Do you ever wish you could go back and have a chat with “New Writer You?” I think about that sometimes, about the things I’d tell that shiny, awkward, clueless soul.
But like parenting or dating, or any other hands-on life thing, we all have to figure it out for ourselves. Learning to write is like learning how to “adult,” until you really get the hang of it, you don’t know how much you don’t know.
Besides, shiny “New Writer You” probably wouldn’t believe you anyway.
So logical, practical advice only then. Advice that even clueless “Beginner Writer Me” could relate to…
1. It Gets Harder
A few *cough* decades ago, I listened to an audiotape (on cassette!) of Nora Roberts in a Q&A session. When asked what she wished she had known when she began, she answered:
“It gets harder. It gets harder. It gets harder.”
To me, this is the biggest oxymoron of our chosen path:
As the writing itself gets easier, the writing life gets harder.
You have higher standards, more pro-writer tricks up your sleeve, and many more demands on your time as you try to execute those stellar skills.
If you are published, and earning a living as a writer, there are demanding deadlines to adhere to. If you are unpublished, or not quite able to quit your day job, you have a double set of deadlines – those from the day job and those from your writing life.
In each of those scenarios, you have the rest of your world clamoring for attention too: kids, spouses, parents, volunteer commitments.
I truly believe this is why most writers have an insatiable caffeine addiction. We need the extra zing to juggle all those flaming commitments while still nurturing the creative juggernaut in our brains who sends out the stories.
Random ADHD Thought: Perhaps that’s why so many of us write in our pajamas. It’s our little rebellion against all that adulting “Grown-up Writer Us” has to do.
2. Story Rules Everything
Lisa Cron wrote a wonderful book called Wired for Story. (I particularly like her explanation of the “Origin Scene.”)
Here’s what she wrote in a writing advice article for Jerry Jenkins , explaining how and why story is the most important element of anything you write.
What grabs readers isn’t beautiful writing, a rip-roaring plot, or surface drama; what grabs readers is what gives those things their meaning and power: the story itself.
And so first you have to create the story, which doesn’t start on page one, but long before it. Because the story is not about an external plot-level change. The story is about an internal change — a change that the protagonist enters the story already needing to make. Thus the protagonist walks onto the first page with a long standing driving desire — an agenda — that she hasn’t been able to achieve because an equally long standing misbelief (about human nature) stands in her way.
And here’s the last thing I wish I’d known: backstory is the most fundamental, present, and meaningful foundation of the story. Or as Faulkner said, “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”
Bonus: I highly recommend reading the entire Jerry Jenkins list, compiled from 40 well-established authors, when you are done here (link is in the resource list below).
3. Done Is Better Than Good
Stories like Fifty Shades of Grey really brought this home to me.
The writing doesn’t have to be brilliant. It just has to contain themes that are relatable and universal.
And the book has to be done, so people can buy your story and experience it for themselves.
Despite Anastasia’s penchant for saying “Holy Crap!” and her preoccupation with her “inner goddess” (not to mention Christian’s preoccupation with bondage), millions of people downloaded Fifty Shades.
Why?
Because the story had a compelling hook. The story grabbed them, and the author kept upping the stakes so they would stay glued to the page.
At its heart, Fifty Shades was a love story, not a spanking story.
Mega-agent Donald Maass pointed out that, “The prose is plain.” and “The unfolding of Anastasia and Christian’s relationship happens mostly through dialogue.” In other words, it was easy to read.
Yet, most of the writers I know couldn’t read it. Probably because of those skills in their writing toolbox, etc. They couldn’t see that the finished compelling story trumped the beautiful sentences we all strive for.
As important as those lovely sentences are to us, Fifty Shades proved that the readers couldn’t care less. Pretty sentences don’t feed their reading addiction, story does.
Bonus: Donald Maass and Lisa Cron – both amazing teachers – analyze Fifty Shades across three posts. The links to all three are here.
4. Find Your Peeps
Writers need writing friends. Period.
No one else will understand the joy of writing classes and conferences or the addictive frenzy of an online writing challenge. You need writing pals so you can experience these things with friends who will share your giddy happiness.
Plus, when the going gets tough (and it will) it’s your writing friends who will help carry you through those hard times until things get fun again.
We’re writers…we LOVE fun.
5. Give Back, To Others and Yourself
For most of us behind the scenes at blogs like Writers Helping Writers or Writers in the Storm, our blog is one of the ways we pay forward all the help and advice we were given during our newbie stage.
Although the writing world is small, it is easy to get lost, particularly for introverts. Volunteering and giving to others is one way to expand your writing world and to join hands with others. If you do that often enough, you will end up with your own set of writing peeps!
But what about giving back to yourself?
Exercise, proper nutrition, and hydration are the simplest ways I give back to myself. I’ll bet you have the same kind of list. It’s hard to get motivated. (And put on makeup. Or pants.) But we feel better if we do. Most importantly, we write better!
