really, it's time!

It's time I take my writing seriously, seriously. It's been 2 years since I had the biggest smile on my face from graduating college with my BA in English: Creative Writing. Right now I'm resting my head on my chin feeling disappointed. Sort of. I use the fact that I write a children's blog for my job to justify that I am doing some kind of writing. It's not bad though. I prefer it to all the writing I do in my head that never makes itself on paper.

Yesterday my thoughts on writing became clear. I was killing time in a bookstore trying to get a feel for which wedding magazine was going to have something inside that I hadn't already seen in the piles of others that I've wasted too much money on, when I decided to move to another part of the bookstore (reference section). Facing me was a fat copy of this book:

I did some reading and immediately thought, "This is what I need! I need to know the market! Once I know who I'm writing for, I can write!". But is my writing novel worthy, I asked myself. Will I ever write anything longer than 10 pages? What kind of book/style of literature do I want my name attached to when I'm published someday? Who do I write for, or want to write for?

Pretty valid and long answered questions I had going on up there. I tried to answer most of them, and concluded that the first part of every answer was I had to write.

I thought back to the writing I've done and realized every short story I've written has been about kids. The books that I remember the most are the ones I read as a kid. So, I should write for kids, no? And luckily to the right of me was the book I really bought:

That's more like it. Now I felt comfortable. So now I have the "Bible" of who to send my "Children's" stories to once they're ready, but because I'm obsessed with buying books I had to look for another. Oh! Nice cover design I thought when I saw this one:

And how perfect that it was titled, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead.

¡¡¡Let me note one important thing that I hope some soon to be published author reads: Your cover art really does matter, so pick someone that knows how to design a cover, not just blow up an image and add a large font to float above it. And don't use a real photo of a person pointing their finger at the reader. Especially with a title like this. I would have never bought this book, or even opened it had it looked like a self help book (even though it kind of is one). So, Ariel Gore, excellent cover and thank you for writing this book. It's the motivation I needed!!!

Now I write!