Amateur Writer

#blogging insights has given us this food for thought.

I agree in the most part, many of the writers on Word press, are amateur writers, who didn’t quit. They write most days, and learn from the feedback they get off other writers.

About ten years ago, I wrote my first book, and was definitely an amateur writer then. I didn’t understand about the dangers of vanity publishing, and paying out money for what was nothing more than substandard editing. They even rang back and said they could make my book into a movie – for a fee of course.

I have learnt we cannot self edit our own work, because we are too close to what we are writing. That there is more to a story than words, you have to think about structure, point of view, the story arc, sentence structure and a lot more.

As writers we are always learning, and some of us are lucky enough to be traditionally published. But that doesn’t mean self publishing is second best. We just need to make sure that the finished product is good enough.

Another lesson I have learnt is beta reading isn’t enough, and that a good editor is worth their weight in paper. I originally self published the same book a few years ago, under a different name, but it wasn’t good enough, so I took it off the market, changed the name, added a few chapters and an editor helped me through the rest.

Am I still an amateur writer? Probably, because to be a professional writer, I will need to do it as my main job. I don’t earn enough to be able to write for a living. Although I have a commissioned play, so perhaps now I can call myself a professional.