write « Robin Writes

Yesterday, I was asked if REPEAT is still coming out this month. The short answer is “yes!” I won’t bore you with the long answer . . .

Those of you who are already on my mailing list—and yes, the March newsletter is late, but it’ll be worth it, I promise—have already read the prologue of REPEAT, so you have an idea where this is going.

Oh, and if you aren’t on the mailing list, here’s your chance to sign up. Look to the right . . . there you go, at the top of the sidebar. Click and sign up to join the Tribe—you can get free stuff, sneak peeks, and more. All you have to do is (well, yes, sign up!) talk about the Reduced Series. That’s it.

So, back to REPEAT:

Jules and David and EJ are on their way West. David, if you’ll recall, took a long, solo journey out there several years back, but he never talked much about what he found. So there’s that. Plus, naturally, there are a few glitches on the way: for instance, right now, the gang is somewhere around Fort Leonard Wood. Or what used to be the military base. Or maybe it still is, kinda/sorta . . . Anyway, they’re in the middle of a run-in with some, er, unsavory types.

Next week, I’ll update you on where everyone is and what they’re doing, and, SPECIAL BONUS ALERT—if you’re following me here, YOU can submit a sub-story idea in the comments! AND, you’ll get a character named after you!

I saw a Facebook post by a friend today, something about taking a “What Kind of Writer are You?” quiz. I was perplexed for a moment, because I didn’t know he was a writer at all. And he’s not. But for some reason, EVERYONE thinks they can write a book or an article or whatever.

Why? My best guess is because, well, everyone writes: grocery lists, emails, social media posts, etc. It doesn’t make one a writer, let alone a good one.

A writer writes, yes, but a writer also tells a story, is committed to writing, treats it like a job or career or at least a hobby—in other words, makes time for writing instead of doing it whenever the urge strikes or there are a few minutes of free time.

Now, I don’t mean you have to write for X number of hours a day or have a schedule or whatever, but just because you write stuff, it doesn’t make you a writer.

Just like hammering a nail in the wall doesn’t make you a carpenter.

Think about that for a moment: we all have skills and “can” do numerous things, but that doesn’t make any of those things a career.

Stephen King says that you’re a writer if you wrote something, sold it, and used the money to pay a bill. Obviously, my bills are much smaller than his . . .

Of course, I could also add that you must repeat this process a few times, otherwise you simply wrote something and sold it. I could paint a picture and sell it (probably to my mother), but that doesn’t make me an artist unless I keep doing it. I can also, by the way, hammer a nail into the wall to hang a picture—but I can’t build a house.

Which brings me to my next point, one that I keep hammering into everyone’s heads (ha): you aren’t a writer if you don’t have the basic skills that are essential to your craft. Period. If you can’t spell or punctuate, learn how to do those things. I received a submission yesterday in which the author talked about her Book. No, it wasn’t a typo, it was consistent; even if it was a typo, it’s a pretty inexcusable one. She told me, of course, that she was a Writer.

If a carpenter can’t hammer in a nail, then he’s no carpenter; if a plumber can’t tighten a loose joint, he’s no plumber.

And if a writer can’t spell a word, he shouldn’t use it until he learns how to spell it. And he’s not going to write anything I want to read until he learns the basics.