{"id":1361,"date":"2024-06-11T09:20:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T08:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/?p=1361"},"modified":"2024-06-11T10:43:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T09:43:11","slug":"day-8-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/11\/day-8-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting\/","title":{"rendered":"DAY 8 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARE YOU A QUITTER?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone who isn\u2019t a writer thinks writing is easy. Most people can string words together, in a note for a family member or an informative message in a Christmas card. I\u2019m not decrying the initial thoughts and ideas of fledgling writers, but there is a misconception that the step from writing a page of notes to creating a story or even writing a novel… well, it can\u2019t be too hard, can it? It\u2019s just like what I do, and have done – only more so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even those who enjoyed (as I did) writing stories at school might think that an A* mark at 15 is the signpost to literary success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know, I\u2019m sounding somewhat arrogant and haughty. But as someone who has written eight novels (seven already published) and three collections of short fiction <<  https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/fiction-books\/<\/a> >> and seven non-fiction books << https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/non-fiction-books\/<\/a>  >> I do understand how much work goes into the transition from \u2018wanting to write<\/em>\u2019 to \u2018being a writer<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong – the rewards can be amazing. Not so much in the financial department (except for the very, very few) but in the sheer enjoyment you can get from telling stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always say, in my workshops and courses, I consider there are several levels of \u2018reward\u2019 I have received in my career:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) The first time someone says \u201cI enjoyed reading your story\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) The first time someone says: \u201cthat story was great – you can really write\u201d (thank you, Tim)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) The first time someone uses their hard-earned money to BUY one of your pieces of writing (I can\u2019t remember who that was – sorry, but thank you)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) The first time someone buys one of your books, and then says \u201cI enjoyed that book so much, I immediately bought the others in the series\u201d (thank you Simon and Derek, and others)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: none of these involved \u201cmy first million dollars\u201d or \u201cthe sports car I bought with my first royalty cheque\u201d. But, to me, these are worth far, far more than just money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And through my efforts ovr more than 20 years, I have been able to become a \u201cfull time author\u201d. I don\u2019t make enough money from royalties, even from seventeen published books (my marketing isn\u2019t the best it could be). But having written<\/em><\/strong> eighteen books, it gives me the credibility and authenticity to be able to write articles, conduct workshops and courses, and build an income from the accumulation of several income streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all of this… ALL OF IT… has come through hard work, and not giving up.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving up, and saying \u201cI wish…\u201d is the easiest thing in the world. I will leave you with a great quote from Richard Bach (author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull in 1970): \u201cA professional author is an amateur who didn\u2019t quit.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to finish –  there are a ton of author quotes on the internet, because no one enjoys being quoted more than a writer! Here are a couple of my favourites: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s no such thing as writer\u2019s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn\u2019t write.”<\/em><\/strong> – Terry Pratchett<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.”<\/em><\/strong> – Isaac Asimov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARE YOU A QUITTER? Everyone who isn\u2019t a writer thinks writing is easy. Most people can string words together, in a note for a family member or an informative message in a Christmas card. I\u2019m not decrying the initial thoughts and ideas of fledgling writers, but there is a misconception that the step from writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,6,7,15,16,17],"tags":[70,73,46,93,54,71,25],"class_list":["post-1361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-inspiration","category-mindful-writing","category-thinking","category-writing","category-writing-on-writing","tag-advice","tag-beginner","tag-creativity","tag-resilience","tag-success","tag-tips","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/BLOG-nobody-likes-a-quitter.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5y3CH-lX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1366,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1361\/revisions\/1366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}