I'm still very much in the apprentice stage of writing. I read somewhere that you need to write a million words before you know what you're doing - so I'm headed that way, but I'm nowhere near there.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
One of the things I learnt over the years is that there is a craft to writing, like there is a craft to acting. I hadn't done my apprenticeship as a writer. I did try to be a writer for hire but I'm not any good at it.
At this stage, my chief professional goal is simply to keep on writing and making a living at it.
Well, I am becoming doddering and old but I have - I'm writing two books a year now. It's like 220,000 words or something like finished, and, honest to God, I can't do that. I really do need the help of, you know, other people working with me.
I never considered I might make a career out of writing as I was going to school, so when I did turn my attentions that way, I was very ill prepared, having only what I read as a guide, and no formal training whatsoever. I credit that very ignorance with a great deal of my success.
I have tried to explore the little talent I have for writing.
Most people won't realize that writing is a craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in it like anything else.
I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write.
Well, I outline fanatically. I am a long thinker and a slow writer, though I am trying to get faster.
I know I'm not a great writer. I'm an extremely gifted oral communicator, but when it comes to writing, I'm just a beginner.
I'm very involved in the writing on every level.