Tag Archives: teachers

Sep 28 2011

Choosing Peers

As aspiring writers, when we begin our journey of writing and publishing that first novel, we tend to look up to others who have more experience and are willing to share that knowledge. And this can be a good thing except that in today’s world of writing and publishing, there are a lot of people willing promote themselves as professional authors, and yet they know very little about it.

There are many discussion groups that are filled with conversations on how to write, when to write, where to write and why to write. And there’s even more on how to publish and what techniques to use, publishing companies that are inexpensive or free and which ones to avoid. After a while, our minds get cluttered with the many opinions and attitudes of others.

What to do?

What we DO is strive to be like other successful authors and we follow their example, heed to their suggestions and adhere to their advice. What we DO NOT do is get drawn in by other aspiring writers who are still trying to make it themselves and whose lack of knowledge and experience has led them to become disgruntled about the writing and publishing business.

We need to find discussions groups where successful authors are giving suggestions and advice, and we need to avoid the ones where anyone and everyone gives their opinion in a way that encourages a negative attitude. My experience tells me that there are a lot more wanna bees willing to share their negative experiences than there are well-educated and successful writers who are willing to share their unique knowledge.

We need to be adamenant in our research and learn the pro’s and con’s to publishing traditionally as opposed to self-publishing or indie publishing. We need to know what our own goals are and then go with the publishing method that suits us. If I’m writing a family cookbook and my goal is to get it “published” and disperse it only to my family and friends, then self-publishing is ideal. But if I want to become a recognized author with books being sold all over the world, I need to find a more professional approach to publishing, one that promotes my book within the book market on a professional level.

Advice is great and we all need it but we need to be careful where that advice comes from. If we want to be a great author then we need to follow other great authors. If we just want to see our name on a book cover, then we should follow other writers who share the same goal.

The student is only as great as the teacher, so choosing our peers wisely when searching for advice is one of the most critical decisions that we’ll make in our writing career.

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Jun 28 2010

Encourage Young Readers

The time to encourage people to read is when they are still babies. At this age they are open minded, eager to learn and willing to investigate. They want to identify what they’ve learned and have it readily accessible to read it again.

Books are not only the perfect learning tool, but they are the best way to encourage young people to expand their mind and exercise their brain.  As they grow older, children who have been taught to read will continually develop a hunger to read more, to study more and to want to become the epitomy of knowledge. 

When a child’s learning experience is limited to the technology of today’s world, their mind becomes stiffled and creativity becomes stunted. They don’t want to read, they want to play. Learning and studying becomes a defeated chore and totally dependent on technology. Their desire to think for themselves becomes dormant, and their ability to study and become educated becomes overwhelming. 

Reading is a privilege that we have been given, and as parents and teachers in our communities, it’s our responsibility to ensure that each child has the opportunity to read and experience the fun of storybook characters, and the freedom of learning and understanding our history so they can develop into educated leaders for our future.