AUTHOR'S CORNER;

TEN THINGS AN AUTHOR NEEDS

Hey fellow writers, happy new year and all my best wishes go out to each and every single one of you for the rest of the year.  Let's make 2013 a lucky year!  As writers we yearn for our work to get noticed and acknowledged.  We invest a lot of time and effort into our work and spend a lot of time alone in a quiet room trying to be creative, often these efforts feel futile and it seems like there is nobody there to comfort you.  One cannot be blamed for feeling a little abandoned in the literary world, where royal-like agents and publishers are almost unobtainable to the mere peasant writer!  After the festive cheer and the parties and late nights and of course the self doubt that accompanies the new year, one needs to take a back seat and reassess what it is one needs to progress and go forth and be that successful writer that one so often dreams about on quiet God forsaken nights!  

Basically, published or not, there are ten things I think that every writer needs in order to push through the barriers of this iron maze of literary jungle.  If one possess those ten things, then one will be able to negotiate the difficult times, sail through the dreary, mind numbing times, push through the opposing bookshop managers, who seem to pass judgement on whether or not you are worthy of book signing, even though you have actually been published and they would actually be making money if you sold your book in their shop!  

NEVER MIND, LIKE ALL GOOD ARTEEESTS ONE MUST SUFFER FOR ONE'S ART!

And in my suffering I have come to an understanding of what it is a writer needs in order to survive this torturous path that he or she have chosen for themselves.  They are the ten most basic and most fundamental if not slightly delusional and insane tools that any person working with imagination needs!

1.  A fundamental burning desire to write books, a passion and an almost phantom like obsession to have your mind transferred into books.  Lots and lots of books, books which sit on shelves for future generations to read and hold and cherish.  A need to live forever through the pen!  This need, above all, must be the strongest and most intense desire you have!  

2.  Good writing equipment, and a quiet place where you as a moderately insane artist can go and be creative without any disturbance from those members of the family who profess to be sane!

3.  Strong coffee and whatever other vice that will help calm your nervous disposition and get you through the day!  I would say cigarette, but I recently gave up!  Don't worry about the OTHERS (in your family) complaining, they do not have your insane, disturbed, slightly insecure personality, they are not artists!

4. Imagination, you need him, because without your imagination you can never, ever, ever be a writer!  Don't be scared of him, embrace him, court him, talk to him if you have to!  But whatever you do, however stupid you feel, or whatever anyone else says...never forsake him!  For he is your storyteller!  Listen to your imagination, agree with him, love him, befriend him!  Don't worry, you are not mad, just creative!

5. The ability and willpower to face the day!  As solo workers, we can sometimes find it very hard to get motivated, as for most of the time we are alone, with no one to assess our work or give us praise for a hard day's work.  For all we know we could be writing rubbish.  And even when we do finish our work, we then have the agony of waiting for a publisher or agent to sniff in our direction, and when they finally do, we have to wait for a decision, and mostly we get rejected!

6. The burning desire to make money!  Because that is what will drive you on and make you want to sit in that room for hours!  Yes it is all very well and good to say you do it for the art, and you probably do, but even writers need to eat! 

7.  Market yourself, because gone are the days when your publisher would have marketed you!  Even if you are published and you are very happy with your publisher, a lot of promotion falls back on the author nowadays!  Unless of course you have a multi million pound deal with the biggest publisher on the planet!

                        8.  Find an image in your head, become that image and be that writer that you envisage; you'll be amazed at how an image can influence how you behave!

9.  Inspiration is the mother of creation!  If you want to write it well you must try and at least feel it a little!  Love needs romantic inspiration, drama needs real life situations in which a writer can take from.  Put yourself in stimulating environments.

10.  Finally, wear it proudly!  Whether you are in the public eye or not, book signing, on t.v. or just amongst a circle of friends, behave like a writer, be proud of it and never, ever shy away from it.  Because my friends, what you say you are, is what others will believe!