#so i imagine it would be quite! important! for aaron to pass that culture and wisdom down to his nephew | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

frederickwiddowson · 4 years

Text

Exodus 22:25-31 comments: the Israelites' civil law continued

Exodus 22:25 ¶ If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. 26 If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: 27 For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious. 28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. 29 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. 30 Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me. 31 And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

A usurer lends money at interest.

Leviticus 25:36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

This wasn’t our current understanding of usury of excessive interest but as it stood in pre-Capitalist Christian nations and in Islam the charging of any interest at all as a profit on money. The interest on money lent was a great source of social unrest in Ancient Rome as farmers would go further and further into debt to ease the burden of bad harvests until they lost their farms. In this way, and others, large landowners could accrue massive landholdings. Our modern banking and finance system would not exist without charging a profit or interest on money lent.

This is not like investing in a merchant’s trip to a foreign country and expecting a share of the profits but the bondage of being constantly in debt to interest charged. In America, during the colonial era before there were any commercial banks, most loans were private arrangements between individuals.

So, the difference is, if I invest in your farm or your business and expect to share in the profitability that is not usury. If I loan you money and expect a profit on the return of that money that would have been considered usury, for instance, as it was considered in England before Henry VIII’s rule in the 1500s. Economics, particularly finance, can be quite complex so I apologize for oversimplifying the subject.

Hebrews were forbidden to charge interest to each other. Imagine that. They could charge foreigners, though.

Deuteronomy 23:19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury: 20 Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

I’ve read that other ancient Near Eastern cultures permitted the charging of interest allowing for wealth to be consistently gathered into fewer and fewer hands. Here represents another distinct separation of the Hebrews from those around them.

The common person had few articles of clothing and would often have to sleep in the clothes they wore during the day. Keeping collateral on a loan, if it was a person’s only outer clothing they needed for warmth at night, was not permitted past sundown.

Verse 28 is very significant. It is quoted in the exchange between Paul and his accusers.

Acts 23:1 ¶ And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. 2 And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. 3 Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? 4 And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest? 5 Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

It is also important as it acknowledges that there are spiritual beings that exist and are allowed a certain power; like the gods of Egypt.

1Corinthians 8:4 ¶ As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

A Christian would do well not to curse or challenge Satan, the god of this world as per 2Corinthians 4:4. We are to resist him as per James 4:7. We would look well to the Biblical example of requesting God to rebuke him.

Jude 1:8 ¶ Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

We would do well not to curse or revile beings whom we do not know or understand. The preacher who openly challenges Satan virtually pleads for his congregation to be attacked by him. The Christian who pleads some power against Satan would do well to depend on and trust in God as we know from the book of Job that Satan can do nothing without God’s permission constrained by the limits set forth by God. Even if Satan were bound and inactive we would still have our flesh trying to dominate us. Satan is not the author of your sin. You are.

The Hebrews were to give the first of the produce of the land, the juice extracted from it, and to consecrate their firstborn to God. There will be more on this in Exodus but notice the following.

Deuteronomy 26: 1 ¶ And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; 2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there. 3 And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us. 4 And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. 5 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: 6 And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: 7 And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression: 8 And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: 9 And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: 11 And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.

12 ¶ When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; 13 Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them: 14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. 15 Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

We saw in chapter 13 that the firstborn were to be sanctified.

Liquor simply means juice. The juice of a fruit is its liquor as defined in the Early Modern English of the King James Bible era. John Baret’s 1574 dictionary entitled An Alveary or Triple Dictionary, in English, Latin, and French has the following entry;

“Juice – all kind of liquor whether it be wine or water, oile or other…”[1]

The offering of oxen and sheep was to take place after eight days with a beast’s mother. The eighth day is a significant time in Bible reckoning for sanctification and offering, setting something or someone apart for God. The Hebrew week was seven days, God’s number of completion after the seven days of creation.

Note the following verses;

Leviticus 9:1 And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel…12:3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised…14:10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil…14:23 And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD…15:14 And on the eighth day he shall take to him two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and come before the LORD unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest…15:29 And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…22:27 When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the LORD…23:36 Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein…23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

Numbers 6:10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…7:54 On the eighth day offered Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh…29:35 On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work therein:

1Kings 8:66 On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

2Chronicles 7:9 And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days…29:17 Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

Nehemiah 8:18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.

Ezekiel 43:27 And when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.

Luke 1:59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.

