{"id":812,"date":"2010-10-11T04:00:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joeclarksblog.wordpress.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2010-10-11T04:00:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T08:00:16","slug":"the-great-american-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"The Great American Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, so you want to be a writer.\u00a0 You should ask yourself a few questions regarding your desire to write.\u00a0 First, Why do you want to write?<\/em>\u00a0 The second is, What are you going to write?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Writers have to be highly motivated.\u00a0 There is probably no other job on this planet requiring more self-motivation and discipline than writing.\u00a0 Which comes back to the question of why?<\/em><\/p>\n

There are many reasons for writing.\u00a0 English poet and essayist Samuel Johnson said, \u201cNo man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many desire to write for the reason of money.\u00a0 There is nothing wrong with that; but you have to be capable of writing well.\u00a0 You must also have something pertinent to say about your subject.\u00a0 Otherwise, no one will pay to read your essays.<\/p>\n

One misconception about writing is that once you have finished your project, you will attain great wealth when published.\u00a0 Oops, sorry to say, this isn\u2019t so.<\/p>\n

Writing The Great American Novel is one thing and you should be thrilled with having accomplished your writing goal.\u00a0 However, do not expect money just to come rolling in because, \u201cyou\u2019re published.\u201d\u00a0 This is the biggest mistake of some authors.\u00a0 They assume once published, they will be rich and famous and never have to work another day for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

Actually, after a writer finishes the writing project, the next phase begins.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 You did not know about the next phase?\u00a0 What is the next phase?<\/p>\n

The next phase is marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once your book rolls off the presses, you have to get it out in front of the public.\u00a0 No one is going to do this for you.\u00a0 You have to do it.\u00a0 You have to go out and \u201cpress the flesh,\u201d talk to people, introduce yourself and your book, make radio and television appearances, talk to reporters, arrange book reviews, and acquire endorsements.\u00a0 And you have to do a lot of this.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, you won\u2019t make any money with your book unless you do all these things.\u00a0 To make money as a book author requires sales, to acquire sales you have to promote.\u00a0 And you, the author, are the most qualified to do the promoting. \u00a0If you are unwilling, no one will know you as a writer, even though you have a published book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the second question – what are you going to write?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Great American Novel is a lofty dream.\u00a0 For most, it is an unattainable dream.\u00a0 Fiction is fickle, at best.\u00a0 There is a lot going against writing fiction, the first and primary is the idea people do not have time to read for pleasure.<\/p>\n

This is a different time in which we live.\u00a0 The masses are concerned with making their bills, doing well at work, raising their children right, and taking care of their aging parents.\u00a0 There is little time left over for pleasure reading.<\/p>\n

If you are a capable writer who knows how to use verbs, adjectives, nouns and pronouns properly and can use reason and logic in your writing, there are many writing assignments out there for you.\u00a0 If you can avoid passive sentences and write in active voice, you can sell a great deal of non-fiction information.<\/p>\n

After all, important information is what the public is currently lusting.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, so you want to be a writer.\u00a0 You should ask yourself a few questions regarding your desire to write.\u00a0 First, Why do you want to write?\u00a0 The second is, What are you going to write?\u00a0\u00a0 Writers have to be … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,13],"tags":[699,1157,1273,1391,1720,2324,2566,2650,2823,2959,3052,3132,3178,3700,4333,4347,4348,4355],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publishing","category-reading","category-writing","tag-book-reviews","tag-discipline","tag-endorsements","tag-fiction-is-fickle","tag-great-wealth","tag-marketing","tag-no-man-but-a-blockhead","tag-once-published","tag-pleasure-reading","tag-radio-and-television-appearances","tag-rich-and-famous","tag-samuel-johnson","tag-self-motivation","tag-the-great-american-novel","tag-writer","tag-writing-for-money","tag-writing-goals","tag-writing-well"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}