Writing is a little like riding a roller coaster. It's a bumpy ride. We have super high highs and gut wrenching lows. On good days we feel like we are being blessed with divine inspiration and we're on top of the world. And then we come crashing back down! We're in the trenches. We have no time to write, no inspiration and the stuff we do write is crap. Or so we think...

On the bad days, and heck, even on the good days, it helps to know that other writers are out there experiencing similar roller coaster rides as us. Yes, we are each on our own writing roller coaster ride - it's a solitary job, after all, the job of the writer. But we are never alone.

I have found that most successful writers, the ones who have managed to stay on their roller coaster rides through all the ups and downs, these gurus are eager to help those of us who are just beginning our rides!

Some have learned how to overcome writers block, fit in time to write or write super fast (getting as many as 10,000 words a day! Oh my! If only!) Others have perfected their creativity, their writing, or developed new creative ways to edit their work. And some have mastered the world of publishing and marketing (The dirty, dirty marketing! Most new writers, like me, cringe at the thought of having to market our work!)

Since I started on my own slightly crazy writing roller coaster ride seven years ago, I've bought a lot of books, read a lot of articles, done a lot of Googling, listened to a lot of podcasts and watched a lot of webinars. I've discovered some really amazing writers along the way, people who truly inspired me and taught me a thing or two. I want to share the best of the best with you today.

Here are my 5 favorite writing gurus to follow:

Jeff Goins is a best selling author today but he doubted himself for a while. One day he decided to stop making excuses and go for his dreams. He's never looked back and now he wants to help others like him (and me!) overcome their fears and insecurities and just write!

I've seen Jeff speak on Facebook live video and webinars and listened to his podcasts and he continually impresses me. He is sincere, engaging and truly inspiring. Check out his website at Goinswriter. If you've dreamed of becoming a writer then Jeff will get you all fired up and ready to take on the world!

K.M Weiland is the award-winning, internationally published author of the Amazon bestsellers Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel, as well as Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic, the western A Man Called Outlaw, the medieval epic Behold the Dawn, the portal fantasy Dreamlander, and the historical/dieselpunk adventure Storming.

I've read her books and dozens of her articles and listened to many of her podcasts on her award-winning blog Helping Writers Become Authors. K.M Weiland covers every aspect of writing from overall story structure to character development. She is a wonderful storyteller and a natural born teacher of the art of writing.

If you want to improve your craft, start reading K.M. Weiland's blog posts or listening to her podcasts.

Margie Lawson teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners. She has full day master classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and on cruises in the Caribbean. She also has multiple lecture packets and courses that you can purchase separately on her website at MargieLawson.com. I've purchased several of her lecture packets and I've been blown away with her editing system. I'd love to take her Caribbean master class (someday!) but for now I'll definitely be using what I've learned about her system in my future edits.

If you want to stop fearing the self-editing process, go to Margie's site and learn her deep editing system.

Bryan Hutchinson was told by teachers that he would never be a writer. He went on to prove them all wrong.

Don't you just love stories like that?

His work has been published in newspapers, national magazines, books, and blogs. He created Positive Writer for fellow writers like him who have an overwhelming desire to create work that matters. His articles provide inspiration, advice and encouragement.

If you want to prove the world wrong, as Bryan did, go to Bryan's site for inspiration!

Part memoir, part kick in the pants, Writer's Doubt is rated 5 stars by over 80 people on Amazon! Jeff Goins even recommends Bryan's book!

Derek Murphy is a writer and a book designer with a PhD in Literature. He has published multiple young adult stories on Amazon with rave reviews. On his blog Creative Indie he offers tips, tricks, advice, tools and courses to writers and artists to help make publishing and marketing easier and help indie creatives like him turn their passions into full-time businesses.

Derek is currently offering one lucky writer the chance to write their book in a castle with him. Check out his giveaway here: http://urbanepics.com/giveaways/2016-nanowrimo-castle/

He plans to do this type of contest every year. If you want to learn how to self publish and market your work, go check out Derek's site.

Your turn! Who are your favorite inspirational writing gurus? Comment below. I'm always eager to learn more from successful writers who haven't been thrown from the ride!

When I first got the idea to write a novel back in 2006 I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I was a Certified Public Accountant and I managed accounting departments but I had always wanted to write, ever since childhood, and I had a story idea and I was finally ready to tackle writing it. It was difficult at first but I had a writing partner and we scheduled weekly writing dates and helped each other work through our ideas. I began reading books about the writing craft and I subscribed to Writers Digest and Publishers Weekly. I was enthusiastic. But my enthusiasm faded.