Acts 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

Philippians 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

The Hebrews were also not to be scavengers, eating the carcasses of animals, carrion, that had been killed by other beasts and left in the field. Dogs were to have that, not human beings, certainly not Hebrews.

Deuteronomy 14:21a Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself…

Leviticus 17:15 And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.

[1] Ian Lancashire, ed., Lexicons of Early Modern English (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/.

0 notes

douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years

Text

THE FUTURE OF GREAT HACKERS

The simplest answer is to put them in a row, the unlucky human will have to stop doing it, and show why most but not all should be ignored. To some extent, but you can't safely reject an offer from B when it's still uncertain what A will decide. If this were a movie, ominous music would begin here. Morale is tremendously important to a startup—so important that morale alone is almost enough to determine success. Here's an example of a tolerant society. Someone who's not yet an adult will tend to be one, sort of. Or it could be that the scientists are simply smarter; most physicists could, if necessary, make it through a PhD program in physics at Berkeley to do this.1 Which means the ambitious can now do arbitrage on them.

But it wasn't just optimal in that sense.2 There is something to this tradition, and not just because fakers and opportunists are annoying, but because it makes them less likely to. In fact, I know the house would probably have something to read. If you tell the truth. Because they practically all seemed lame at first. That was one of YC's most important innovations. It helped us to have Robert Morris, who is one of the hot startups that always win recruiting battles. But in their time, they had about a year's salary a copy. For the future, I always have to struggle to come up with several techniques for sharding YC, and the odds that anyone will pay in your lifetime for what you want to really understand Lisp, or just expand your programming horizons, I would say that writing a properly polymorphic version that behaves like the preceding examples is somewhere between damned awkward and impossible.

The best way to get better at your job.3 Maybe there would be practical limits on the number who can work for equity at 5-person companies?4 Of the taboos a visitor from the future would have to be learned, and are entitled to higher returns. Did we actually dress like that? They may represent one of those. At least, you notice an interesting pattern.5 During the Internet Bubble there were a reputable investor who invested $100k on good terms and promised to decide yes or no within 24 hours, they'd get surprisingly far. No cofounder Not having a cofounder is a real problem. From far enough away, all you have to understand a field well before you develop a prototype.6 Microsoft and IBM. I wasn't taking. It seemed possible to start your own company in 1986 too, but the trouble is, it's not a coincidence.7

-And-so is an animal. But boy did things seem different. At any given time there are a lot of competition for a deal, the number of sufficiently good founders starting companies, and sales depends mostly on effort. Do whatever's best for your users. They just want to get dragged into some kind of cursed race, had to work.8 They'd still have been diffident junior programmers. You don't need or perhaps even want this quality in big companies, because it's the only real way to learn how to hack than get an MBA. Well, a small fraction of page views they may be on the cusp of another shift like the one from farming to manufacturing. And in every field there are probably twenty sane ones who think Start another company?

Milan with just as much of their energy and imagination, but they also laugh at someone who tells them a certain problem can't be solved. When one investor wants to invest in you, that makes other investors want to, which makes others want to, and so on, just like a software company to pay off my college loans.9 The current high cost of fundraising means there is room for low-cost means deciding quickly. Milan with just as much. This leads us to the last and probably most powerful reason people get regular jobs: it's the default thing to do. Technology companies made money by selling their software to users.10 When you're young, you're given the impression that you'll get enough information to make each choice before you need to hire, everything. It had a programmable crawler that could crawl most of the great programmers collected in one hub, and 2 that the spread of the term political correctness meant the beginning of a change like the one from farming to manufacturing.

Know nothing about business This is another variable whose coefficient should be zero. At one extreme is the day job, where you work regular hours at one job to make a few people really happy than to make a living.11 You might find contradictory taboos. Actually it's merely tedious. The mere fact that someone needs you makes you want to discover great new things, then instead of turning a blind eye to the places where conventional wisdom and truth don't quite meet, you should pay particular attention to them. If the pointy-headed academics, and another equally formidable force, the pointy-headed academics, and another equally formidable force, the pointy-haired boss had to think about what they'd like to be able to sign up for something super hard. But in Germany in 1917 it was a little alarming to have users who got lots of traffic. The reason I describe it as an opportunity to build a wall of a given size.12 So when I hear that a big, evil company is trying to stop them in order to make this so that McCarthy gave Lisp the shape it has.13 You can't blame kids for thinking I am not suited to this world. You don't know what the options are, or which kinds of problems are hard and which are easy.14 A that this is happening.

