A blogging tip

A blogging tip I read last year was that a blog post titled “11 Things. . .” will attract more readers than one whose title starts with “10 Things. . .” so that’s what I’ve started doing. I’ve been writing about 11 things I’ve learned about a different subject each month.

I worked on my list of 11 things I’ve learned about writing a couple of months ago. I easily came up with nine things. I forgot to look at that list again until last night. My sister asked me what my blog post was going to be about. When I told her it was supposed to be 11 things I’ve learned about writing but I only had nine things on my list, she said, “I guess you have two more things to learn about writing!” We laughed, and I knew I had to work her quick comeback into the post.

Funny as her response was, I realized that I don’t have two more things to learn about writing. I have 2,000 or 2,000,000 more things to learn about the craft! There will always be something to learn about writing.

11 things I’ve learned about writing

1. Mine will never be good enough.
2. Since it is unlikely that my writing will ever measure up to that of the great writers, I should compare my writing today to my writing of yesterday and always look for improvement.
3. If I wait until my novel manuscript is perfect, it will never be published.
4. If no one ever reads my southern historical novel manuscript whose working title is The Spanish Coin, I must remember that my efforts were not wasted because I had a blast doing the research and the writing!
5. There are many rules a novice fiction writer must follow, but established authors don’t have to always abide by those rules.
6. Have your second novel well underway before you start trying to get your first one published.
7. To be a good writer, you must be an avid reader of good writing.
8. There is always room for improvement, so eventually you have to stop editing your work, submit it, and move on to the next project.
9. Books about the craft of writing don’t all agree on the fine points of writing, so at some point you must rely on your gut and what feels right to you.
10. Some days words come easier than on other days.
11. Writing is hard work.

Until my next blog post

Until my next blog post, I hope you have a good book to read. If you’re a writer, I hope you have productive writing time.

Janet