Continuous learning is another fantastic way to give back to yourself. It might be a conference you go to every year, an online class or an active Facebook group, but DO keep learning. It will tap into your inner superhero, and help you tell better stories.
I’ll leave you with this quote by Ray Bradbury, from the preface of Zen in the Art of Writing:
“And What, You Ask, Does Writing Teach Us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
Bonus: If you need more Bradbury quotes, I wrote a whole post on him.
What advice would you give to “New Writer You?” Is there a piece of advice you were given that really resonated? Please share it in the comments!
Resource articles:
15 Comments. Leave new
I am 81, a high school dropout after my father died. I have one book in print called Ride the Dark Rails.
I think of myself as a storyteller more than a writer. I write because I have to, and not because I think anyone will read my stuff. I’m the last one to tell anyone about writing. This week I just finished a new book which took me a year to write. It’s called the Thief-ogist. My first sentence is: This week my name is Collen Karacsh. My words are lost in the wilderness of anonymity.
Great first line, Richarde! And I like that book title.
I saw James Patterson get interviewed at a writing conference several years ago. He said, “I think people should read whatever makes them want to read MORE. Whether that’s a book, a magazine, or a graphic novel is irrelevant. It’s the more that matters.” He felt the same way about writing. Write whatever makes you want to write more. 🙂
Being autistic can be great for some things in writing, it very much depends on the traits an autistic person operates with.
I found out was that I knew what I’d written so well that I omitted a lot of dialogue tags because:
I wrote as if the reader would naturally follow the conversations between characters, because and know who was speaking because of the way the characters behave.
I didn’t want to have too many dialogue tags after reading writing advice. Combined with the above…
I cut 45k words from my first manuscript. I kept those words in a separate file on the PC. I cut too far in retrospect.
Some advice from the magnificent David Bowie. You may find this encouraging.
David Bowie gave some advice to aspiring artists during an interview. Paraphrased here:
“Never play to the gallery.” And, “Go out into the water until your feet are just shy of touching the bottom. Do that and that is when you are on the verge of creating something really interesting.”
Fascinating David Bowie quotes, David! It reminds me of the “Zone of Proximal Development.” That’s the area that’s just beyond our own capabilities. We can do it, but only with a coach or a guide. The fastest learning happens in the ZPD!
David Bowie was a thoughtful, sensitive and highly intelligent artist and person.
I started reading about ZPD and will continue. A very interesting reference point. Thank you.
I really enjoyed your article.
Thanks for this post, Jenny. I’m always in awe of how much I didn’t know early on.
I wish I could tell new writer me to enjoy the process and not try to rush it.
Enjoy the process (and the joy) is some of the BEST advice. Most writers are so busy trying to do “official publishy things,” they forget why they started writing in the first place.
Great points. It does get harder, but I think that is true of any accomplishment. #4 and#5 are really important. We can’t go this alone. For me, the bonus of writing has been the contacts I’ve made in the writing world. As for point #3, my daughter, an accomplished potter, says, “Things don’t have to be perfect; things have to get done!”
Your daughter is smart smart smart, Darlene. Done is better than good was a really hard one for me. But it is so true. Our writing friends help us be okay with those sorts of things. 🙂
Number 4 Not an option! 👍🏼
1000 Percent, Trine!
When I started out I had wonderful plots. Everyone told me so. Then, I joined a critique group. I thought I was joining to disperse my advice. After all, I had written and self-published four books, so I had all the answers…no sales…but I had answers. Group members started telling me they didn’t like any of my characters, they didn’t feel a connection to any of my characters. WHAT? It’s about the plot, dummy, not the characters. I even paid for a professional to review a manuscript. She told me the same thing. Since then, I’ve put a lot of effort into developing my characters, protagonists the reader could root for, antagonists the reader could despise, and sidekicks the reader could enjoy. Now, I’m told I have excellent plots AND characters that elicit emotion in readers. My sales numbers have gone up. Coincidence? Maybe. But, as one of my protagonists say – There’s no such thing as coincidence.
Bravo to you, Henry, for finding your writing people AND for listening to what they had to say. That’s wonderful and valuable and hard. I love character-driven stories, so I fully applaud you switching over! What a fantastic bonus that you listened and saw an uptick in your sales. Woo-hoo!
Excellent writerly advice. I have to wonder if my new excited writer self would have listened so long ago? 🙂
Thanks, Jan! And I’ll confess that my new excited writer wouldn’t have heard my advice. She didn’t have enough knowledge to understand what I was saying to her.
Example: In 2004, I watched Donald Maass say, “You need tension on every page!” And I had absolutely NO IDEA what that even meant. Ten years later, Margie Lawson said the same thing, but in a different way. I immediately said, “O-O-OH! NOW, I understand what Donald Maass said.”
I simply didn’t know enough in 2004 for the lesson to land.