Tip O'Day #431 - Look Out Below!

Guest blogger Gerald G. Griffin on two categories of writers within the third group of writers. Ouch, my head hurts.

"A lot of people think they have a book inside them, but for those who try to write it, they usually fail," a friend once commented to me. "Why is that?"

I shrugged, giving him an are-you-kidding look. "Hell if I know!"

If answering him now, I'd probably say this: Let's start by dividing novice or would-be writers into three groups. First, there are those novices who can write great stuff immediately, as though born to it, and have little trouble getting published. Second, there are those who haven't a chance in hell of ever writing a book because they lack the creative aptitude, imagination, passion, dedication and discipline to do so. Third, there are those who fall in between the first and second groups.

Let's divide this third group into two categories. The first involves those who might squeak through a book, but it won't be published, and they skip the Indie route. The problem with these writers is that they write as though they are part of some freakish high wire circus act as he or she leaps haphazardly from the swing, twisting spasmodically into thin air, then frantically grasping outward toward his or her catcher's hands just at the moment their partner is suddenly seized with severe dizzy spells killing any semblance of timing.

"Look out below!"

The second category is a crazy one. These novice writers manage to finish their books. Then, by hook or by crook -- including the Indie route -- they have their books published. Their work is usually mediocre but the writers are convinced it's fantastic and will sell big if only it has the correct marketing. So enter the marketing scene, with all its madness! These writers are likely to be totally unprepared to deal with it but leap into it helter-skelter, the marketing madness enhancing their delusions.

Subsequently, these writers are prey for promising marketing schemes invariably failing to deliver, including social networking and engines leaving them in a mire of their own delusional madness. These novices are forever seeking that elusive, flashy review of their book that will turn that formidable trick leading to literary glory, never realizing that glory is beyond their reach.

Finally, for most of these writers, after suffering through all of this, their books not selling, their book signings a bust, libraries and book stores not carrying their works, their exhaustive madness having worn them down to the bone, they are left glassy-eyed, their literary salvation gone, leaving them with the stifling prospect of a mind numbing, everyday job.

Oh, what could have been!

To learn more about Gerald G. Griffin and his novel, check out this link. Among other things, it discusses the making of Of Good And Evil into a movie, and where the book can be ordered. The book can also be ordered on Gerald’s blog at http://geraldggriffin.blogspot.com/ or from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.