A Writer's Perspective
by Beth K. Vogt

Thursday, November 11, 2004
As You Start Along the Writing Road

There is more than one road marked "Writer."

If you could punch "journalist" into www.mapquest.com, you’d receive one set of directions. For "investigative reporter,” you’d receive another. And so it goes with freelance writer, novelist, or poet.

A writer’s journey usually begins with an unquenchable passion to shape words into sentences and paragraphs that become articles or books that influence others. As it is oft said, a writer can't not write.

Each writers road is lined with similar road signs—the rules of the writing road, so to speak. In a writers manual these appear in the chapter marked "Learning the Craft." A teenager with a learner’s permit has to learn how to do a 3-point turn and how to operate a clutch. Likewise, a writer has to master the basics of writing—grammar and punctuation and plotting and editing.

I’ve found one of the joys of writing is when my path intersects with another writer’s path. The more I connect with other writers—some farther along the road, some just taking their first step—the more I learn. Cultivate traveling companions like a writer’s group or writer’s guild or an online writer’s loop.

Let me post a warning sign: sometimes you are overpowered by the multitude of suggestions from those you meet along the way. Do it this way, read this book, attend this conference, query this magazine, enter this contest. As time goes by, you’ll discern which side roads to take.

Don’t waste time wishing you were traveling someone else’s road. You’ll miss all God has for you along your writing road. Keep your eyes fixed on the path set before you.

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