National Motivation and Inspiration Day 2025 is on Thursday, January 2, 2025: Writersauthors please lend me your attention?

Thursday, January 2, 2025 is National Motivation and Inspiration Day 2025. January 2nd is National Motivation & Inspiration Day ~ Set Your ... National Motivation

Sponsored Deals

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

That's an incredibly broad field! Do you have any ideas as to what you want to do within writing? Do you want to be a freelancer? An editor? A novelist? A poet? A copywriter? A technical writer?

First, keep in mind that less than 5% of writers can make a living on writing alone. That means that more than 95% need to have a day job to support themselves!

There are TONS of books on writing! Most bookstores have at least several shelves in the reference section packed with them. I have a top ten list here:

If you are looking into freelance writing, I just read "Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer" by Jenna Glatzer (a prolific freelancer). It's probably the best book I've ever come across about the business side of freelancing. Highly recommended.

I would recommend buying a notebook strictly for story ideas. Just a cheap spiral bound one is fine! I like having something that I can take with me or leave by my bed (I tend to have great ideas when I can't sleep). When inspiration strikes, I write down some notes on the plot and characters. Personally, I limit myself to writing a page for each idea but length doesn't really matter.

Practice whenever you can. Writing is about dedication and persistance--- so many people have the first 10 pages of a novel written somewhere but never complete it! It's hard work, but very rewarding.

Observe the people around you. Writers should be great people-watchers. But consciously listening and watching the people you interact with, you will find that the characters you write are more realistic. The speech patterns you hear in the world can bring quite a bit of depth to a character.

Read. A lot. Read in the genre(s) you want to write, and read things that are completely unrelated.

Have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It isn't until November, but you can check out the site and have them email you a reminder. Basically, the goal is to write a 50,000 word manuscript over the course of 30 days. Some write serious ones, some are just silly, but it's a lot of fun and good motivation to get to work!

Expect rejection. Even the most popular and famous books were rejected numerous times before they were published. Gone With the Wind racked up 38 rejections before it was accepted! Develop a thick skin now because getting published is HARD!

Edited to add:

Let's do a little math. A first novel most likely isn't going to get an advance of more than about $10,000 BEFORE taxes. Once you take out taxes, your agents cut, what you paid for editing, and any you want to use for advertising, you'd be lucky to have a month's rent left. You may be confident you can get far, but so are the thousands of other people querying their novels right now. Don't give up writing, but get a day job.

Also, Taja-- it's not that only 5% of writers make it. It's that only 5% of writers get paid enough to live on it. Many of the rest are writing and publishing great stuff, they just need help to pay the bills from a day job.

Want a report on a visit to Jantar Mantar?

Jantar Mantar is very popular among tourists and the people of Delhi. The structure is another great masterpiece of Indian architecture which shows the scientific acumen of ancient India. Jantar Manter is situated at Parliament Street, very close to Connaught Place. Jantar Mantar is also called Delhi Observatory. It is maintained by the Jaipur government because it was built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur in 1710 A.D.

It is a remarkable structure which consists of fourteen geometric devices used for measuring time, forecasting weather changes, predicting behaviour of planets and finding extraterrestrial altitude. All these devices are fixed structures and point to a specific direction. The largest device or instrument is the Samrat Jantar which is 90 feet high and its shadow is plotted in such a manner so that is shows the exact time of the day. Any weather change or the onset of monsoons can be ascertained by the Hindu Chhatri, which is a small domed structure.

The whole structure is made of stone and marble with each of then having an engraved astronomical scale. Jantar Mantar finally got the status of a national monument in 1948. It has always attracted architects, historians and scientists from all over the world.

Maharaja Jai Singh was a fanatical astronomer himself who studied various works from Hindu, Muslim and European astronomy. He had the perception that the tables used by the pundits were deceptive and the actual planetary changes and predictions of eclipses would not have been possible through these measuring parameters. So he thought that he would find an improved and efficient means through which exact prediction could be made. It was his own inspiration and foresightedness that gave shape to such an instrument. He built other observatories at Jaipur, Ujjain, Benares and Mathura to have an exact calculation. It took almost seven years before the whole structure was fully operational because he wanted to be fully satisfied with the accuracy of the instruments at Jantar Mantar.

Some Of The Major Instruments At Jantar Mantar Are:

The Samrat Yantra 'Prince of Dials' (the largest device)

The Ram Yantra - two circular buildings

The Jai Prakash

The Misra Yantra (north-west to the Samrat Yantra)

Pillars on the southwest of Mishra Yantra used to measure the shortest and longest days of the year.

The Samrat Yantra measured the accurate time of the day. It also measured the declination of the sun which can be seen by the shadow moving around the structure.

The Jai Prakash shows the sun's position at the time of equinox. There is a hole near the bottom of the structure which witnesses sunshine only once in a year that is on 21 march, called vernal eqinox.

Another important structure called the Ram Yantra, consists of two large buildings with open top. Both these two buildings form a complete device. The device is used to measure the altitude of stars which is equivalent to the latitude and the longitude on the earth.

To the north-west of the Prakash Yantra, there is a structure or instrument called Mishra Yantra. It consists of five instruments. Pillars on the southwest of Mishra Yantra are used to measure the shortest day (21 December) and the longest day (21 June) of the year.It is no denying the fact that the structure does represent the scientific heritage of India, though not being used in the modern scientific research. Having said that, we must give accreditation to the Jantar Mantar for its scientific acumen which could have reaped more fruits had there been appropriate motivation and resource given for research and development.

Someone who is so so important to me,in my life is now leaving. And I just cant cope with this anymore?

Out of chaos comes much beauty. You should not feel the loss, but the beauty of knowing such love. You WILL be a better person for it. You have learned just how important it is to be like this person, so her good will, nature and talent and caring has been passed on to you. She will always be with you in one form or another. You will never grow to be like any of those others because of this special person in your life. For she has given you everything you need to succeed. She has given you more. She has shown you how to be, and how not to be. But people have to move on. It’s painful, but it’s also beautiful. For you must take a hold of this and that what she has installed in you, and take the next big step. If anyone can do this, you can. You have had a very good teacher; one few will ever experience, now take from that experience and pass it on to others, and progress beyond your dreams. No one can ever replace this special person, and I don’t expect you to ever forget her, but what better way to say thank you, than to go on to do better things with what she has given you? Do her proud and be successful. You don’t have to lose contact either! This is a small world these days. So keep in touch and update each other with your lives from time to time. You can both still give each other so very much from afar. Your pain will never lessen, for you are a caring person, and you must never wish for that pain to go. It’s a good pain to have sweets. Many would only wish to have what you have in this person, so don’t make it something it is not, and be happy for her; and you, for you were very lucky to have ever met. Now stay in touch and you will have a friend for life. How lucky are you x Smile now x