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| Image: ©hvaldez1, December 2008 |
Guy Kawasaki advises, "Write a book because you have something important to say."
Kawasaki is talking about non-fiction in the Forbes piece quoted above — but extrapolate and apply the concepts to fiction. Unless every book is the much-maligned “book of your heart,” you’re playing the wrong game. No matter how many words you vomit onto pages daily, how much you hone your craft, how manic you are with promotion, how many friends and family members and other writers you convince to like and tag and talk about your books ad nauseam … the moment you lose sight of the story as the thing that really matters, you’re finished.
Always write the story of your heart. If your stories haven’t left scars all over your heart, they sure as heck won’t even nick anyone else’s.
I hope I toss the crap and save the good stuff. I read a lot of stuff that I wonder what they were thinking to publish it-and not all self pubs.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure most writers try to keep the good stuff and toss the crap, Neil. :-D Like you, though, I've noticed an awful lot of stuff lately that made me scratch my head and wonder what the author, editor, and publisher were thinking. Frankly, that's happening more often these days with trad-pubbed than self-pubbed books. I think the current environment may obscure, for some writers, why they embarked on their dream in the first place. Yes, publishing is a business...but the very essense of that business is dreams. :-)
ReplyDeleteKatleen, you are so correct, as usual. My favorite book is always the one I'm writing. I laugh, I cry, I write on. I hope readers get the same experiences.
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