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If you get a chance, watch "Extras," a BBC sitcom co-written and performed by Ricky Gervais.
Gervais' style of comedy is immediately recognizable. It's so painfully true, you will want to cry even as you're laughing.
Gervais has made a fortune saying things that none of us would dare say for fear of offending or upsetting the social order. He pokes fun at the thin veneer of political correctness that hides what so many of us are privately thinking.
As writers, we'd be wise to learn from Gervais. Gervais is painfully honest, especially when it hurts.
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As a writer, your greatest asset is your mind. A mind brimming with ideas can make writing a joy; while a grumpy, sleepy, or otherwise balking mind can wreck your day.
If you're a commercial writer, you can't wait for inspiration. You have to be able to write well day after day, whether you feel like it or not, whether you're hungover or not, whether you have any ideas or not. Few bosses will allow you to take a day off just because your brain is foggy or otherwise indisposed.
Unfortunately, many beginning writers assume that their talents are at the mercy of the Muse. If she smiles on them with an image or a memorable line, they scribble furiously, confident in their talent. But when the Muse goes quiet, their brain goes silent as well.
You cannot afford to think this way if you want to be a commercial writer. You can't just write when you feel like it. You don't have the time to wait until an idea comes to you. You've got to teach yourself to write even if your mind is somewhere else.
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I took one creative writing course as an undergraduate and a whole year of writing courses as a postgraduate. I earned an M.A. in writing, with distinction. I learned nothing of any use.
That may sound arrogant, but it's simply an observation based on personal experience. I write for a living. Writing for a living has required me to develop a skill set that's completely unrelated to anything I was taught in university.
So if I were asked to teach a writing class, based on the concepts that have proven most useful to me as a writer, what I'd teach is this:
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I’ve always wanted to write a book.
It just sounds so cool: a book. Even better: “My book.” Still better: “Have you read my book?”
I can still remember, back in college, when a 6-page paper was a serious writing project. It took a lot of research, writing, and re-writing to get to that number. Then, my senior year, I wrote a 10-page paper one day almost by accident, and the teacher accepted it. “Wow,” I thought afterwards to myself. “I just wrote 10 pages. Me!”
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The story of how I found myself writing books has been told elsewhere. This is the story of how I wrote those books.
Writing self-help or how-to books is a different process to writing a novel or a travel book. Much of it comes down to two skills:
- The ability to reduce complex topics to simple 3-step processes.
- The ability to produce quotable phrases.
I’ll talk about each in turn.
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It's not easy to put your thoughts down on paper in the hope that someone will want to read them.
The world is flush with words already. A cursory scan of the millions of personal blogs online reveals that everyone has the same hope as you, e.g., that their thoughts and experiences and opinions are worthy of an audience. Then there are the newspapers, magazines and books published every day. What do YOU have to say that's any different or better than what's already being published?
Thoughts like those are what kept me silenced for a decade of my writing life. Don't let them silence you.
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I never imagined that I was moving to New Zealand to become a writer.
I had my eye set on a totally different industry. But, once I got arrived, I found that my overseas experience wasn’t what they were looking for. Most industries in New Zealand require a relevant university degree, and my degrees weren’t anywhere close to being relevant.
I was running out of money and desperate. I needed a job, fast.
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For writers who aren’t “good” enough for mainstream publication, there’s always the online market.
What I love most about e-books is that they’re often written by people who always dreamed of becoming a writer, but never had the talent or career opportunities to do so. Many e-book authors are single moms who want to find a job they can do from home while caring for their children, or retired professionals who want to work on their own terms. No wonder so much online writing is a mixed bag, often missing the impeccable grammar or punctuation of traditional publications.
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What makes someone a credible relationships expert?
It's a question I never thought about before becoming one myself.
When I began writing dating and relationship advice, I worried that I'd be called out for my lack of expertise. After all, all I'd done was go on a lot of dates and read a lot of books. There were real dating experts out there who had, like, degrees and stuff.
But then I began meeting the other "experts" who, like myself, were writing dating advice online, and I began to realize that anyone can be a dating expert if they're willing to call themselves one.
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