The Craft of Writing: On Becoming A Writer

I’d always wanted to be a writer—even when I was a little kid writing scripts for my puppets to perform for my third-grade class.  I loved books, and I loved the feeling of  a pencil in my hand.  In the late 50s—an era when  prolific writer, Evan Hunter, was turning out novel after novel—I’d lurk in the “H” section of my small-town library’s fiction stacks, surreptitiously holding a finger over the final letter of Hunter’s first name.  Hold a finger over the “n”  in ” Evan,” and Voila! A book written by EVA Hunter!

Between the ages of 18 and 45, I must have begun writing a dozen novels.  I completed none.  Consistently, my excuse was that I hadn’t  quite found the right plot-device to sustain the story.  So I spent over 20 years assuring myself that someday I’d really write that novel.

I’d probably still be beginning to write books I’d never complete, if I hadn’t discovered what every professional writer knows:  Writing isn’t just letting the words flow from your fingers.  Writing isn’t producing page after page of words, trusting that the story will eventually reveal itself.

Writing is a specific process of craft.

There are formulas, standards, protocols for everything successfully published, and professional writers know and use these formulas.  In the next several weeks, I’m going to acquaint you with these approaches—the “secrets” of professional publication.

So, writing step number one is this:  Define what you want to say to the world, and put it in a sentence to be displayed in your writing area. Easy, right?  Yet 99% of the writers who come into my workshops have failed to clarify, even to themselves, what they are trying to say.  These are the first questions we answer:  What’s the point?  What’s the universal application?  And:  Who cares?

And that’s where we’ll begin next week.

*****

Eva Hunter is a professional writer and writing coach and is the founder of The Writers Workshop:  San Miguel in Mexico.

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    Comment by
    Tim of Angle
    24 Mar 2009

    Absolutely correct. Every good story makes a statement about the nature of reality. Without a theme, there is no story, period.

    Comment by
    Mridu Khullar
    24 Mar 2009

    I just found your blog, and I’m glad I did! I’ve been writing professionally and having work published for several years, but lately, I’ve hit a slump. I do fine with articles, but the act of committing to and writing a book is challenging. I’ve been playing with an idea lately, but it seems like such a long road ahead.

    One word. Then another. One sentence, then another.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Mridu Khullar’s last blog post..Of White and Black Macbooks

    Read more from Mridu Khullar

    Dreams

    (C) Mridu Khullar

    So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. – Christopher Reeve

    Comment by
    AravisGirl
    25 Mar 2009

    Looking forward to it :D

    AravisGirl’s last blog post..The Wait

  • Comment by
    Eva Hunter
    26 Mar 2009

    Dear Tim, Atavis Girl, and Mrindu,
    Thank you for your comments on my first blog article on “The Craft of Writing.” I appreciate hearing from you. Mrindu, I absolutely understand what you are saying. I was asking myself the same questions about 12 years ago. As a sucessful professional writer in the magazine field, I suspected that I had not even the slightest idea how to do something longer, or more complex–like a book, or a fairly large literary nonfiction piece. I was right about that!

    What I hope I’ll be able to do with my blog columns for the next several months is take my readers through the step-by-step process that I learned, and that resulted in my suceeding with several complex writing projects. My goal is to help you get beyond the merry-go-round of starting things, but then not knowing where to go with them at a certain point. And I’d be totally thrilled if some of you write me some day and say–yes–I finished my project!

    So stay tuned, and let me know how I’m doing. Feel free to ask questions as they come up–I welcome your involvement.
    Ciao,
    Eva Hunter

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