vice for a YouAdng Writer 6 - Connect with Others, Take Care of Your Body

vice for a YouAdng Writer 6 - Connect with Others, Take Care of Your Body

This last and sixth segment concludes some of the hard-earned lessons of my writing career:

Join, connect, participate, collaborate. Writing is a solitary job. We usually sit in our own cubicles and rooms, creating worlds never imagined before.

But there's also a professional side to writing; a business side. You need to be in the know; you need to connect and communicate with your fellow writers, and stay in circulation to follow the trends and be aware of the opportunities.

Become a member of your local writing organization. I'm a member of a pretty good writer's club that regularly offers classes of all kinds.

But I'm also a member of quite a few on-line communities and subscribe to many professional magazines and newsletters. I regularly exchange e-mails with writer friends and acquaintances whose judgments and good will I respect.

I sometimes end up collaborating with them on special projects; like the e-book I'm working on right now.

The idea of writing this particular information product came from my co-author who actually found me on the Internet. And after a year, here we are, working on our second jointly-written book.

We both know that neither of us would be able to write these books if we tried to do it solely on our own. So we are lucky in that respect. But we couldn't have known anything about that kind of "luck" if we didn't choose to get in touch and stay in touch in the first place.

You are a precious fish in a vast ocean. Swim a little in a school of fishes and see how faster you can go.

And last but not the least:

Take care of your health! I can't emphasize this strongly enough.

Most people learn late in their careers that writing is actually an athletic event. You burn a lot of precious calories and brain cells when pounding out anything.

When we write we use a lot: proteins, vitamins, amino acids, carbon and nitrogen, and God knows what else.

Eat well, fresh and organic, if possible. Take it easy on the red meat. Go generous with fruits, green veggies, and fiber.

Stay away from booze and junk since they all dull the mind and drop a curtain of haze over your clear skies.

Charles Bukowski was a friend of the bottle and lived a very rough life. He wrote some good poems for sure.

Wallace Stevens was the Vice President of Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company in Connecticut. He was an insurance guy with a modest private life. He wrote even greater poems while walking during his lunch hours to his home.

Guess who has left a deeper imprint on American Literature today?

Get your sleep well and exercise couple times a week. Get those glands pumping and ligaments stretching. Get that miraculous life juice in your veins circulating, carrying fresh oxygen and fresh ideas to your brain.

When your body is not complaining, the mind serves more gladly. Take good care.