To Do List: Learn

We're still going strong and everyone is having an easier time checking things off their to do. So here's the next thing up, and this one doesn't always have to come daily.

LEARN:


Now, of course we all hope to learn something everyday (or at least several times a week). However, what I'm talking about here is learning in respect to your craft-writing. There are so many things we need to know and it never stops. The business, agents, publishers, how to's, and the list goes on and on. If you are a writer who writes with the desire that your books will be published for others to read-then you have to learn the business.

Websites, other writers, blogs, books, etc. are all tools for learning. We use them, we need them, and we must find the time to do it. Learning takes up a lot of time, and I know it's hard to check it off. We want to write, that's why we are writers. But if you want to go somewhere with your writing, you have to learn. You have to go to sites like Agent Query and learn about how the publishing business works, learn about what agents want, learn how to write that beautiful-agent grabbing query. Go to blogs like From The Write Angle and learn from people who have been there and done that-real, genuine people who were once in your shoes-writing with hopes that one day they will have published work for the world to read. Don't forget to go to writer communities like Agent Query Connect and learn from people just like you-what they do and don't do, what has worked and what hasn't. And you have to go to blogs by other writers, like Alex J Cavanaugh's blog and C.K. Bryant's blog who are both published authors that are also normal people, who have been there and understand what it's like. Their posts can be teaching posts without that being the original intent. It will help you learn something, without feeling like it's a "lesson". But make sure you go to blogs from writers who have not been published yet, they can teach you things too. (Like E.M LaBonte's Blog and Terri Bruce's Blog)

The point is-writers have to learn about the writing world. It is not always an easy thing to work into your day (or week), but it's important if you are planning on actually doing something with what you write. The fact that we can learn from various things, makes it easier to mark Learn off the to do. You can learn while you're connecting, or you can go somewhere looking for a specific topic, but however you do it-DO IT. Time to learn can vary, depending on what exactly you are learning, but work it in. There have been plenty of times I have learned something in less than 10 minutes or even in the time it took me to read a blog post. It can be done quickly if you don't have a lot of time to squeeze it in. But if you want writing to be more than a hobby, find the time to do it.

I know my posts are beginning to sound the same- Just find the time, because you need to-but that's really what each thing on your to do comes down to. You need to do these things, so do them.

Happy Learning :)