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    A Writer's Roadmap: How to make your writing dreams come true.
    A Writer's Roadmap: How to make your writing dreams come true.
    A Writer's Roadmap: How to make your writing dreams come true.
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    A Writer's Roadmap: How to make your writing dreams come true.

    By Ray Bartlett

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This simple, fun, easy-to-read self-help title will give writers in all stages of their careers the tools needed to keep following their dreams.  Learn how to create a writer's roadmap so you're always on track, find ways to escape procrastinating, and ultimately, check and evaluate whether you're still heading towards realizing your dreams

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKaisora Press
    Release dateMay 15, 2020
    ISBN9781734847307
    A Writer's Roadmap: How to make your writing dreams come true.
    Author

    Ray Bartlett

    Ray Bartlett has written dozens of best selling travel guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Insight Guides, Moon Handbooks, and other top-industry publishers. He is the author of the novels Sunsets of Tulum (2015) and Celadon (2020), the memoir In the Sunlight of Sakurajima (2015), and he has been featured in numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers over the years. Contact him via his website (www.kaisora.com) or follow him on social media (FB: RayBartlettAuthor, IG/Twitter @kaisoradotcom). When not on the road, Ray enjoys surfing, dancing Argentine tango, cooking, and playing saxophone.

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      Book preview

      A Writer's Roadmap - Ray Bartlett

      Also by this author

      Fiction

      Sunsets of Tulum

      Celadon

      Nonfiction

      In the Sunlight of Sakurajima: My Two Years Living in Southern Japan

      Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, & Nantucket

      Ray Bartlett has also co-authored over three dozen travel guides for Lonely Planet and other top industry publishers, many of them New York Times and Amazon best sellers.  He has written about the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Tanzania, East Africa, Guatemala, Indonesia, Central America, and other places around the globe.

      A

      Writer’s

      Roadmap

      Make your writing dreams come true.

      By

      Ray Bartlett

      Kaisora Press

      Cape Cod, USA

      Copyright © 2020 by Ray Bartlett

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

      First edition

      ISBN: 978-1-7348473-0-7

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2020906383

      Cover art by Marina Katayeva

      Printed in the United States of America

      For my dad, with love.

      And for everyone who has ever dreamed of being a writer, no matter where you are in the process and whatever your goals may be.

      Acknowledgments

      Many people helped inform this book, but none more than my dad, whose tireless efforts to write his own novel (and my discussions with him about how to do that) formed so much of this book – a book I wish I’d had ready before he started so that he could have used it all along.

      I would like to give particular thanks to Marina Katayeva for such a wonderful cover image, and to readers and editors Danniel P., Nancy B., Andri T., Devon Ellington, Julie Lipkin, Al Waitt, and many others. Thanks also to my family and friends.  You all provided excellent feedback and comments as I strove to offer a book that would meet a variety of diverse writerly needs.

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      1.  The Vital Importance of Craft

      2.  Getting Started

      3.  Magical Mentors

      4.  Goal-Setting for Clarity and Success

      5.  Making Luck Happen

      6.  Queries and Agents and Publishers, Oh My!

      7.  Persist or Perish

      8.  When Writer’s Block Rears its Ugly Head

      9.  Re-evaluate

      10.  Managing Success

      About the Author

      Also by Ray Bartlett

      Introduction

      This book is for everyone who has ever wanted to be a writer but felt like there’s no roadmap for them to follow. Information is everywhere, but it’s hard to find a sense of direction. You know where you are, but how can you get to that far-off place you want to be?  You have the big picture in your mind, you have inspirations and energy, but when it comes to actually making all that happen, to knowing what you need to do, or do next, or where you should start, or where you should go … you’re lost.

      Because you have no roadmap.

      Until now.

      If you want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a civil engineer, or a teacher, or nearly any other profession, there’s a roadmap already there for you. You have steps: exams to take, degrees to earn, residencies or internships, and voilá, you’re there. Luck plays a part, but you can plot a chart of what you need to accomplish between where you are today and where you want to be.  You can go into a guidance counselor’s office and say, I want to be a lawyer and be presented with a chart that shows all the boxes you need to tick to get there.

      If you say you want to be a writer they’ll nod, shrug, and say Your guess is as good as mine.

      You’re on your own.

      And, unfortunately, what works for one person may not work for you. The stroke of luck or genius that someone had was theirs, not yours. The agent who signed your friend or peer or colleague may not have any interest in signing you. Your work may not suit them or perhaps it’s just not good enough yet.  Or they’re busy.  Who knows.

      It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the difficulty of pursuing your writing dreams, whether it’s to write that novel you always wanted or to turn writing into your full-time career.

      This book is what I wish I’d had when I was a fledgling writer trying to start my career, and it’s based on what I’ve been teaching at writing groups from California to Boston and beyond.

      It will coax you through creating your own individual roadmap so that you know exactly where your next steps are. And don’t worry: It’s not generic advice. This will work for you, specifically, because by the end of this read you’ll have a process in mind, a way to create and keep creating, a way to choose wisely, and a sense of direction that will apply to your own individual needs, no matter where you are in the writing process and no matter what your goals may be.

      As hard as all of this is, there’s no magic to it.  You just need to know how to make your own roadmap.  It’s simple: Plot a destination, figure out where the pit stops are, and then start driving.  It may take a while, but you’ll get there.

      It worked for me.  It will work for you too.

      A

      Writer’s

      Roadmap

      1

      The Vital Importance of Craft

      There are no shortcuts here.  If you want to become a writer you have to learn to write.  Not just to write, but to write well. You have to become a master of the craft. And nothing, nothing, will change that.

      Again:  To become a writer, you have to learn to write.

      Let me stop right here and say that if you plan to debate me on this, you can put the book down right now. What I have to say won’t be useful if you are one of those writers who think they’re going to rocket to the top thinking it’s artsy to not know when to use a semicolon or tell the difference between their and there. Not that we can’t all make mistakes now and then, a goof or a slip, but really, to want to be a writer and not think the craft matters is like wanting to be a baseball star but not wanting to learn to use a bat.

      Assuming we’re all on the same page about the importance of craft, let’s go over the ways that you can make your craft better.

      And realize that this will be a harder road for some of you than others.  Writing well is both a craft and an art. We’ll touch more on that in this chapter, but keep in mind that both take hard work, dedication and practice.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  And it’s not easy.

      Some of

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