Fear kicked in often and each time it did I gave up on my project. I was working full time so my writing was only done on nights and weekends and it was slow going. I started thinking I was nuts to be spending all of my free time writing something that people might never even want to read. And I felt like I would never finish the book. But I had brief periods of intense inspiration that kept me going. And thank God I kept at it! I made it to the finish line and published my baby in April and I've gotten really positive feedback on it too.

I wish I had known what I know now way back then because I would have pushed past the fear and finished my book much, much quicker. 20/20 hindsight, right? Well, it may be a little late for me but hopefully I can help someone out there right now who like me, wants to write a book but is too scared to start or finish.

#1  You MUST establish an author platform!  I heard over and over again that I needed an author platform but I ignored the advice. Now that I have just published my first book, I totally understand why everyone says you need an author platform. My sales are slow. No one knows about me. There are millions of books out there for people to choose from, hundreds more new books come out every day. You have to get attention in order to get sales. No one will ever know about you or your amazing book if you are not gathering followers on social media and/or with a blog. You might hate to hear this as much as I did, but I think you'll grow to enjoy it as much as I have! Start professional accounts on social media - I use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. I'm late to the game because I started doing this the month before my book was published. I recommend you start much earlier - at least 6 months to a year before your book is published. Have fun, follow writers you like and post quality helpful content. Build up momentum for your book too but don't make that your only focus. Make friends. Help people. You will grow your following slowly but surely!

#2  PUSH PAST THE FEAR!  I wish I had pushed past my fear a long time ago. I was living in Hawaii as I wrote my novel. I spent a lot of my time outdoors at the beach or hiking or rock climbing. It wasn't terribly important to me that I publish the book until we moved to Portland at the end of 2015. I felt lost and sad. I missed Hawaii and my life and friends there. The only thing I could think of doing to help me get out of the funk I was in was to work on publishing my novel. I finally pushed past my fear and made it happen but I was still fearful right up until the day after I published. The week before publishing I had panic attacks. My fearful ego kept telling me to back out, not go through with publishing. Throw the stupid book away. People were going to laugh at me. Was I nuts? I was exposing myself to the world with my novel. Why would I do that? A fellow writer recently said that publishing your book is like getting naked in front of all your friends. That pretty much describes it perfectly! It's scary as hell!  Push through that fear though, do not let it stop you! The only thing to fear is truly fear itself! Fear stops progress. Fear keeps you stuck. Don't let it win! Feel the fear and keep on going anyway. You'll be glad you did. It's pretty great on the other side!

#3  Just Keep Writing  You'll have good days and bad days. You'll feel inspired sometimes and you'll be at a total loss for what to write other times. The key is to keep the momentum going and write every day no matter what. Write your frustrations out if nothing else. Get a writing partner or join a writing group. Google writing groups in your area - there are writing groups everywhere. Get online and join writing groups in social media. I have found that most writers offer amazing support. Some of the groups I belong to have daily or weekly writing goals. We all post our progress every day or every week and we encourage each other. 500 words a day is a good goal. And don't try to edit as you go. Editing disrupts the flow. I kept going back and editing as I wrote. It took me seven years to finish. Don't be like me! Wait until you are done getting all of your ideas out and then go back to the beginning to edit.

#4  Start Thinking Like a Marketer NOW  If you want your book to be read by others (and hopefully make a little money) then you need to start thinking about how to market it as you write it. Write up a really catchy book description, something that grabs people and makes them feel the need to read your book. Play around with it. Think about the genre your book fits into and think up the main key words for your book. Google your keywords and put your key words into Amazon's search engine and see what comes up. Put those key words into your title, your subtitle, and your description if you can. Use those key words in your social media posts. Analyze other books in your genre, especially the top performing books. What are they doing right? Learn from them.

#5  Spend a Little Money to Make a Little Money  With all the books available to choose from today the two most important things you need to do to make your book stand out are to have an amazing cover that catches people's attention and polish and perfect your writing. You can make your own cover for very little money on Canva or you can pay someone on Fiverr to do it for very little money but unless you have an eye for design and some experience then you are taking a big risk. If your cover doesn't look great people will pass it by. You only have a few seconds to get people interested in your book when they see the cover. Make them say wow! There are a lot of professional book cover designers to choose from online. Same thing with editing. No one can edit their own work. We are too close to our babies to see things that may be off. And your friends and family are probably not editors (and even if they are editors you want someone impartial to edit your book for you, trust me!) Other writers are not editors either. I've learned this the hard way. I paid for two editors for my novel because the first one, a writer, was really unimpressive. Professional editors can fix things in your book that no one else can. Plain and simple. You do not want to get bad reviews from readers who complain about things like grammar and typos. That makes you look like you are not a professional. Be a professional. If you're going to write a book, give it 110% and make it the absolute best it can be!

Would you like to read Chapter one from my novel Naupaka Blooming for FREE? If so, just click below: