Re: Writing Question For Mel (and others)

Hi Tom,

It depends on what kind of writer you want to be.

Do you want to write fiction or nonfiction? Do you want to be a traditional writer whose articles are published in magazines, newspapers and trade journals and whose books are published by brand name publishing houses?

Do you want to be a journalist?

Or do you want to be a commercial writer and write business documents (letters, brochures, Web sites, policy/security statements, ads, publicity material, etc.) for the business community? If you go this route, you write for hire -- in other words, your name never appears as the author.

There are many different types of writing. First, you have to know what you want to do. I think that generally, when people think "writer," they think of people whose articles are published in magazines and journals and who have books published by known publishing companies sitting on bookstore shelves.

These are just some of the broad categories of "writer" that come to mind.

Writer's Digest has a wealth of information for any aspiring writer. Writer's Digest magazine is THE magazine for writers. They also publish books on nearly every type of writing you could want to write including their Writer's Market guides, THE staple industry reference for writers looking to get published. They also offer workshops and conferences for writers.

You can find them at www.WritersDigest.com.

So what kind of writer do you want to be? If you're more specific, we can give you a better answer.