Thought for the Day

I read something on the LinkedIn Books and Writers group back in February that had me mouthing Os like a goldfish in disbelief.

Step 1 is taken, I have made up my mind to write a book. What do you suggest as Step 2? Any ideas and suggestions are welcome! :)

Seriously? You've decided to write a book and you want to know what you should do next?!?

In my opinion, you don't become a writer because you choose to. You become a writer because something inside you doesn't give you any choice in the matter. It's not that you want to write, it's that you need to write. If you don't write you get antsy. If you don't let the words out, they will slowly drive you round the twist.

Comedienne and writer Sue Perkins has her own take on 'being a writer':

Writing is, as I tell my nieces when explaining verbs, “a doing word” – by which I mean, to qualify as a writer, you really need to be engaged in the process of actually writing. Sadly, sitting in a coffee shop ordering endless skinny lattes and wondering how to spend your Booker Prize money doesn’t count. I know this now. Wafting a biro while looking, mournfully, out of the window also doesn’t cut it.

Greater minds than mine have ruminated on what it takes to be a consummate wordsmith. I can only go on what I see, on the model of my penwielding friends – in which case, you know you’re a proper writer if your constant desk-based travails mean you have to attend weekly sessions with an osteopath, simultaneously worrying how on earth you’re going to afford to pay for the treatment.