Reading time: Just over 1 minute
This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help writers. Today I discuss the blog Rejected and Alone: A Writer’s Life by Jon Stark…..
Jon Stark is not as negative as his blog title — Rejected and Alone: A Writer’s Life — might make him appear. A charming guy, who emailed me last week about a column I’d written recently, Stark writes short stories and screenplays. This is not his full-time job (he already has one of those) but he writes during his 45-minute train ride into the city.
I know a person is serious about writing when he does it during his commuting time. Here’s what Stark says about that: “After making excuses for years — I do, after all, have a full-time job that demands my complete attention and often leaves me creatively drained at the end of the day — a job that, I may add, is a dream job that I worked very hard to get — I found a way to squeeze my passion into the routine of my day.”
Here’s another way I know a person is serious about writing. He has a blog and he posts to it five times each week.
But what’s my favourite part of what he does? He assigns topics to each day of the week. Have a look at his schedule. I’m constantly advising readers to set up their blogging in exactly this way. It means that instead of facing the blank page every day, you’re looking for a very specific topic. So much easier!
Jon Stark thinks his writing is improving every day. I know it is. With a commitment like that, you can’t help but get better. Way to go, Jon! If more people imitated you, we’d have a lot more fine writers in the world.
