Comments on: Warrior Writer—Formula for Disaster Meets the Recipe for Success (Part II)

By: warriorwriters

warriorwriters — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:58:22 +0000

In reply to Fiction Groupie. That's true, and hard to change their attitude. But I find we often do and say subtle things that reinforce those opinions, and those habits we can change. We have to first view ourselves as professionals if we hope for others to follow suit. And if they don't think being a mom is a full-time job, then they won't mind you delegating a couple of hours of what you normally do in order to write, :D. Keep up the good work!

By: Fiction Groupie

Fiction Groupie — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:14:25 +0000

Unfortunately, most people don’t count things as a “job” unless you get paid for it. I’m a stay at home mom and an (unpublished) writer. So, I guess to the world I’m doubly unemployed! 🙂

By: Jenni Holbrook

Jenni Holbrook — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:09:19 +0000

This is going to sound crazy (yeah, I know) but I get the same reaction when I tell people I’m an author/writer as I do when I say I’m a full-time mom or when I used to be a full-time dance teacher. “Oh, what a fun hobby.” Um, mothering is a hobby? Ok, so they didn’t say that, but I did get the, “Oh, well, that’s not a real job”.

For the longest time, I would come up with creative ways of describing myself. Now I just say I’m an author and smile.

By: Bob Mayer

Bob Mayer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:19:03 +0000

I’ve got 39 books published, have been making a living at it for 20 years and still have trouble identifying myself when people ask what I do for a living. Elizabeth George tells people she’s a ‘novelist’. I’ve been posting that Warrior Writers teaches writers how to become authors. I think some people have taken umbrage at that. They feel anyone who writes something is an ‘author’. I don’t know. I think it’s a mindset. There is a lot of debate over the merits of getting published. I remember years ago an article in the Nashville people the title of which was: “Getting Published Is No Real Sign of Merit”. Yes, or course, there is luck involved. But it is a high bar and luck goes to those who work hard, actually produce a manuscript, market it, sell it, promote it, all while writing their next manuscript. And authors who survive in this business are business savvy.

I’ve known excellent doctors and lawyers who, while great at that art, fail in their business and go bankrupt.

In Warrior Writer I focus on both the art and the business and I have found that what cripples you in one area, can sometimes cripple you in the other. One comment after the last workshop was that it was a bit like group therapy.

I’ve applied the tenets of Writer Warrior once more to myself and in the last couple of days changed some very important things in my writing and in my life. Because I am aligning my goals to achieve my strategic goal.