Carpentry Basics For Writers

Before I launch my website into a giant Wednesday Special series oh sharing my characters (which you will see me calling charries, please ignore this, this is a Young Writer's Workshop student thing) which I have yet to title, I will reveal the title on Wednesday, I want to reach out and share a little of advice I just heard from a man named Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Now, before I dive deep into the advice, I have to give you, lovely reader, a idea what the heck is going on. Because, if I'm correct, this name probably means very little to you. First, I'll tell you who the person is, then I'll tell you where the quote is from and why it's so significant.

So! Thomas Umstattd Jr. is the CEO of Castle Media Group LLC. which is the parent company to Author Media (and, if you've been following along, you'll recognize I've talked about this before, noticeably in my post A Collection of Names). He is a Christ-follower, a homeschool graduate, and was once, all the way back in 2014, Marketing Director for Enclave Publishing, the traditional publishing house that printed Kara Swanson's Novels Dust, Shadow, and Ignite, all of which I have also talked about before. Thomas Umstattd Jr. also hosts the Author Media Podcast.

Now, to the average person who is not a writer, this might not seem like so great a feat. To most authors and writers however, this is rather admirable. (Links below)

This piece of advice, which I will share with you soon, was given during a recorded interview for a certain Young Writer's Workshop lesson that I have been participating in called The Fundamentals of Platform-Building. This interview was between Brett Harris (Young Writer's Workshop cofounder and current instructor, who actually pointed me toward this lesson because of a question I asked at the end of March) and Thomas Umstattd Jr. Surprise Surprise.

And, finally, the infamous quote: *drumroll* 'The carpenter doesn't just build the house, the house builds the carpenter.' Though it was said in the context that meant more 'the author doesn't just build the book, the book builds the author.'

And what hit me so hard was that the reason I came to this lesson was to learn how to platform-build. But, during my time watching the interview, I realized that 'marketing and craft go hand in hand.' -Thomas Umstattd Jr. (Yes, I took a lot of notes during that interview, which I am looking back upon right now). The point is, I can be building a platform, yes, but it is important not to forget your writing craft. One of the things Mr. Harris was saying in the course is you can platform build, but if you have nothing to sell, then there is no platform at all (or that's more of a random summary, I guess).

'The author doesn't just build the book, the book builds the author.'

The more time I spend writing, the better I'll be at writing.

This coincides with a quote that I heard Brandon Sanderson say once, during one of his writing lectures, which he posts on YouTube. He said (in summary, this is not a direct quote) that 'no matter if you write the chapter, then scrap the chapter, you're still learning to write.'

I took this advice literally once. I absolutely hated the way my story ended. So I scraped it. Sometimes, I think, for young authors especially, we feel like progress is all there is. 'If I don't finish the story, I'm not writing and those words are useless.'

Those words are not useless. Spend the time writing, scrap the writing, do it again. I know a writing friend who is rewriting more than half her novel because she doesn't like the way it flows.

Does that mean those scrapped words are useless? Nooooo!!!!! The opposite, in fact. Having the maturity to pause and realize that writing is not what you actually wanted to write takes courage and it makes you a better writer because of it.

In summary, build the house, learn from the things you did wrong. And then, when you go to build the next house, don't make the same mistakes. It's a learning process, and it's going to take time.

So go, scrap those words.

I'm proud of you.

The End,

Links:

Thomas Umstattd Jr.'s website.

Author Media

Author Media Podcast (aka Novel Marketing Podcast)

Enclave Publishing

Brett Harris (At The Rebelution.com)

(Note: I surfed the web and could not find a website link to Castle Media Group LLC. that didn't look suspicious, so I decided to just leave it without a link, thank you)