W.O.W Roland Smith

S.O.L. #7 out of 31

W.O.W. (Words of Wisdom) from Author Roland Smith

The auditorium was filled with more than 500 third, fourth and fifth graders anxiously waiting to hear from author Roland Smith.  He has written more than 40 books but these kids still want to hear more from him. They can't wait to find out his writing secrets. 

Roland Smith's Words of Wisdom: 

"Writing is REVISION."

 Keep "seeing it again". Some of his books have been written/revised up to 12 times! 

"Just because you write it doesn't mean it belongs in the book." 

- He cuts out about 20% of his words during the revision process. 

"You can't write a book from your imagination only. You must research" 

He spends twice the amount of time researching than he does writing. He travels the world to complete his research. But he tells the students they have everything they need right here in the local libraries.  He spent 18 months researching one of his books and 9 months writing it. He never starts writing a book until his research is complete. 

"Inspiration doesn't cause writing. 

Writing causes inspiration." 

So just keep writing, write when you are sick, write when you don't have ideas, write what matters to you, write what you care about. 

Surprising fact: He kept all of his hundreds of journals where he began hand drafting his stories.  His wife donated them to a college. (a college right here in our state, Central Missouri State University in fact!)

My son's selfie while meeting 

Roland Smith and getting 

his book autographed!