Are you a writer?

Do your imaginary characters speak to you?
Do you answer them?
Do you dream of worlds yet to be built?
Is there a book burning inside of you?

If you answered yes, there’s ink in your blood. You, my friend, are a writer and must seek help immediately. You need a transfusion. The story has to come out. The ink must be bled from your veins and injected into your laptop.

Friends and family often don’t understand the condition and may be well-meaning, but able to offer little relief. I’m here to help. For many years, I suffered from Ink In My Blood disease. It wasn’t until I was forty-six years old that I was cured. Perhaps cured isn’t exactly the right word. A writer is never really cured. There is always a bit of ink residing in each of us.

Instead, we learn to manage the disease. We figure out ways to live with this condition. We seek out others like us and form support groups. We stay abreast of the newest technology hoping to ease the most painful symptoms. (spelling, grammar, punctuation, publishing – that type of thing). More importantly, we write every day.

Many people afflicted with this disease, initially try to deal with it by reading books about writing, talking about their story ideas, or daydreaming scenes for their characters. However, there is only one remedy proven to help. You must write the book.

I encourage you to begin now, while you are young and able to fend off the more debilitating aspects of the disease (self-censorship, lack of imagination, writer’s block). Don’t wait until your life is half over, as I did, to experience the thrill of having your book published, of receiving fan mail from total strangers, and of getting royalty checks.

Warning: Not everyone suffering from Ink-In-My-Blood disease will manage to complete the transfusion. Writing is work. It’s hard work. There is so much more to it than you can begin to imagine. It takes commitment and dedication to see a novel or even a short story through to completion. Those who do not write their book will be plagued by it until they do or, even sadder, the ink may eventually evaporate and their story will never be written.

My blog is here to offer guidance and support to young writers. This is where I’ll post links to resources I’ve found to be helpful. We’ll have writing challenges, guest author posts, and much more.

We’ll discuss plot lines, character development, world building, dialogue, scenes, points of view, and conflict resolution.

We’ll even venture into the geeky territory of verbs, punctuation, and grammar in fiction writing. Don’t groan; it’s not quite the same as what they teach in school.

We’ll talk about, copyright, agents, editors, self-publishing, and book marketing.

In short, here is where you’ll find everything to do with writing. Although this blog can provide you with the tools you need to extract your book, no one can do it for you. You are the only one who can write your story.

Feel free to comment or post a question, invite your writing friends, or just lurk in the shadows. All I ask is to keep your comments on topic, be polite, and have fun.