My Steps To Becoming A Traditionally Published Author

Please be warned. I am weird.

The Steps.

1. You Have to Want It

Seriously. You have to want to be published enough to devote time to it.
Talking about writing does not equal wanting it.
Writing words down somewhere?
That equals wanting it.

2. You Have to Write

Words have to make their way onto a computer or a notebook or something. You can’t publish The Book of Awesome without writing The Book of Awesome.

3. You Have to Read

Reading is studying. We learn the craft by immersing ourselves in the tools of the craft. That means stories and sentences. Words are just symbols of images and objects and actions. It’s cool to see how other authors use those symbols, arrange them, pick them out. That’s how we learn! Repeat after me: Learning is fun.

4. Do Not Freak Out That You Suck

Everyone sucks. Everyone is brilliant. And almost everyone thinks that they suck and that they are brilliant and that they suck. It’s like a cycle. You can’t get hung up on how good The Book of Awesome is ESPECIALLY on the first draft. You just have to write and write and write until you get to the end of the first draft because that’s where the fun starts.

5. Global Revision is Awesome

No. I am not lying. Revision really is awesome. It’s like making a collage. You cut things up, add things in, smell some ModPodge and lacquer that whole thing up into something beautiful, something with layer and meaning, something that makes sense. Revision is what saves us all from the suck that is our first draft, and if you think about it as putting a puzzle together or solving THE MYSTERY THAT IS YOUR PLOT or THE MYSTERY OF HOW TO MAKE EVERYONE NOT HATE YOUR MAIN CHARACTER, it’s super fun.

Revision is not about hating yourself. Revision is about loving your story enough to step up and make it shine.

6. Line Edits

Okay. Line edits are where I pretend I’m one of those writers that are in movies. You know the kind, right? They worry over every word. They hook-up an IV line of…