By Chanda Temple<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n New York Times best-selling author Omar Tyree, who\u2019s 44 and has been writing books for the last 21 years, recently visited Birmingham, Ala. to make public appearances and promote his latest book The Traveler<\/em>, a fictional story about an American\u2019s visit to Dubai. Several of his past fictional books have focused on relationships.<\/p>\n During his visit, the Philadelphia native stopped at the Smithfield Library to meet fans and give a lecture on his writing journey. Afterward, I asked him to provide a few writing tips for the new year. When the conversation was over, his frank answers left me ready to dive, head first, into writing the first chapter of a novel. I hope his tips will motivate you in 2014.<\/p>\n Writers write.\u00a0<\/b>You\u2019ve been wanting to write a book but you haven\u2019t because you are trying to \u201cfigure it out.\u2019\u2018 Stop procrastinating and start writing. Just write down what you are thinking. You can revise it later.<\/p>\n Finish what you start. \u00a0<\/b>Once you start writing, don\u2019t let getting stuck on Chapter 3 stop you. Remember that writer\u2019s block is only fear of what you are trying to write. Just put it out there. You have to have confidence and faith in your own words.<\/p>\n Think about subjects that will be meaningful for your readers.\u00a0<\/b>There are too many topics that you know people will already read or like. However, consider writing about something that\u2019s out the box, a subject that will make people say, \u201cOh! Wow!\u2019\u2019 Challenge yourself and challenged your readers.<\/p>\n Keep going.\u00a0<\/b>Don\u2019t stop at writing one, two or three books. If you want to be a writer, keep it going. \u201cI\u2019m up to book Number 27, 28, 29, 30. And I\u2019ve still got a whole lot left in me and a whole lot of different ideas I can write about,\u2019\u2019 Tyree says.<\/p>\n Tyree\u2019s tips and the library lecture were so good, I couldn\u2019t let the conversation just end there. So I asked him a few more questions to help writers.<\/p>\n You talked about growing up in Philadelphia and overhearing teenage girls give detailed information about their love lives as you all rode buses to school. Such colorful details can give a writer something to draw from during the writing process. But what do you do if you have plain thoughts, lead a plain life and you don\u2019t think your stories will move readers?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cYou write plain thoughts,\u2019\u2019 Tyree says. \u201cTo say that plain thoughts can\u2019t move, is wrong. You have other people who are in plain places as well and they\u2019ll connect to those same things. They will be able to relate to that. You still have to write it down and you have to put it out there anyway because you have to see if people will be able to enjoy it. And you\u2019ll surprise yourself.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that (surprise) will give you confidence to write the next one,\u2019\u2019 he says. \u201cI hear what you are saying, but write it first and let\u2019s see where it goes first. You can\u2019t make that assumption before you do it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n What should an author do when his or her book is not moving and selling? Are they a failure? Should they just move on and keep writing?<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was first coming through, they said the third book was the charm. You\u2019ve got to keep writing. The first book — (readers) may not like that one. It may be too hard,\u2019\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Grisham\u2019s A Time to Kill<\/em> dealt with a very racially-charged issue. A lot of people didn\u2019t read that book. The Firm<\/em> was his third book — that took off. Then he came back to what was his favorite, A Time to Kill.<\/em> So yeah, keep doing what you are doing. Sometimes, the audience will come around. Sometimes, you will come around to figure out how to do it better.\u201d<\/p>\n (Side note: When Tyree released his third book, Flyy Girl,<\/em> in 1993, readers snapped up the coming-of-age story about a young woman in the late 1980s. Hollywood is now looking at turning the book into a movie. He received the 2001 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature in Fiction and a 2006 Phillis Wheatley Literary Award for Body of Work in Fiction.)<\/p>\n How do you decide if you should write fiction or nonfiction?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easier to write fiction than nonfiction. With nonfiction, there\u2019s more research involved and checking the facts,\u2019\u2019 he says. He adds that although you still have to check facts for fictional stories, fiction offers more freedom. You can create what you want to create and go on your own story with fiction.<\/p>\n For more information about Tyree, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., visit\u00a0www.omartyree.com<\/a>. He says he offers consultations and does speaking engagements on a variety of topics. Follow him on Twitter at @omartyree<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chanda Temple<\/strong>\u00a0is director of public relations for the Birmingham Public Library. Before joining the library in 2012, she worked as a reporter for 19 years. Her last reporting job was as a features reporter at\u00a0The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala., where she\u00a0covered everything from cops and courts to fashion and elections. She\u2019s received several \u00a0awards for her stories and enjoys coaching students and adults on their writing, social media and networking skills. Follow her on Twitter\u00a0@chandatemple<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Chanda Temple New York Times best-selling author Omar Tyree, who\u2019s 44 and has been writing books for the last 21 years, recently visited Birmingham, Ala. to make public appearances and promote his latest book The Traveler, a fictional story about an American\u2019s visit to Dubai. Several of his past fictional books have focused on… Continue reading Writing tips from best-selling author Omar Tyree<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,27],"tags":[158,157,193],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Omar-Tyree-001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1637"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"From](\"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Omar-Tyree-001.jpg\")
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