The Best Writing Advice I’ve Learned So Far by Michele Poydence

Michele Poydence

My illustrious writing career began in second grade. I won a tri-state poetry contest on “What My Flag Means to Me” for a $50 savings bond. Rich! Rich! I was rich! I was on Easy Street and would surely be a famous, millionaire writer some day soon. Maybe even before puberty at this rate.

Let’s fast-forward through the years on what ended up being more like Real Life Street, shall we?

Although I could ace written assignments through my school years, I learned that talking was much easier than writing. So I decided instead to stake my career in public speaking. Then, in my final semester at Duquesne University, I began losing much of my ability to speak because of an illness called spastic dysphonia.

So back to that simple process of sweating blood over a blank page – what we fondly call writing. I became a “hired gun” for a wide variety of venues - from inspirational television to advertising to writing jokes for AT&T’s educational video scripts. On the side, I started a theater company called We Quit Our Day Jobs, although I didn’t quit my day job, since I had grown oddly attached to eating and having a roof over my head.

I wrote movies and landed a couple agents. Then I decided to write my first book, I Want a New Life, a humorous inspirational novel that immediately shot to #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List.

Oh, wait. That’s still a visualization/dream/affirmation I’m trying to bring into reality. But you have to admire my belief.

Which brings us to the deep key of writing and my novel’s theme, actually:

Believe.

You must believe in yourself and your writing. God gave you this gift. It’s for a reason. Use it with everything in you.

And here’s some of the best advice I’ve learned so far on how…

Write what you’d love to read yourself.

Stick your pantaloons to the chair in front of your computer and put in the time every day with few exceptions.

Go with your heart as the final vote in what you write and then write your heart out.

Try to work on one main thing to completion.

Make sure you are moved over something you’ve written or no one else will be.

Get honest, sensitive input from others, preferably writers or editors who are encouraging but frank.

Rewrite until you’re sick to near-death of it and then rewrite some more.

Reward yourself for work accomplished and goals met.

Write something that could change the world.

Believe.

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Rewrite until you’re sick to near-death of it and then rewrite some more. Click to Tweet
Write what you’d love to read yourself. Click to Tweet
God gave you this gift. It’s for a reason. Use it with everything in you. Click to Tweet

About the Author

Michele Poydence wrote and produced the inspirational television magazine program, A New Beginning, which has spanned the globe in over 130 countries and U.S. territories. Along with Bill Cosby, Randy Travis and other notables, her television program won the Angel Award for outstanding positive-value entertainment. She has worked with CBS Television, and with film and TV studios as a writer, producer and director, and has been published in a variety of inspirational magazines. Michele has produced, directed and written comedic plays. Her feature film, Anything’s Possible, has been optioned by a William Morris Agency director. She resides in Oakmont, PA.

I Want a New Life

I Want A New Life
by Michele Poydence

Three women at turning points.

One week to get a new life.

Are all things really possible with God?

Can we have some fun along the way?

Housewife and mom Casey Swanson hears an inner voice for the first time in her life: This is the day. Is this the day she leaves? Amana Anne Moore gets one last chance to become the
inspirational speaker she’s always dreamed of becoming. Is the disarming Jake Sandstone a key to her dreams, and to unlocking her heart to love again? Eliz “Wild Thing” Wilding loses her job, her fiancée - and almost her life - in a day. Can she turn it around in a week and get a fabulous new life?

I Want a New Life is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Connect with Michele:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IWantANewLife
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17376899-i-want-a-new-life