{"id":9112,"date":"2020-03-12T06:57:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T13:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=9112"},"modified":"2020-03-12T18:08:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T01:08:11","slug":"understanding-4-cs-being-a-successful-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/understanding-4-cs-being-a-successful-author\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding 4 C\u2019s: Being a Successful Author"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Guest Blogger Joan Gelfand writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never set out to write a novel. I mean, really? I had cut\nmy literary teeth on Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Kurt\nVonnegut, Gunter Grass and Wallace Stegner. I was satisfied being a poet, known\nto my local community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing a novel seemed terribly pretentious, a misguided\nidea. No. I did not start out to write a novel. I started out with a story\nthat, after two years, and much encouragement from my writing instructor, grew\ninto three hundred pages. I had written my first novel without planning to do\nso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was with that\nfirst novel that I began to understand that becoming a successful writer wasn\u2019t\njust about writing. It was several years after my first attempt to find a\npublisher for that first novel that I understood the business of writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned that the letter I got back from an agent asking me\nto revise my manuscript was a serious request, not a rejection. And, I learned\nthe hard way that without confidence, without commitment, and community,  I was never going to become a winning writer.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the 4 C\u2019s approach encourages you to improve your\ncraft, it also provides suggestions for the design of a productive work\npractice, recommends ways to cultivate a supportive network and gives clear and\npractical examples of how to build your confidence. What makes the 4 C\u2019s\napproach unique is that the key is to develop all four skills at the same time.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it sound like a lot of work? It is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, I\u2019ve coached innumerable writers who start\nout insisting that they barely have time for the actual writing. Just getting\nto their desks, crafting a piece of writing, and finishing it is a tremendous\nchallenge. And it is. But just finishing a piece of writing is not enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After just a few sessions of working with me, these same\nwriters find their priorities shifting as they begin to understand the\nimportance of cultivating a network and building community. They realize that\nsending out their work one or even ten times is not enough. Soon, they find\nthemselves more confident about every aspect of their work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4 c\u2019s system: Imagine that your writing career is a\nstove with four burners: Craft. Commitment. Community. Confidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each burner has a pot on it that needs care and attention.\nEach pot is cooking up something tasty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craft is bubbling while commitment is on a low simmer; you\nare out in the community, seen everywhere! That pot is on full boil. While you\nwere out, confidence has scalded; that last manuscript rejection has you\nwondering if you\u2019ve got what it takes. Who said you could write your way out of\na boiling pot? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Head Chef de Cuisine, your job is to fire up the\nburners, keep the grill hot, and tend to the ovens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juggling is involved. Timing is essential. But this is your\npiece de resistance! You can do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan Gelfand,<\/a> MFA, Author, Coach is the author of the #1 Amazon Best Seller, You Can Be a Winning Writer<\/em> (Mango Press).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joan\u2019s three volumes of poetry and chapbook of short fiction\nhave garnered over twenty awards and commendations. Joan\u2019s novel, Fear to\nShred,<\/em> set in a Silicon Valley startup, will be published by\nMastodon\/C&R Press in March, 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key publications include Los Angeles Review, PANK!, Rattle,\nHuffington Post, Poetry Flash, Prairie Schooner, Kalliope, Meridian Anthology\nof Contemporary Poetry, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and over 100 lit mags and\njournals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger Joan Gelfand writes: I never set out to write a novel. I mean, really? I had cut my literary teeth on Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Kurt Vonnegut, Gunter Grass and Wallace Stegner. I was satisfied being a poet, known to my local community. Writing a novel seemed terribly pretentious, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1353,343,1354],"class_list":["post-9112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-joan-gelfand","tag-writers-forum","tag-you-can-be-a-winning-writer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2mY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9112"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9122,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9112\/revisions\/9122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}