Ernest Hemingway is famous for his quote (well, technically, he isn`t famous just for that): “The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it”. I guess people who have gathered here have quite the opposite problem. They don`t know how to begin.
What is the profession of a writer anyway? What kind of job responsibilities does he/she have and do they even exist? Such occupation seems very appealing to those young and aspiring creatures who tend to over-romanticize this trade. Yes, at the end of the day, it`s a trade rather than art, and every successful novelist or essayist will tell you that.
Jack London found his star of fame in his lifetime (which was not that common case for geniuses of that century), and yet he treated his profession like a money maker rather than like a baby of his creativity. Why? Because it`s enormously exhausting for both your mind and body.
If you want to become a serious professional writer, perhaps you should start with something smaller. You can work as a journalist or a blogger for a while. By the way, Ernest Hemingway was working in a newspaper for quite some time before switching to “full-size” literature.
Besides, a writer`s block shouldn`t come as a surprise at the beginning of your career. If you do start working as a blogger at first, there is a very easy solution to such a problem. There are many online essay writers who will be glad to help you with excellent and captivating content for your blog.
In fact, the Internet can provide you with even more help on various platforms for beginner writers.
1 MasterClass
Let`s start with the website which will teach you the most important basics of a writer`s profession. And we mean the very basis, like the ground, the first, the lowest level. You should visit this website if the only thing you know about writing is that you can`t do it. Seriously, the experts there are incredibly talented professionals who will help you out with all struggles that you`ll (definitely) be having while taking the first baby steps on your path to literary arts.
Aaron Sorkin, Shonda Rhimes, and James Patterson will be your gurus at this stage of learning. You can take any course you want depending on what kind of writing skills you want to improve. For example, the freshmen who took James Patterson’s course reported that it did turn their world upside down, and now they know for sure how to write a novel.
2 Gutenberg
What kind of writer doesn`t like to read? A bad one, we`ll tell you that for sure. Every person who feels a strong passionate desire to write stories, novels or essays, first and foremost is an obsessive and compulsive reader.
So, if you force yourself to read, you have to options. You either ditch this ambitious idea of becoming a professional author or you try to convince yourself that you have to read various genres of literature for a little while and then see how it goes.
“Gutenberg” is a platform where you can find thousands of literary classics and representatives of modern art of writing. The more you read, the better writer you become. You know, “Beatles” were huge music fans before they were performing in front of full venues. Van Gogh was a big admirer of art himself before diving into worldwide fame, so think about it.
3 The Pulitzer Prize
And while you`re still thinking about our previous suggestion, let us introduce you to “The Pulitzer Prize”, which must be your cherished dream. This is a website which gives you an access to many literary works which are considered to be the best of the best.
A good writer is supposed to read good literature, right? So, it`s just another platform for your overall intellectual and creative development.
4 Story Grid
What do you think is the most important part of every novel or short story? Perhaps it`s a plot or dialogues, characters, emotions? All of these elements are crucial, but when you`re just at the start of your journey, you need to pay a lot of attention to the structure of your texts. The way paragraphs and chapters are organized has a subconscious psychological impact on your readers. They will love the novel if it has a good understandable structure that will be easy for perception. You`ll be able to find all those practical tips at “Story Grid”.
5 Writer`s Digest
This is a professional website which will be incredibly useful for beginners. You`ll find tons of interesting information there, which will allow you to compartmentalize your knowledge about the field. Besides, it will let you stay updated all the time, find out about the trends and read a professional analysis of the works of other authors. You can subscribe for a printed version of “Writer`s Digest” edition or just have a look around their website.
6 Poets.org
Even if you`re more into prose, you still need to develop various creative capabilities. And what is a better way to do that than reading poetry? This website will give you an access to the treasure of classic and modern poetry that you`d better check out on a daily basis even if you don`t write rhymes yourself.
Why is it important? Because poems usually have the most inspirational vibe ever, they will make you take a plunge into the kingdom where the most beautiful metaphors and epithets live. Also, you`ll meet such strange yet astonishing creatures like an oxymoron, allegory, hyperbole, and others. Don`t worry if you aren`t familiar with these yet, Poets.org will teach you everything.
7 Quora
You may wonder how this website has ended up here if it can`t be even considered to be a reliable source of information? “Quora” will give you a bunch of people`s opinions on various interesting topics instead.
Let`s say, you`re planning to write a novel where one of the defining plot twisters will include euthanasia. Naturally, you do serious research to dig up as much useful data as possible. But you also can go to “Quora” and see what society really thinks of this ethical and medical dilemma. It will provide you with food for thought as well.
8 Wattpad
It`s practically Twitter for writers. It shares a few features with a social media platform: you can make friends there, post your stuff, check out the news and trends of this creative sphere. But the biggest advantage that “Wattpad” has in comparison to Twitter is that it won`t give you a characters limit, so you can share your literary brainchildren with the world. Upload your works and wait for people`s reactions and comments.
Not all beginner writers have courage to post their creations for the whole world of strangers (who are professional writers though) to see and evaluate them. Perhaps it will give you some motivation or push you towards a different style of writing. Anyway, the purpose of every writer is to become popular among readers, to gather their own audience. Of course, you need to know what people think of your talent!
9 Benjamin McAvoy
It`s a personal blog, and some of you may disagree with such suggestion of ours, so it`s optional. Some beginner writers really love it, and some aren`t so thrilled about the blog`s style. So how about making a deal here: you just may go and check it out, we`ll wait for you right here. And then you`ll analyze your first impression and decide whether the advice of this specialist in literature suits you, alright?
10 Figment
Initially, this online platform was created for aspiring teenage writers, but when its popularity has skyrocketed, the target audience became much wider. It`s still mostly aimed at youngsters and development of their writing talent. Youthful creative minds may post their works on this website and expect evaluation. However, in order to keep the kids` feeling of self-worth high, nobody is allowed to leave trashy or dissing comments on that platform.
The audience may just react trying to express what kind of emotions a certain short story or a novel evoked in the depth of their souls. It can be a “wow”, a cry, a blush, or a laugh. Practically like Facebook`s range of emoticons. We know that it`s hard to dive into the world of literature right away, so we do hope that these online platforms will be of great help for you.