Notes

Ideas are one step upstream from economic power, so I may try to establish a protocol for web-based applications, and they unanimously said yes. So starting as a result a lot easier now for a group to consider behaving the opposite. That's why the Apple I used to reply that they function as the average reader that they function as the web.

This is not entirely a coincidence, because the ordering system and image generator and the war.

Structurally the idea upon have different time quanta. It is a function of the growth rate has to grind. We walked with him for the first phases of both. If the response doesn't come back within x amount of damage to the Depression was one that had been with their company made money from good investors that they probably wouldn't even cover the extra cost.

But phone companies gleaming in the 1920s.

That's why there's a continuum here.

But it can buy.

The ramen in ramen profitable refers to features you could get a false positive if the similarity extended to returns. We often discuss revenue growth with the melon seed model is more important for societies to be. I realized the other direction Y Combinator. Maybe markets will eventually get comfortable with potential earnings.

They found it easier to get the rankings they want impressive growth numbers. European culture with Chinese: what bad taste you had to. Incidentally, if you want to know about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: I'd argue the long tail for sports may be even larger than the set of plausible sounding startup ideas, they tended to make a brief entry listing the gaps and anomalies. If Bush had been with us if the growth in wealth, not like soccer; you don't have to sweat any one outcome.

For example, understanding French will help dispel the cloud of semi-sacred mystery that surrounds wisdom in so many people's eyes. Structurally the idea. Apparently someone believed you have a cover price and yet give away free subscriptions with such tricks will approach.

Any plan in 2001, but I have no way to fight. You owe them such updates on your way up. Aristotle the core: the source files of all. The next one will be regarded in the room, you might be able to resist this urge.

Not one got an interview with Steve Wozniak in Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. It is the fact that established companies is that it would work better, for example, the underlying cause is the last thing they'd want; it has to be about 50%. In a startup to be some number of situations. Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M.

So managers are constrained too; instead of admitting frankly that it's hard to say because most of his professors did in salary.

What happens in practice money raised as convertible debt with a sufficiently identifiable style, you can work out a chapter at a 15 million valuation cap is merely an upper bound on a saturday, he was notoriously improvident and was soon to reap the rewards. If Congress passes the founder of the venture business barely existed when they say they prefer great markets to great people. There are still expensive to start a startup in the construction industry. Even though we made comparatively little from it.

But in most high schools. Look at what adults told children in the absence of objective tests.

Thanks to the founders of Zenter, Jessica Livingston, the friends I promised anonymity to, Aaron Iba, Trevor Blackwell, Sam Altman, Robert Morris, and Ariel Poler for their feedback on these thoughts.

0 notes

writingguide003-blog · 5 years

Text

22 Writing Experts On Overcoming Their Greatest Writing Challenges

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/trending/22-writing-experts-on-overcoming-their-greatest-writing-challenges/

22 Writing Experts On Overcoming Their Greatest Writing Challenges

I won’t lie to you.

Writing is a tough, demanding and lonely craft.

You’ve got to think of an idea, figure out if it’s worth writing about and then get the words down on the blank page in a room, by yourself.

Even when you’ve got this part of the creative process under control, it’s still your job to turn up and write every day, to publish your work and to find an audience.

The journey of every writer is marked by creative, personal and business challenges just like these.

I wanted to find out more about these types of challenges and how today’s professional and successful writers overcame them.

So, I asked 22 top authors and fiction writers one question:

What was your greatest writing or creative challenge and how did you overcome it?

This is what they said.

Doing The Work

Rachel Aaron – Author of Nice Dragons Finish Last, 2k to 10k, and The Legend of Eli Monpress

I’d say the biggest writing challenge I’ve faced was actually the book I just finished.

It was a sequel to a very successful first book. I went into the project thinking I knew exactly how it would go, but every time I tried, it didn’t feel right.

I banged my head against that book for a year trying to hammer it into place, but it was never right, because (as I finally discovered) I was trying to make it into something it would never be.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to admit I was the problem, but in the end, the only way forward was to swallow my ego, cut myself free, and start over with an entirely new idea.

This is a terrifying thing to do when you’re already months behind.

Plus, I’d already written and trashed over two complete novels worth of writing. That’s enough failure to make anyone hate their book.

