The First Gemmillism

I wrote my first book at the age of 12.  It was 43 handwritten pages on lined notebook paper.  I proudly showed it to my mom, who read every word and said, “That’s nice dear.”   I showed it to my dad, who read only the first page and tossed it on the table.  “That’ll never sell.”  I tended to show more things to my mom after that.

Dad was right, it sucked.  But I wasn’t discouraged, I simply wrote it again, not knowing yet that writing is really rewriting.  The 2nd version was typed up and totaled 110 double-spaced pages.  It still sucked, but was WAY better that the first.

A writer needs to do three things, basically.  First, write something, and most pros will tell you to write something every day or you’re just faking it.  Second, rewrite what you wrote many, many times, so hopefully, it gets better and better.  And third, a writer needs to be able to deal with criticism, especially the constructive type.  Oh, sure, when somebody tells me they “don’t get it” about something I’ve written, I get upset inside and tell myself they don’t know what they’re talking about.  But after a day or two I realize something must be wrong or they wouldn’t have said anything at all.  Then I fix it.

Clearly there is more to the process of being a writer, but that is enough to get you started, I think.  So go write something!