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Episode 92B – Joel Burcat – Changing to a Writing Career
Overview
Joel didn't start as a writer, but he used his career knowledge to empower his writing. That doesn't mean he hasn't learned other lessons about writing and publishing that he shares.
YouTube
https://youtu.be/odAfQC8GQP8
Transcript
[00:00:00] Joel: Are you working on your author career, but struggling to get that first book published, does the goal of being an author seem too lofty or thoughts of having multiple books and making a full-time living are as fantastical as living in Cinderella's castle. Welcome to discovered wordsmiths a podcast where aspiring authors can be heard.
Join Stephen Schneider is he finds and talks to authors. You may not know, but authors that have gotten their book on the author career path here, what they've done to get there and where they want to go. Now, settle back. It's time for a bit of inspiration and advice. Come listen to today's discovered
[00:00:44] Stephen: wordsmith.
All right, Joel, before we begin talking about some of the other author topics use, you've been writing. Uh, a large part of your life, but more seriously in the last couple of years, we're going to be talking about that. So what are some things you have learned from the first [00:01:00] stuff you wrote published?
What the newest books are, that would be things that new authors, Hey, avoid this, or here's some good advice. That type of thing.
[00:01:09] Joel: One thing that I believe you have to do is learn how to write, and it seems like a. Kind of an obvious statement. We all learn how to write. When we were children went to school, we learned how to write in school and we may have even taken some creative writing courses in college and beyond college.
But you need to learn how to write as an author would write. And that's very different than what you might do as a lawyer doctor or a. Podcast producer, the way we write as fiction writers is different and you need to learn stuff about that. And some of it, frankly, for me, I'm not going to talk about others, but some of it for me just went right over my head.
I would read a book and I wouldn't pay attention to point of view. I wouldn't necessarily [00:02:00] take a attention to setting other than the fact that this is a cool setting. Wow. That mansion that's really, I wouldn't pay attention to how the author built that up. I wouldn't pay attention necessarily. To the dialogue, unless the dialogue was really stilted.
I would say people don't talk like that. Shakespeare Metta talk like that. The normal people don't talk that way. And so you need to learn a few things. And certainly the first investing you can do is just write Stephen King and his book on writing says that your first draft is going to be really bad, but you've got to put it down anyway, any.
Who is another well-known writer. Who's also written a book on writing called bird by bird. She's a little more blunt. She says your first draft will be a piece of crap that she actually uses even a stronger word. And she says, your first draft is going to be lousy and you're going to throw it out, but don't worry.
Cause nobody else is going to look at it. But the important thing is you've got to get it down on paper. So you start, right? And then you've got to start figuring out what is it I'm doing, right. What is going be doing wrong? [00:03:00] There's so much stuff out there to. I've taken in-person courses over the years, I took a full day long program at Rosemont college.
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By S.A. Schneider
5
33 ratings
Overview
Joel didn't start as a writer, but he used his career knowledge to empower his writing. That doesn't mean he hasn't learned other lessons about writing and publishing that he shares.
YouTube
https://youtu.be/odAfQC8GQP8
Transcript
[00:00:00] Joel: Are you working on your author career, but struggling to get that first book published, does the goal of being an author seem too lofty or thoughts of having multiple books and making a full-time living are as fantastical as living in Cinderella's castle. Welcome to discovered wordsmiths a podcast where aspiring authors can be heard.
Join Stephen Schneider is he finds and talks to authors. You may not know, but authors that have gotten their book on the author career path here, what they've done to get there and where they want to go. Now, settle back. It's time for a bit of inspiration and advice. Come listen to today's discovered
[00:00:44] Stephen: wordsmith.
All right, Joel, before we begin talking about some of the other author topics use, you've been writing. Uh, a large part of your life, but more seriously in the last couple of years, we're going to be talking about that. So what are some things you have learned from the first [00:01:00] stuff you wrote published?
What the newest books are, that would be things that new authors, Hey, avoid this, or here's some good advice. That type of thing.
[00:01:09] Joel: One thing that I believe you have to do is learn how to write, and it seems like a. Kind of an obvious statement. We all learn how to write. When we were children went to school, we learned how to write in school and we may have even taken some creative writing courses in college and beyond college.
But you need to learn how to write as an author would write. And that's very different than what you might do as a lawyer doctor or a. Podcast producer, the way we write as fiction writers is different and you need to learn stuff about that. And some of it, frankly, for me, I'm not going to talk about others, but some of it for me just went right over my head.
I would read a book and I wouldn't pay attention to point of view. I wouldn't necessarily [00:02:00] take a attention to setting other than the fact that this is a cool setting. Wow. That mansion that's really, I wouldn't pay attention to how the author built that up. I wouldn't pay attention necessarily. To the dialogue, unless the dialogue was really stilted.
I would say people don't talk like that. Shakespeare Metta talk like that. The normal people don't talk that way. And so you need to learn a few things. And certainly the first investing you can do is just write Stephen King and his book on writing says that your first draft is going to be really bad, but you've got to put it down anyway, any.
Who is another well-known writer. Who's also written a book on writing called bird by bird. She's a little more blunt. She says your first draft will be a piece of crap that she actually uses even a stronger word. And she says, your first draft is going to be lousy and you're going to throw it out, but don't worry.
Cause nobody else is going to look at it. But the important thing is you've got to get it down on paper. So you start, right? And then you've got to start figuring out what is it I'm doing, right. What is going be doing wrong? [00:03:00] There's so much stuff out there to. I've taken in-person courses over the years, I took a full day long program at Rosemont college.