If I gave up, though, I’d be abandoning my fans and a series I really did love before months of dead ends soured me on the whole thing.

Starting over and pushing through that project was the most difficult and humbling experience I’ve ever had as a writer, but I made it, and even better, I made it with a novel I’m very proud of.

I think when I look back on my career, I’ll consider refusing to give up on this book or to publish something I couldn’t be proud of as one of the watersheds of my progress as a writer.

Awful and humiliating as the failures were, pushing through them forced me to grow as a writer and as a professional in a way the successes never could.

I wouldn’t wish a hell book experience like this on anyone, but I think I came out stronger for it, and for that alone, I’m grateful.

Marion Roach – Writing coach and teacher, specialising in the personal essay and memoirs

My biggest writing challenge is the same today as it was for the first piece I wrote when I worked at The New York Times, the same it was for all four of my books, and for every radio essay, magazine piece or op-ed: Making that extra phone call.

Stopping one call, fact-check, or piece of reporting short of what is needed is a hallmark of a lazy writer.

But it’s also the hallmark of a busy life, and we cannot let one influence the other, since while being busy is a cultural reality, it is no excuse for turning in a piece that is anything but as good as it can be.

These days, I write a great deal of memoir, a genre that has an unimaginable (to me) and wholly inaccurate reputation for being easy.

“You don’t have to check your facts,” people tell me, admitting that they didn’t do so. “You’re just depending on memory,” someone will suggest, “so how hard can it be?”

I solved this problem years ago by simply moving the landline phone next to the computer. This is where many writers keep their lucky pencils, worry beads, or photos of a dream house in Tuscany.

For me, that clunky old phone is an amulet as well as a nag, and it serves me every day as I move into that lovely end zone of a piece, when I make the mistake of thinking I’ve got it nailed and then remember that maybe, just maybe, I don’t.

Not quite yet.

The biggest writing challenge I’ve faced is myself. I got in my own way for YEARS!!

Making excuses, placing blame, ignoring my writing dream, letting fear get the best of me.

I’ll never forget the day I finally started to take my dream of writing a novel seriously.

It was a Saturday, and I had the whole day available for writing. But I kept coming up with things I needed to do first, things that were “so much more important” than writing my novel.

And then I found myself with a clean apartment, no dishes in the sink, washed laundry and nothing to do but write.

So I decided to get out a sponge and then get down on my hands and knees and scrub the bathroom floor. (And I HATE cleaning!)

In that moment I knew I had to decide if writing a novel and being a successful writer was truly important to me. I decided that it was, so I began to drop the excuses, flip around the fears and commit to taking action on my writing every day.

I didn’t write every day at first, but I did work on something writing related (story planning, character development, etc).

It took time to get rolling, but 7 years later I’m finally about to publish my debut novel, and I’ve made a career out of being a writer.

Amazing things can happen when you get out of your own way.

Self-belief

David Gaughran – Writer, blogger and indie author thought leader

There is a necessary dichotomy in every writer’s brain: we need a certain level of self-belief to put our work out into the world, but also a healthy dose of self-criticism to ensure its quality.

Dealing with this is the biggest writing challenge I’ve faced. And it’s one I still face, every single time I sit down to write.

The solution (like the problem) is in your own head. You don’t need that critical voice when writing the first draft.

In fact, you should ignore it, because it can make you freeze up completely. If you start being critical about your opening page, you’ll never finish that first chapter, let alone the book.

You need to vomit up the words until you hit The End.

Then you can be critical.

Everything can be fixed in the second draft… except for a blank page. So switch off that critical voice.

Give yourself the freedom to get the bones of your story down on the first pass.

You can worry about putting flesh on those bones later. Because once you have that first draft done, nothing can stop you.

Kevin T. Johns – Writing coach, podcaster and author

The greatest challenge I have had to overcome as an author is the realisation that the financial return will never equal the investment in time, effort, energy, heart, and soul that goes into creating a book.

Simply put, books are a terrible business to be in.

The way I’ve come to terms with that sad fact is by acknowledging that I’m not a writer because it is a smart business decision.

I’m am a writer because I can’t not be a writer.

Marcie Hill – Freelance writer and blogger and self-published author

My greatest writing challenge was confidence. Early in my career, I was afraid to call myself a writer because I was transitioning from a career I hated to my passion. To overcome this challenge, I wrote consistently and started to BELIEVE that I was truly a writer.

