Excerpt
INTRODUCTION
My dad, a product of the Great Depression, could neither read nor write. He
quit school in the second grade and went through much of his life in the dark.
My mom completed the eighth grade before she quit. We were so poor during much
of my youth that even poverty was a step up. Virtually the only books we had
in our house were Sears & Roebuck catalogues, and only those because
of their utilitarian value in the outhouse.
When I was six or seven years old, my great aunt Ellen Rossen gave me a box
of books, among which were classics by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Defoe and others.
I began to read. I read everything. It was like books opened up a fresh
new world outside cotton fields and strawberry patches and three-room shacks
in the woods.
I began writing. I wrote a novel when I was eight years old. I earned my first
money from writing at age 15--$25 from a contest sponsored by a local newspaper.
�You mean you can get paid for writing?�
I was hooked. Like the authors of my wonderful books, I was going to live my
life and earn my livelihood as a writer. Never would I have to live life in
the dark as my dad had.
In 1979, the year I turned 37, I was a big-city cop, a homicide detective.
I resigned to become a full-time freelance writer/journalist/photographer. My
then-wife�s relatives were appalled.
�Divorce that fool!� they advised. �Tell him to go back and
get a real job.�
I have since published about 40 books, at least 2,500 magazine articles and
short stories, several educational films, hundreds of newspaper articles, and
one of my books became the basis for a movie starring Tom Berringer. My books
have been translated into a number of different languages, including Chinese
and Russian, and my biography is included in Who�s Who In America
and Who�s Who In The World. I�ve adventure-traveled
the globe writing pieces for publications such as Soldier Of Fortune
and Time/Life. In 1985, I was a finalist to fly into space with NASA�s
Journalist-in-Space project. I now live on an Oklahoma horse ranch where I rear
and train registered quarter horses. Not bad for a �good ole boy�
who grew up in cotton fields.
If a poor hill kid from an illiterate background can earn a good living at
writing, so can you.
There is no mystery as such to becoming successful as a writer, no big secrets.
There is, however, a sort of magic, a pathway of magic steps. Unless you learn
the basis of this magic and how to develop and use it, you should be properly
content in your career to scribble down about anything when the mood strikes
and shove it into a bottom drawer for posterity or the trash man, whichever
comes first. But if you long to publish what you write, to become
a writer, then perhaps I can help you find that magic pathway.
Visit any major book store and browse the Reference section, where you will
find scores of books on how to write. How to write the mystery, the
suspense, the romance, science fiction, westerns... Books on how to plot and
how to build characters. Volumes on developing the scribbler�s craft�on
how to get ideas, develop style, use foreshadowing and plants, employ scenes
and sequels, manage narrative, utilize dialogue...
While all of this is helpful, of course, what is generally neglected is how
to become a writer, how to be a writer. There is more to becoming
a writer than knowing how to outline a plot or write good dialogue. Craft is
the nuts and bolts of the engine that makes the magic work. However, before
the automobile could run on a freeway at 70 mph or a jetliner hop from New York
to London came the concept of the internal combustion engine, the concept
of horseless travel and of flight. Without those concepts, there would never
have been an automobile or an airplane or any of the technological comforts
we take for granted.
You cannot be a writer unless you first develop the concept of what
is necessary to become a writer. In this book, I hope to help you find
the pathway by exploring the five magic steps toward becoming a successful writer�Discipline;
Inspiration; Goals; Ideas; and Craft. In the end, you will find that the magic
you develop is inside yourself. Ultimately, you determine your own
success or failure.
Read the synopsis of this book.
Purchase Magic Steps to Writing Success by Charles Sasser:
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