Fourteen thousand civilised people died when the tsunami hit Andaman Islands – five percent of the population – meanwhile a cannibal tribe, inhabiting the same island, hardly lost a life. And do you know what saved them – the earliest early-warning system known to man.
When the Jarawa tribe saw jungle creatures performing a speedy mass exodus they decided they should peg it too. Meanwhile civilised men may have noticed the lack of birds singing in the trees or their dog straining the leash and did nothing. Clearly something separates tribal man from civilised man.
While they run for the hills we stand around believing it will be nothing but a storm in a tea cup and that everything will be fine. The fact that they act while we suppress clearly shows that life and death comes down not just to instinct, but the way we use it, if we use it at all.
You and I could be as instinctive as any tribesman if we practiced it, but everyday, in our daily actions, we choose to ignore our instincts. We go to a work-place that depresses us; do work we hate and take pills to dull the pain and make it more bearable. We eat food that is addictive until our legs rub together and our underwear causes chaffing, fail to exercise and then take more pills, have our stomach sewn up or inject ourselves with insulin. All this…just to survive.
And that is exactly what it is for most of us – survival – hanging in there, doing the job that kills our soul, taking on contracts that turn our gut because we believe there is no other option, doing food that causes our major organs to breakdown, living at a financial level just above subsistence level, with just about enough money left at the end of the week to buy a tin of food for that dog.
Will you wake up, please? Will you see how your instincts are telling you about your work? Will you find work that gives you life instead of sapping every living cell out of you? Will you notice that ill health is a hint that you need to eat better and exercise more? Will you take the hint that there is something you can do to save your marriage or relationship?
Instinct is only about feeling something and acting. It could save your career, your finances, your relationship and you life.
Mike Edwards is a soldier who ignored all instinct. His life is in a mess and he has been sent to find and free an environmentalist, held on a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal on a group of islands where the cannibal tribe, the Jarawa, exist. Now Edwards must face the demons of his own mind and the demons on his mission. Follows his story and find out how he reclaims his life. Find out more visit www.neilmillar.net.
About The Author
Neil Millar is the novelist behind the potent SAS adventure Black Water, personal development writer and author of Simple Steps to Greater Happiness and Be the Hero in your Own Life. Neil’s words inspire people to find greater reward in their work and more fun in their personal relationships and life. Read the New York Times Best-selling author review www.neilmillar.net.
Aspiring writers can’t be blamed for balking at the apparently insuperable hurdles to becoming a published author. Modern technology has made the actual process of writing much easier than ever before. Perhaps this is why so many believe they can use their word processors to achieve fame and fortune. Unfortunately, the number of traditional publishers is shrinking rapidly as small houses are swallowed up by the big boys. Herein lies a mathematical problem of course: more writers chasing fewer outlets. It’s enough to make you want to change your mouse for, well, anything that has fewer odds against success.
But before you throw in the towel take a look at your strategy. Yes, strategy. If you don’t believe you need one, then stop reading this now but at the same time forget about becoming a published writer. The truth is that serendipity has very little to do with writing success. You need to plan your path. And if you’re saying right now, so, okay what success have you had? Well, I can say with all honesty that my strategy is working very nicely. As I’ll explain in the course of this article.
So what’s the first step? Simply learn your craft. No matter how much talent you may have, you still need to learn a lot – about writing techniques and about outlets and markets for your work. Nobody need lack access to a creative writing class nowadays. If you can’t attend one physically, then sign up for a correspondence course or access one on the Internet. You also need regular feedback on your work from other writers and you can do this by joining a local writers’ group or by finding an Internet critique board. Believe me, you will see your style develop and your professionalism grow.
When you have knocked a few pieces into shape enter some competitions. Study them carefully. Local events are a good start. I won my first competition by entering an article in the local evening newspaper’s competition. I was then able to point to this success when I started sending out my initial pieces for publication. You don’t even have to win first prize to claim success. Being a runner-up still puts you ahead of the game.
Now start finding markets. Start small and look for magazines that specialize in what you do. I wrote a story I really wanted to publish but, not having a track record, I didn’t expect it to get into a high-profile publication. I did, however, succeed with a well regarded magazine publishing only women’s fiction. Okay they paid peanuts, but I had another success for my portfolio.
Next you need to look at ways of proliferating your published material. Don’t go for any kind of vanity publishing: remember you want to be paid for your work, not pay somebody to publish it, and if it’s good enough, you will eventually sell it. But do look at the new opportunities that modern technology affords. Electronic publishing is in its infancy and, although you may not feel the same about seeing your work on screen as you would about holding it in print form, e-publishing can at least raise your profile and that’s what you need now as your next step. Having had a couple of print publishers expressing an interest in my first novel, I realized it had something going for it. Ultimately, when it came to the crunch, they turned it down, but I then had it accepted by an electronic publisher and then I won an EPPIE award for it. As I had sold only electronic rights I didn’t lose sight of finding a print publisher, as I explain later.
Use your strategic skills in placing articles on the Internet too. Even if you don’t receive payment, you can use your work to your advantage. I placed a few articles on a high-profile site that allowed its contributors to post book proposals. The result is that a publisher has expressed in interest in my writing a reference book.
I also run a website that is not only a means of publicising my work but offers various kinds of support for writers too. This is an effective way of putting yourself in the public domain.
Do I hear some groans of despair out there? I know not everyone feels at ease with web page design and domain names and the rest of it. It’s okay. You can join a writers’ online community and set up your web pages without needing any technical knowledge. And the cost is minimal. It’s all part of the strategy because you can start to network. Networking is important. You need to build up a circle of people who can advise you, inform you, read your work and, eventually, commission you.
But, I hear you say, you’re hardly a household name, so why do you claim this strategy has worked. No, I’m no J.K. Rowling and probably never will be. But this November I’ll be holding my first novel in my hands, in print. Like a number of other British writers I stumbled across a publisher called Publish America. Now this is something of a ground breaker in publishing. It welcomes new authors. It’s not the Rolls Royce of publishers, more the bottom-of-the-range, daily runabout model. It won’t pay you an advance on royalties, it won’t do any developmental editing (but then few traditional publishers do that now) and it will expect you to be active in marketing. But it is not vanity publishing and it will place your books in all the big online bookstores. As far as I’m concerned, this has taken me another step along my chosen route.
Of course I hope my next novel will be taken up my a mainstream publisher so I’m still following my strategy. And it’s going to plan. I have just been ‘highly commended’ in a competition in which I entered an extract from my novel in progress. The next stage is to complete that (no small task), then to query agents and publishers. When I do so, I will have a lot more to tell them about my publishing history than if I hadn’t worked out a strategy.
About the Author
Brenda is a freelance writer specilaizing in the environment, sustainable development and EU issues. She also writes fiction. Find out more from Worlds Apart Review (www.worldspartreview.com).