My Four Rules: The Best You Can Do To Make It As A Writer

What follows are my four cardinal rules for making it as a writer.  Never any guarantees - but if you follow these rules, you'll be giving yourself the best possible chance:

1. Don't think about an idea for a story or an article too long - just write it.  As far as the world is concerned, an unwritten idea doesn't exist, and might not have even been thought, in the first place.
2. Finish what you start writing.  As far as the world is concerned, an unfinished piece of writing doesn't exist, and might not have even been written, in the first place.
3. Email, mail, or otherwise send out to a potential publisher whatever you finish writing.  As far as the world is concerned, a piece of writing that only you and your friends and family but no publishers know about, might not have even been written, in the first place.
4. If the publisher or editor turns your story down, send it right out to another publisher or editor - there will always be another one.  As far as the world is concerned, an unpublished piece of writing might not have even been written-

Well, you get the picture.  I hope this helps...

More of my advice to writers: Fiction Writers Group ... Pure Southern Genteel ... Pillow Talk interview .... Book Pleasures ... Smoking Poet ... emonome ...

Listen also to special podcast - Authors and Critics: Perilous Symbiosis

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my Ask Lev podcast: 2-5 mins of advice about writing