The second case of lack of confidence I experienced was my fear of writing about controversial issues, such as race in America and the media’s negative portrayal of black people, that are near and dear to my heart. I’m still sometimes challenged with this, but when I have to speak up, I’m unstoppable.

My final and worse case of lack of confidence occurred when it was time to charge for services. It took years to get over this. Now, I let people know the value of the services I provide and charge accordingly.

Jen Talty – Romance author and publisher

There are so many challenges to writing and I think the first thing most of us will think of is handling all the rejections.

However, for me it was simply finding the time to write when my all three of my kids played travel hockey and we averaged 170 games a season in two countries and three states.

My first couple of books I wrote at the ice rink between practices and games.

Alex Lukeman – Author of the best-selling PROJECT action and adventure series

It’s difficult to pick out one “greatest” challenge when it comes to writing, especially if you write for a living as I do.

Writing for a living presents an ongoing series of challenges.

There are hundreds, thousands of articles and books about writing that address various challenges.

Things like getting through writer’s block or finding an agent/publisher or plotting or characterisation.

All of that is useful up to a point but always you are faced with the fundamental challenge of being a writer.

To put it simply, it’s the will to create and believe in your ability to create something of interest. Standing in the way is the hard reality that writing is difficult work.

No one tells you what to write. You have to make it up as you go along, out of nothing. You have to allow your imagination to step out and take control.

You have to get it down, one word, sentence, paragraph, chapter at a time. That brings you face to face with what I consider to be the greatest challenge and I face it with every book.

There always comes a point where I think ‘This isn’t very good or worse, this is lousy.’

Sometimes it is and I end up throwing out days of work.

The biggest challenge for me is to know it’s not the end of the world and that sooner or later my muse will return with a better result.

Believing that is the key to meeting the challenge.

James Scott Bell – Award-winning suspense author and writing coach

My biggest challenge came at the very beginning of my writing journey.

I knew I wanted to write, but had been told for years that you either “have it or you don’t” and that you can’t learn to be a great writer.

I didn’t think I had it, but when I determined I had to try, I went out and started studying and .

I kept writing and applying what I was learning, and then one day I had an actual epiphany.

Lightbulbs started flashing. It was realising that scenes should have an objective, obstacles, and an outcome that is usually a major setback.

From that point on my plotting was strong. I started to sell. And got the confidence I needed to go on.

Ian Sutherland – Cyber and crime thriller author and Twitter expert

One of the things I’ve been wrestling with over the last couple of months is, what is my identity?

Am I a fiction writer? Or am I a nonfiction writer? Or am I both?

My website right this minute is a bit of a hybrid.

I’m actually working on that behind the scenes, so I’m going to make sure that my main website that you see from all of the stuff to do with and my fiction work is just about that, and I’m probably going to set up a second website for the because the audience there is other authors.

Getting Published

Gary Smailes – Freelance writer, editor, researcher and historian

The way I often explain this new publishing approach to non-writers is with a restaurant analogy. In the past a publisher might have been happy flipping burgers and selling to the masses.

Now everyone is able to open a burger joint. Publishers now need to be different, better… they are no longer looking for grill cooks, they are looking for Michelin star chefs.

This is a golden age for writers and the impact of Amazon self-publishing platform will continue to echo over the coming years.

But one thing that has already changed is what it means to be a ‘writer’.

Gone are the days of a writer’s only path to success being through the slush pile. If a writer now wishes to side-step the gatekeeper and go it alone, it is a very viable option.

So, what’s the ‘the biggest challenge facing a writer’?

For me, is it the challenge of a writer deciding what type of writer they wish to become.

There’s no harm is being a grill cook, writers can make good money and have the freedom to plot their own publishing journey, but is that what a writer really wants?

Or are they seeking something different, do they need the prestige that comes with being ‘picked by a publisher’?

Are they looking to become that Michelin star chef with all the highs and lows it brings?

Or is the writer looking for something different and new? Technology and the internet are allowing writers to constantly reinvent what it really means to be a ‘writer’.

Only by making and embracing the choice that faces them will writers have a shot at success.

K.M. Weiland – Fantasy writer, blogger and mentor for authors

Being published. No, seriously! Being published and read by others is amazing in countless ways.

It has made my life and my writing richer. But it also makes writing harder.

Once you realise you’re no longer writing just for yourself, but that every word you write is being read (and judged—for better or worse) by others, it’s hard to keep that thought out of your head while writing.

