There are many walls that writers have to hurdle to make it to the finish line as a published author. Sometimes those walls are self-imposed, like writer’s block, and other times those walls are caused by outside forces, like a publisher’s rejection letter. All of these walls can be overcome and soon, you’re on your way to being a published author.
That’s the best feeling in the world, you know. Holding your book in your hands is a feeling of complete and unadulterated bliss. You know why? It’s because the journey it took to get there was an unrelenting, mind-crushing, pain-filled agony from beginning to end, but maybe, just maybe, its a good thing. Actor Will Smith said,
“You don’t try to build a wall, you don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say I’m gonna build the biggest baddest wall that’s ever been built. you say, I’m gonna lay this brick, as perfectly as a brick can be laid, and you do that every single day, and soon you have a wall. It’s difficult to take the first step when you look how big the task is. The task is never huge to me, it’s always one brick.”
This is just an example of the challenges that await many writers. The walls we build can be both good and bad. When writing, a wall can represent the stagnation in your story, a writer’s block as big as the Great Wall of China. Yet, even these blockages can be diverted, like a beaver dam blocking the river. A little dynamite can go a long way; and by dynamite I mean inspiration, imagination and ideas. Michael Jordan said,
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
You don’t need a five-step program or a life coach to overcome these obstacles in going from writer to published author. All it takes is a little research, some networking with other independent, self-published authors, and time and effort on your part. Remember, walls aren’t there as obstacles but rather as challenges.
You can break through any wall, without too much pain and damage to yourself. Persistence is the key to breaking down these walls. The whole Galaxy Quest, “Never give up, never surrender!” come to mind. Don’t let the walls discourage you or you may find yourself staring at your computer screen, waiting to type the next word, for weeks on end.
It’s not fun when you hit that wall, but remember, most of the pain is self-inflicted. Pull together that which inspires you to write and use it to climb over, break through or go around the wall. I know a lot of this sounds like a bunch of metaphors, and they are, but they’re good ones.
As writers, we know all the right words to do and say to get our characters out of any mess. The object is to apply those same foils to ourselves. It might not be practical, but it can be quite useful. You do what you have to do to get the story written. Your success counts on one thing and one thing only … YOU!
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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Dark Tides is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Chapter 3 of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon.
Hope…It’s a word associated with many things, like Star Wars, President Obama, and the first game of your favorite sports team’s season. Hope is a part of faith, family, and charity. This past week, watching the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey filled me with hope for humanity as I watched people helping others without thought of their own safety.
In recent weeks, those rights have been tested with the events of Charlottesville and the subsequent rallies and protests since them. The question remains, is hate speech protected? If I disagree with what you’re saying, do I have the right to shut you up?
Imagine that Jules Verne, the prophet of science fiction, and Nikola Tesla, the genius inventor, had met. What would the world be like? Steam-powered machines like you’ve never seen before, bringing about a new age of science and industry, and bringing the world one step closer to war. In this age of modern mechanical marvels, the wealthy have gotten richer off the backs of workers, toiling in the factories all around the globe to produce these wondrous inventions. The only person standing up for the people is the infamous Corsair and his Sky Pirates. In his dirigible, the Arkaroo, Corsair searches the globe for the source of power for these incredible machines… Uriel’s Flame. Meteor fragments from a passing comet provides unlimited power for these steam-powered, modern marvels. Whomever controls Uriel’s Flame controls the main source of power in the world, leading countries to the brink of war. The Edison/Roentgen/Fulton, or ERF, Corporation is searching far and wide for the meteors, giving them complete control of this valuable mineral. It’s up to Corsair and his Sky Pirates to stop them and prevent a world war from impacting the world.![Lord Bryan MoonDrake [2072845]](https://authormarkpiggott.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/lord-bryan-moondrake-2072845.png?w=246&h=318)
In the 
It strange how right, and sometimes how wrong, science fiction has been. I remember watching Lost in Space on TV as a kid. The Jupiter 2 mission was supposed to have taken place in 1984. Granted, that prophetic vision didn’t come true, but it was something that stuck in the memory of an impressionable child.
Have you ever heard of The Yellow Kid? The Yellow Kid was the name of one of the first American comic strip characters that ran from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and later William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault, this comic strip was ripe with social commentary in newspapers known for sensationalism and extreme editorial reporting. It’s where the term “Yellow Journalism” came from.
Recently, Marvel’s Vice President of Sales, David Gabriel, claimed that the company’s recent focus on creating diverse superheroes is a driving factor behind its declining comic book sales. He said, “Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up.”
It’s the worst thing for a high school or college student, and worst for a journalist or author … The dreaded red pen marks. Those notes and edits—whether on a term paper, thesis or manuscript—can send a writer into a tizzy. You wonder if it means your ideas suck, your writing is terrible or prose just God awful. Sometimes that’s true, but most times, it’s far from the truth. As writers, we are far from perfect. We miss the occasional comma, overuse a word or phrase, and forget the “y” on “they” turning it into “the” so spellcheck doesn’t catch it. That’s why every writer needs a good editor to help catch the things we miss.
Mark Piggott | Fantasy & Steampunk Author 