problem? You’re friends and relatives say how great your stories are. It can’t possibly be your writing. Is it your style? Is it the subject matter? Your mom raves to her book club about you and they all agree with her. (At least to her face.)

 

The reasons “why” are endless. The one thing you can control is what you do about it. The hard part is identifying what your specific problems are and correcting them. Just about everyone feels that they are motivated and work hard. That is until they meet up with someone who really is motivated and a hard worker. Once you identify where you are coming up short, it’s easy to translate the successes you enjoy by changing your behavior to other areas.

 

So why do most writers fail?

 

One of the most common reasons is poor writing. If a story is hard to read or follow, the reader has a very difficult time understanding where the author is coming from.  It doesn’t matter how great the story is, if it is poorly written, it goes in the “rejected” pile.

Another reason is poor presentation. A story can be very well written and have an awesome story line but if the formatting is difficult to follow and the font is really small or really huge, again, it becomes another in a long line of rejections. Editing also falls under the presentation umbrella. Misspellings and words that are out of order or confusing also lands your submission in the circular file.

Lack of interesting content can be the final nail in an author’s coffin. You can have the most beautiful presentation as well as the writing style of a pro, but if your content bores the socks off the reader, it’s back to the blank Word doc for you.

The three elements of writing, presentation and content go hand in hand for the successful writer and all must be present to succeed. But, these alone will not sell novels or have publishers beating down your door.

 

            Other pitfalls of the profession

 

            A great story presented immaculately and of very interesting subject matter can be ambushed by a lack of knowledge in the subject matter you are writing about. An author loses credibility in my opinion, when they write things they pulled out of their ass. Do your homework, regardless of your genre, fiction or non-fiction. It pays off in the end.

            Timid writing can also submerge a piece before it even has a chance to set sail. Write with confidence. Act as if you wrote the book on whatever you are writing your book about, because when it’s done, you will have. Take the proverbial bull by the horns and ride, damnit, ride! Take no prisoners! Okay, you get the point. If you can write what you know, love or feel confident about, it will show in the finished product.

            Criticism, if offered in the correct way, can be a tremendous help to an author. If an experienced publisher or editor offers advice, listen to it if nothing else. You may or may not agree with their opinion, but at least give it some honest thought. Who knows? They may be right. I try to take all criticism with a grain of salt and do my best to think about the remarks objectively. Some criticism comes for the sake of criticizing and is not constructive in any way. These I disregard without a second thought. But if you can take what is said, learn from it and improve as a writer then you’ve done the best you can.

 

It’s all in your head

 

So what else could it be that prohibits your writings from being published? Could it be that it’s a psychological or mental issue? No, I don’t mean you’re retarded or mentally unstable, although if you’ve read any of my work you may question if I am. What I’m talking about is mental strength. Believing that you deserve to be successful and that you have what it takes to be a best-selling author. It goes back to writing with confidence. If you don’t believe in yourself and your work, why should anyone else? Many people defeat themselves before anyone has a chance to shoot them down. It’s a losing proposition. Think positively and positive things will happen. Think negatively and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Other people give up at the first sign of adversity or criticism, thinking that the naysayers were right all along. Don’t listen to them. Believe that you can. No one else will believe for you. Persevere. No one is going to give their best effort on your behalf. It’s up to you. Failure is imminent. It’s what you do after the door has been slammed in your face once, twice or even three hundred times that defines who you are as a writer and a person.

            Learn from your mistakes. I, for one have made plenty. What I have tried to do is learn what I did wrong and try to avoid the same mistakes in the future. As the old saying goes: Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it. Don’t be doomed!

            Work hard. Do you think Stephen King or James Patterson got discovered by sitting around whining about how no one wanted to read their work? No. They wrote and wrote then wrote some more. They continued to fine tune their craft until they became what some would call, masters at it. Your work ethic is one of the few things you can control in your writing endeavors. Don’t sell yourself short by dogging it. Get to work!

            Finally, be realistic. Success does not come overnight. Don’t be discouraged just because you haven’t hit the big time and you’ve been submitting your work for a whole six months. Realism is taking the facts of a situation and expecting a reasonable result. Be realistic.

 

            $$$

           

What’s that? Did I hear someone say that they don’t have the money to market and promote their work? There are literally hundreds of ways to market and promote your work to improve your name recognition as well as your writing skills. Most of them are free. I won’t get into them here, but I have written other articles on how to do just that, on a limited or no budget.

Have a plan when sending out your work. Read the wants and needs of the publisher, website or Ezine you are submitting to. They have an idea of what they want and it makes no sense to send in a war story to a site that is asking for romance novels.

           

            Words of wisdom

 

            Not that my words mean that much, but if you’ve read this far, I hope you have found something useful to take with you.

            Don’t   be afraid

            Don’t   worry

            Don’t   give up

 

            Do        think positive

            Do        work hard

            Do        be patient        

            Success is something that is earned. No one is going to hand it to you. Keep your head up and do your best. Success will find you.

 

            Thanks for reading.

 

            JJ Ritonya

            http://www.jjritonya.com