Rules, Guidelines, and the Occasional Parlay

By Josie Siler

I’m sitting here at my favorite small-town coffee shop on National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Snippets of Pirates of the Caribbean flash through my brain and I can’t help but smile. Hold on to your tricorn hat because I’m about to shed some light on a group of writers who are just as elusive as those rascally, roguish pirates.

Who are these mysterious writers? Writers who live with chronic illness. We’re a mysterious lot, we know, but it’s time to come clean. We’re rule breakers, and we’re okay with that. We’re constantly breaking one of the biggest rules of writing: Write Every Day.

Sometimes weeks or months pass when we’re not able to write a word. Does that mean we’re not real writers? No!

Let me tell you a little secret. Writers come in all shapes, sizes, and abilities.

Every writer comes to the moment when, like Elizabeth Swann in Pirates, we learn that the rules of the pirate’s (or writer’s) code are more like “guidelines” than actual rules. When we understand this, we find the freedom to be ourselves and do what we need to do.

I’d like to share with you five guidelines that have been helpful on my writing journey, especially on the days when I’m too sick to write.

1.   Extend grace to myself and understand that rest isn’t a waste of time, but the most important thing I can do some days.

2.   Let my imagination run wild, making notes to remind myself of any grand ideas I’ll want to write about later.

3.   Read or watch movies. Collect ideas from other creatives and make notes to remind myself of inspiration I discover.

4.   Be prepared to take advantage whenever and wherever inspiration hits. Just a few weeks ago I wrote a page on my iPad in the middle of a medical treatment. This page will make its way into my book.

5.   Befriend other writers who are chronically ill. We understand each other, know how to encourage one another, and help each other get back to writing when it’s been too long.

Our writing journey may take a bit longer, but it’s a journey we still get to take.

When deadlines loom and we need to write through brain fog or pain, more times than not, those are the best things we write. Why? Because we’re forced to depend completely on the Lord.

That brings me to my most important piece of advice: Pray. Pray hard, pray often, and allow the Lord to speak through you. Whether you live with chronic illness, work full time, care for family members, or just have days when you struggle, it’s okay. You’re still a writer and God can use you in amazing ways.

If you’re ready to go rogue and take control of your writing career, I invite you to join me in invoking the pirate’s code. Take up the cry of “Parlay!” and negotiate your own rules. After all, rules are made to be broken!

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Josie Siler is a small-town Wisconsin girl with big dreams. She’s won multiple awards for both writing and and photography and has been published in Breaking the Chains: Strategies for Overcoming Spiritual Bondage. She is the Vice President of Broken but Priceless Ministries and the Editorial Assistant for Broken but Priceless: The Magazine. Josie’s passionate about helping people to discover and walk in the freedom found in Christ. When she’s not writing or taking pictures, you’ll find this biker chick riding her motorcycle, curled up with a good book, drinking coffee, eating chocolate, or shooting something at the range. Josie shares God’s gifts of beauty, hope, and adventure at www.josiesiler.com.  Links:Twitter: www.twitter.com/josie_siler

Instagram: www.instagram.com/josie_siler Facebook: www.facebook.com/JosieSiler

Breaking the Chains: http://a.co/d/hDPO9kA  Broken but Priceless Ministries: www.brokenbutpriceless.com

Wait-Did You Read the Guidelines?

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine 

Magazines, publishers and agents have guidelines for submissions on their websites. Yet many times writers don’t pay attention to those guidelines.

In case you are wondering, here are a few examples of Guidelines:

Word count– 1500 words (you send 800 words or you send 1625 words).

Spacing–double space (you single space).

Subjects accepted are: non-fiction (you send fiction).

Family Friendly–Your article has lots of profanity.

Font–Times New Roman (yours is in Arial).

As you can see, each of the major items listed on submission guidelines are not followed by the submitting writer.

What do you think they are going to do with your piece?

I talk to editors with magazines and publishers as well as agents  weekly and they all say writers don’t adhere to their guidelines. Because they have so many articles coming in daily, for the most part they don’t read all the way through the ones who do not follow their guideline rules.

Even after the ones I mentioned above do you know the biggest error writers make? They don’t proof their work. There are words not spelled correctly, grammar is not good, punctuation is left out.

The thing is if you don’t proof and edit your work before sending it off, you are knocking your article out of being considered. Editors will not spend the time trying to read through your article with all the mistakes to see if they want to print it or publish it.

So before you send your next story/article out into the world be sure you proof, edit and read the article.  Then make sure you have followed on the guidelines on submission.

Stack the odds in your favor!

Duplicates or Originals

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief

 I read an article about guest posting and writing content and submitting it to different sites on the internet. They were talking about submitting the same thing to different sites. In the course of their writing, I found myself having to reread the first portion. It sounded like they were advocating you write something and use it to send to a variety of sites to post.

There are times you can send the same content to post on numerous places, but you need to recognize when and where that is. The deciding factor for that decision should be based on why you're writing.

What outcome do you want from this exposure?

·         Showing ability and skill of writing

·         Showing writing style

·         Building a following of readers

·         Building  name as a writer

In looking over the different outlets let’s determine if our content should be Original or Duplicate:

·         Guest Blog Post—Original

·         Social Media—Duplicate

·         Magazines—Original (check guidelines-some reprint content already published)

Always think twice about posting a duplicate. You are a writer; words are your product. If you made widgets, you wouldn’t send a used widget to a new customer to get their business. You would send a new widget. Fresh content is always better.

Happy writing.