Your Writing Questions Answered
Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Asked
About a month ago, I asked for your writing-related questions, and several of you posted some good ones!
What I particularly appreciate is how universal the questions were. Although the original poster may have been asking something specific for themselves and their own situation, there’s a certain ubiquity to the questions, so much so that writers of all skill levels and genres should be able to glean some insight from the responses.
And Answered
So…as promised in that original post, I’ve responded to your questions in my latest YouTube video.
As a quick caveat, I want to note that I’ve addressed the questions as I’ve interpreted them. If anyone (including, of course, the original poster) would like additional explanations or if my responses bring to mind further questions, I welcome comments both here (on Substack) and on my YouTube channel.
Here’s the video:
Following Your Heart…and Goals
One thing I noticed as I responded to the questions is that there is a common (sort of) theme. In fact, this theme appears to some extent in most of my YouTube videos.
Goals.
I’m all about goals.
How you approach writing—every aspect of it—depends on your personal writing goals.
People who meet me as an adult might find me especially goal-oriented, more so than those who knew me as a kid. I’ve actually always been goal-oriented, even as a child, but as a kid, my goals were often dismissed by others as unattainable or unrealistic. Although they probably were at the time, I never knew how to set more realistic goals that would help me reach those supposedly unrealistic goals; this was something I had to figure out on my own as an adult. But now it’s something that I, as a writing coach, can help others with! (And something I’m often very emphatic about!)
Did you know that a lot of aspiring writers declare that they want to publish a book before even writing a word? What they thought might be a one-year project turns into a five-, ten-, or even twenty-year undertaking. In fact, many of the sources I’ve seen state that only about 3 percent of aspiring writers ever make it to the end of a first draft (of a full-length manuscript, e.g., novel or memoir). There are a lot of reasons for this, but one reason may be that they haven’t set more specific—and attainable—goals for themselves.
Need help meeting your writing goals? Visit my website for more information.
As always, I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already—and share, like, comment as you see fit! I appreciate your support!