“For every hundred words I write, I spend about thirty to sixty minutes of editing and rewriting.” Jeff Goins
In Jeff Goins’ book titled You Are A Writer (So Start Acting Like One), Goins shares his secret sauce on becoming a writer. And this message never seems to get old (for me):
- Believe: You have to believe in yourself. Say you are a writer. And get started. Do it every day. Build the discipline and mental muscle.
- Follow your Passion: Don’t pander to your audience. Find your voice. The audience will follow. “The more I love what I do, the more others do, too.”
- Writing is hard work. “It’s harder than you think.” “You better love it. (Otherwise, quit now.)”
- Build Relationships: “It’s more about who you know than what you know.” Build a community of followers (via blogging). You have more channels to do so today than at any time in history. Network. Build relationships with publishers.
Jeff Goins is an author, blogger, and speaker. In 2011, his blog, goinswriter.com, was voted as one of the “Top 10 Blogs on Writing” and his writing has been featured on some of the most popular blogs including Copyblogger, Problogger and Zen Habits.
My book summary: