Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need To Get Published Now Read Free

allows us to empathize with others. We learn to speak when we’re very young, and we use language to address almost every area of our lives. We use words to teach our children the lessons of life, to express emotion, to conduct commerce, to record our deepest religious practices, to share our knowledge, to stay connected, and to express the thoughts and ideas that emerge from our imaginations. Words are so important to us, so vital to our beings, that we sometimes take this gift of ours for granted. We shouldn’t—words are too powerful to take for granted.
THE DIFERENCE BETWEEN SCRIBBLING AND BABBLING
    Connected though they are, spoken and written languages are very different. If you have ever written a speech, you may have learned this. A speechwriter must be conscious of the cadences of oratory, of course—you want to keep the audience engaged, or at least awake. But a speechwriter must also be aware that in the spoken word, the listener doesn’t have the luxury of re-reading a difficult idea. This is why speechwriters often employ very straightforward language. People’s minds may wander, and any audience will have represented in its ranks various levels of sophistication. To address these factors speechwriters use tricks such as repetition, or three simple points, or one example that is returned to again and again like a touchstone, which enables the listeners to make connections and follow the message.
    Writers use similar tricks, and some tricks of the spoken word may help us to be better writers. However, because the reader has more time to review, consider, and mull over the message or story, the writer has far greater leeway to convey a more complex, nuanced message. But tone of voice and body language, essential tools of the spoken word, are missing on the page, which means the writer must work harder to convey the emotional content and intent of the message.
YOU HAVE TO READ TO WRITE—RIGHT? WRITE!
    Most of us write because we read. Reading teaches us the power of words, of stories and history and argument. So, first and foremost, to be a writer you must be a reader. If you’re like us you grew up reading everything—novels, history, popular science books, newspapers, comic books, cereal boxes, road signs—anything that was put in front of you. Just as we learn how to walk and talk, we learn how to write from others, from the people who go before us telling stories and recording history and trying to explain the meaning of it all. We read to get our vocabulary—not just the nouns and verbs and prepositions, but the means to express our mind, heart, and soul.
    A crucial stage in any writer’s development occurs long before the dream of writing a published book, at the moment when we go from reading to doing a bit of our own writing. This may happen when we are very young. It may be because we are not allowed to play with a toy until we’ve written a thank-you note, or we are given a notebook of some kind at school. Many of us will scrawl something almost illegible, but that illegible scrawl is the beginning of a moment of amazing discovery—the power of creating our own written words.
    WHY WE WRITE
    We write to tell a story, to describe an event, to imagine or explain what has been or will happen, to warn or touch or inspire. We write to express our most profound emotions—love and hatred, joy and sorrow, humor and sadness.
    Writing is also how we pass on knowledge. This is why reading other writers is so important: by exploring the written works of the past we can perform a sort of archaeological dig, discovering how an idea has changed or persisted over thousands of years. Our ancestors speak to us through writing more directly than through any other medium, with the possible exception of YouTube.
    Writing makes it possible for us to compose and record our thoughts and stories in a form that will last as long as the language is understood. The written word is fixed. Depending on what it is written