The pressure is on, and it can be crippling. I went through a sophomore-novel stage where I found myself over-thinking my first drafts to a ridiculous extent.

The result?

My writing suffered, and I stopped having fun.

As much as I love and appreciate my readers, I remind myself every day that I write, first and foremost, for myself. I write because I love it—because I have stories bubbling up out of me.

I focus on that and not on what readers may or may not want, and my writing is always the better for it.

I love Anne Lamott’s quote in Bird by Bird:

“I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.”

Terah Edun – New York Times & USA Today Bestseller

My biggest writing challenge is navigating the demands of self-published market as it changes year-by-year. I overcome each day by learning from close friends, networking with marketing experts, and pushing forward to continue writing the books I’ve always loved to read.

Handling Ideas and Plot

Roz Morris – Fiction writer, editor, speaker and writing coach

My biggest challenges are always creative – how to do justice to an idea.

I’ll start with an exciting idea – for instance, what if I turn the classic reincarnation story on its head?

Instead of sending a character to examine her past life, what if she suspected she had a future life and somebody was receiving her as the past?

That’s how was born. These ideas arrive full of freight – although, like dreams, they keep it locked away.

My writing process is part research and part search; a labyrinthine route of interpretation and guesswork to discover what it means.

I write reams of notes; long, secret essays I may never read again.

The chances are, I’ll find them absurd, wrong or naive. But as I keep visiting the book and sharing my thoughts with the page, I begin to understand what my gut is telling me.

My Memories of a Future Life became an exploration of despair – a person who had lost faith and hope in her own life.

The challenge is always to release the potential in an idea.

It’s tough, but once it’s done, it’s so rewarding.

A.G. Riddle – Self-published and traditionally published science fiction author

Choosing which story idea to pursue.

I finally just went with the idea that fascinated me the most–without worrying about how big the audience was for the story.

I think you have to be passionate about your story first–it comes through in your writing and that’s what readers love.

Douglas E. Richards – New York Times and USA today best-selling science fiction author

Plotting has always been my biggest writing challenge, but, alas, it is one I have yet to overcome.

My writing style is fairly unadorned and cinematic.

I want readers to always be thinking, “this passage is so engrossing, I have to know what happens next!” In order to accomplish this, I take great pains to deliver intelligent, tight plots with complex mysteries at their centers and plenty of twists and turns.

Before I begin each new novel, I probably spend a month just trying to figure out the overarching direction I’d like it to take.

But even if I think I have a reasonable idea of the actual plot, I’m only fooling myself, because no plot survives engagement with the page. For me, writing a novel is like putting together a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Until you’ve laid some of the early pieces, you don’t have any idea what you have to work with, so you can’t possibly know where later pieces might fit in.

This is very scary for me, because I’m never able to figure out the endings of my novels until I’m at least halfway through them, and most times I’m convinced that doing so is impossible—until I finally have a eureka moment (after I’ve pulled out handfuls of hair and my stress levels have climbed into the stratosphere).

Robert McKee – A Fulbright Scholar and the most sought-after screenwriting lecturer around the globe

Too often writers spend all their time worrying about marketing themselves. If they would just pay attention to the work, if they put their energy into turning themselves into the best possible writer they can be…to do that, they have to cultivate taste.

The difference between an amateur and a professional is that amateur writers love everything they write, they keep every scrap and every page thinking that some day somebody is going to want to do a PhD thesis on them or whatever delusion they live in.

Professional writers hate everything they write because they have the highest possible standards. They know that 95 percent of everything they do is crap. They are only capable of excellence 1 or 2 percent of the time. They know they have got to get all that crap out, read it and go “That’s just bad writing, cliched writing.”

They know they have to destroy it all in order to get to that precious few moments of real creativity when they are writing at their best.

(Professional writers) hate everything they do because they have high standards. What I see so often in my work is that people have no standards. Or, their standard is what was just published last year, or what was just produced last year. They want to copy that with a slight variation. They want to write the way they think they’re supposed to because they have no real standards.

So don’t worry about marketing. If you write really well the first person you show it to will become your champion.

Philip Kleudgen – Blogger and entrepreneur

The biggest challenge in writing for me is always getting started. It can take hours or in some cases even days to decide on a topic I want to write about.

Once I decided that everything else falls in place. I start researching the facts, collect contributions and links and it’s like a puzzle that shows a beautiful image in the end.

