Small Business Boomers

Baby Boomers: So you want to write

by Jean on September 6th, 2008

Yesterday,  I talked about writing jobs for baby boomers.  If you have always wanted to “WRITE” (whatever that means to you) and you have an idea of what you want to write, the best place to go for advice is successful authors. You don’t get any more successful than Stephen King. A Baby Boomer (born in 1947), King has written more than 39 novels under his own name, seven more as Richard Bachman, and pseudonyms and countless short stories. I’m currently reading his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft  for inspiration. And there is plenty of it in the book.

(photo: Amazon)

King tells his story of how he started writing as a youngster, how his wife Tabitha fished his draft of Carrie out of the trash, and the rest is history. He also tells of his drug and alcohol addiction and his family’s intervention, and his life since then.

The advice comes in the second part of the book. If you want to write, here is what King urges you to do:

1. Read. Read everything, good and bad. Read the bad so you can see why it’s bad. Read the good and think about what you’re reading. If you don’t read a lot, King says, you can’t be a good writer.
2. Write. All the time. Before his accident in 1999, King wrote every single day, 365 days a year, at least 2000 words a day. That’s commitment. If you don’t write a lot, you’re not a writer.  King has slowed down a little (haven’t we all); he says to start out, you should commit to writing 1000 words a day, at least 6 days a week.  Can you do that?

I was inspired by King’s thoughts and advice.  I have lots of things to write about.  I am committed to finding the time.  Are you interested in writing?  What have you done to make that happen?  What kind of writing would you like to do?

(Book image from Amazon; Stephen King photo: picapp.com)

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