Acknowledgement Problems

I read a blog post recently stating that Authors should keep their acknowledgements in their books short and concise. It got me thinking (not that I'm in a position to start thinking about an Acknowledgements Page yet but bear with me). I don't know about every other aspiring writer but I have a strong need for good information, external validation, and support. How on earth would I pare down the massive list of everyone who's given me a little (or big) push, or some really key piece of information that inspired or helped me limp through this process called writing?

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Offline, my main support comes from my lovely wife. She allows me the time to write, which is a pretty big consideration, we have a 3 year old that keeps us busy and a 13 year old in Rep Hockey, so she's sacrificing her alone-time with me. She also props me up when I have my little personal crises and think that I suck and shouldn't bother. All in, it probably helps that my writing keeps me out of her hair and makes me far less grumpy on the whole.

We just passed our 16th anniversary together, as I'm only 33 you can do the math and figure out that we're Highschool sweethearts. I wouldn't have it any other way. She's a light in my life and a strong foundation I can always turn to.

For information, like most, I tend to go online and I devour anything I can find on the subject of writing. I'm like a writing zombie constantly in search of other people's brains. There's a lot of great stuff out there if you look, books, blogs, podcasts, and Twitter people (Tweeple?).

You know what I've found along the way? An awful lot of contradiction with a strong core of consistency. Most of that seems to come from the fact that there are really very few keys to becoming a successful and accomplished writer. The rest of it is a matter of personal style and what works for the individual.

It appears the key points to being a halfway decent and possibly successful writer are as follows (in no particular order after the first):

• Write every day.
• Finish what you start.
• Allow yourself to suck (on the first draft at least).
• Read often (and in the genre you write for).
• Have a story to tell.
• Revise (and revise, and revise, and revise, and revise)!
• Persevere

Other elements such as outlining/architecting vs. pantsing/discovery writing, character vs plot, etc. are all up for debate (on the whole). I myself strongly believe in a combination in both cases. 

I outline my plot and story arcs heavily while allowing both to change drastically if "discovery" strikes or something feels flat. 

When it comes to scenes and characters I have to "write myself" into them, which is most definitely a "discovery writer" thing to do.

Prose, grammar, and spelling are all things to be cleaned and touched up in revision as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I have some inspired moments while writing the first draft, and some of them may even make it into the final manuscript, but I won't know that until I get there.

That's what I've got so far, and it's by no means clean or polished and certainly up for debate. Like everything to do with writing, I'm learning as I go. Without the people that I meet online, or the podcasts and blogs that I follow with their myriad of tips and helpful information I wouldn't be nearly as far along as I am.

It will likely take several more books to streamline and work it out for myself, and that's a good thing, because it lends to my whole solution to the "Acknowledgements" problem: Write and publish enough books to cover everyone. It's going to take at least 20-30 books.

- Grimm

P.S. I was originally going to list and link some of the blogs and Twitter folks that I follow but I've decided against it in this particular post, as many of the tips and information comes from multiple sources and it would just be a mess. Instead I'm looking to add a people/links bar to the already overcrowded right hand bar once I clean some stuff up.