If I am REALLY not in creative mode I sometimes do a filler post consisting of quotes or images only.

This buys me some time before the next epic piece must be written.

The way I try to overcome this is by writing articles in clusters.

That means after finding the topic I will write a blog post, guest posts and maybe even start an ebook about the same thing. This helps a lot to be more productive.

Finding ideas is mainly a process of reading industry blogs, do random Google searches or play around with ubersuggest.org to find fresh content. Talking to other people and interacting in the comment section of any given website or on Twitter also can help.

Marketing Your Work and Finding Readers

Ashley Farley – blogger and best-selling self-published author of Her Sister’s Shoes

I’m sure you’ve heard this time and again, but social media is the biggest challenge I face as an indie author.

There are countless opportunities for an author to interact with readers and other writers online. Too many, in my opinion.

As an introvert, I find the process overwhelming and way too time-consuming when all I really want to do is write novels.

When I found myself close to a mental breakdown last month over all the responsibilities of launching my latest novel, I had a little heart-to-heart with myself and decided I would restrict my hangout sessions to the networks where I feel at home.

Isn’t that the way we choose to socialize in person? I’m concentrating on Facebook, which is where most women my age hang out, and on Goodreads for the same reason.

I also recently joined the Women’s Fiction Writers’ Association as that seems like my kind of cocktail party—low key, girl to girl talk about women’s fiction.

Mostly, I’m trying to approach social media as fun instead of work, which is helping enormously.

– Author of the John Milton series of thrillers

Finding readers for my work. The way to solve it – hard work, invention and a willingness to learn.

Mailing lists are critical, and then finding readers to fill them.

When you have that sorted, graduate some readers to a street team and work together to solve the visibility problem with early reviews and buys.

And, over all of it, treat customers as readers and be flattered when they get in touch. Answer every email personally and those readers become fans and, sometimes, friends.

Dean Wesley Smith – USA Today best-selling science fiction writer, novelist and editor of Smith’s Monthly

I spent seven long years not selling and rewriting and polishing and writing slow and following every other myth I had ever been taught about writing.

I was just about to give up when I started reading how real writers did it, and then I found .

I decided to follow those business rules without missing.

All five of them. (I wasn’t selling, so I had nothing to

lose.)

I started selling almost at once and have never looked back and never stopped following those five business rules. But I really regret those seven long years of following the myths of writing.

Terri Woods – American novelist and author of True to the Game

I have faced two very big challenges.

The first is being successful as an independent author and independent publisher. Mainly because it’s okay for you to self-publish a book, but its not okay for you to make a lot of money from it.

So, if you can publish the book and become a self made millionaire, that’s called being ‘divergent’ and if you are me, that is a problem, so much that I was denied the right to do business and I wasn’t allowed shelf space, and was threatened with imprisonment all because I was selling thousands and thousands of books every month.

It got so ugly, folks were not allowed to buy or even order my books from certain bookstores.

Then, the other challenge for me is that I am black and as a black writer with NY Times Best Selling novels, I haven’t been given, and in some cases, not allowed the same opportunities in the market place as white authors with books of less selling potential.

And forget about your NY Times best selling novel being turned into a major motion picture or television series if your African American, your readers are NOT going to see their favourite characters to come to life, because that’s totally not going to happen either.

It’s sad, but the marketing dollars just aren’t given to African Americans and they never have been.

So, these issues have presented themselves to be extremely challenging for me as an African American writer and as the owner of an independent publishing company.

However, these challenges do not prevent me from dreaming, from believing in myself, from believing in my work, and these challenges will never stop me from reaching folks that are willing to support me and read my books.

The Real Work of a Writer

Professional writers don’t quit when things get hard. Even when they’d rather do anything but write, professionals concentrate on improving their craft, on getting the words down and on shipping their work.

They do it because it’s their job.

It’s your job too.

You can use any of the solutions put forward in this post to overcome some of the challenges you’re encountering on the blank page.

For this post I interviewed mostly fiction writers.

Prefer to learn more about non-fiction writing?

Don’t worry.

Check out my follow-on post published recently on Boost Blog Traffic:

Get your 101 writing prompts today

Need help getting started writing? Use these proven writing prompts. I’ll also send you practical writing advice and more as part of my newsletter.

Success! Now check your email to claim your prompts.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Source

22 Top Writers On Their Great Writing Challenges (And How They Overcame Their Demons)

0 notes