Tonight’s first of two guest blog posts is brought to you by Jemma Hayes.
How A Good Story Affects Your Credibility As A Writer
When it comes to creative writing, people often find themselves falling short of the ideal story that could really launch their career. However, taking some time with your piece and creating a masterpiece can pay off big time, for those dedicated enough to do it right, at least. Such a good story can influence your credibility as an author in general, and this means a number of different things for you.
Upgrading Credibility
So what does this exactly mean? Well credibility in creative writing is often how well you are perceived and respected within this rather exclusive world. While there might be plenty of people that get to pass through from time to time, few get an opportunity to impact and change this community of novelists and poets. Being a credible and respected contributor means that you may be consulted upon for insight into the industry and/or have your work studied in academic settings.
Better Deals
A good story will not only appeal to more readers, it will also give you a much better opportunity to reach more readers with future releases. For one, you can likely assume a competitive set of deals for your upcoming works, whether or not they are currently under contract. Publishers authors that can make them money, and with a good story, you can show publishers that you are worth their time and effort.
Ride The Circuit
Don’t assume that you are going to have to constantly churn out new books every month, as you can likely negotiate your time frames. You can likely also spend some time promoting buzz and popularity for this latest work of yours (such as book signings or participating in public events) and showing people why they should care about what you have created for them.
But all of this doesn’t mean anything without first creating a credible story that will get you on your way. Without this story, there is no considerable credibility or options for impressive book deals. Even though it largely seems anymore that we live in a world of rehashed ideas, it’s up to great thinkers and writers like you to break the mold. Always remember that authenticity matters – and with this comes credibility!
Thank you, Jemma.
Jemma Hayes explores her career as an academic and author in her writing, and most recently elucidated on the best degrees for intellectuals.
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If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.
Next up is The Making of a ‘Good’ Villain by Y.A. fantasy, mystery novelist and interviewee TJ Perkins, then the blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with non-fiction author Yves Johnson – the six hundred and ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.
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As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words), or posted for others to critique (up to 5,000 words) on the new Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays, poetry for Post-weekend Poetry and Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group, and novel extracts for Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group.
