Writing advice is a fickle beast. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that writers LOVE to talk about writing, but we all have different processes that work for us. This unfortunately means that most writing advice you hear won’t be useful to you personally. Some advice will even confuse you and increase your general anxiety about writing. Which I guess makes writing advice like any other breed of advice in life? Go figure.
My point is that while most writing advice is bogus, every once in a while you’ll hear an idea that just clicks for you. Maybe it even changes your entire approach. I myself have stumbled across such gems of advice. Here are the five tidbits that to this day I love (and share) the most:
1. Don’t Write What You Know—Write What Fascinates You
This piece of writing advice directly contradicts a popular platitude championed by English teachers: write what you know. Which is horrible advice.
Here’s the thing: most of us mere mortals live boring lives. Okay? Frankly, people writing only about the things they know is why there are so many painfully mediocre books out there, even ones that have gotten published. Instead of writing about your vanilla life, why not write about training for deep-sea diving? A secret society during the Great Depression? Living with narcolepsy? Magical powers sparked by enchanted hair dye? Or owls! Anything other than a protagonist waking up in the morning and getting ready for school. PLEASE, I beg.
If you’re like me, the thought of pursuing unfamiliar ideas sounds terrifying. What if you write about something cool and get it completely wrong? Answer: you might. And there’s nothing wrong with that because all writers have to revise their stuff anyway! Pick something that you want to learn about and research the living daylights out of that thing. Interview an expert. Watch documentaries. Travel cross-country to explore an alien terrain where you want to set your next story about invading, world-dominating jellyfish. Or whatever it is you want.
Writing should expand your mind at every turn, so don’t hesitate to go for something genuinely interesting to YOU. Write that book that you’ve always secretly wanted to read.
2. Only Stop Writing When It’s Painful
This writing advice came directly from Brandon Sanderson, who I took a class from almost a decade ago. And the concept has served me very well over the years.
Writing novels involves a lot of staring at a computer screen and gathering your thoughts. But most of us have hectic lives that don’t mesh well with idle hours at our desks. Therefore we have to come up with ways to jumpstart our daily writing and leap feet first into productive writing time. For me, this process starts at the end of my last writing session when I decide to stop working.
I actively go out of my way to stop at a spot where I can immediately start again the second I sit down next time—and the best spot for that is the one that hurts. The spot where you know exactly what happens next and your desire to keep going is genuinely torturous. That’s exactly where you should stop.
This tip is the #1 way I’ve become an expert no-frills, sit-down-and-just-start kind of writer. It’s also an amazing way to succeed at National Novel Writing Month, but that’s just one of eleven different strategies I use to vanquish NaNoWriMo.
3. Share Your Books Early and Often
I wrote an entire blog post about sharing your work without fear because frankly this piece of writing advice has shaped my career. Also I’ve found that it’s one of the most common writer fears on earth.
It’s natural for writer folk to be secretive about their work and only show it to their closest, most discreet of friends once the manuscript has been perfected—sometimes over the course of 15 years. And I can’t express what a huge mistake this is. First, sharing your writing with other people is like pouring gasoline on your burning motivation to write. And eventually finish books. Secondly, sharing actual words that you’ve written rather than stories in your head gives you an audience to fangirl, gasp, and provide wild theories that help you know if your book is working.
Thirdly, beta readers give great feedback. Early in your writing process is the time that you want to know which parts of your book are boring, confusing, or plain frustrating for your readers. It’s great to get this feedback on a complete manuscript, but imagine how helpful it is to hear this stuff while you’re in the process of writing. Before the story and all the details are crystalized. I’ve had entire plot twists emerge thanks to helpful and excited feedback from my wonderful writing group.
My point is that the greatest books out there are NOT written in isolation. Bringing people into your inner writing landscape early is a huge act of vulnerability, but it also has huge rewards.
4. Read, Read, and Read Some More
This is a big one. No matter what genre you write, it’s imperative that you read often and broadly in your genre, especially if you have dreams of getting published.
Now, of all the writing advice on this list, this is the one that I’ve heard for years but never followed until quite recently. What can I say? When you’re a writer working a full-time job, pursuing a social life and regular responsibilities while also trying to date, exercise, sleep eight hours a night, and perhaps even parent small humans . . . yeah, you don’t have much time to read. I’ve experienced how impossible it is to carve out personal reading time, and I’m not even a mother yet.
But reading is the lifeblood of any writing career. Reading will inspire new stories in you, educate you about current publishing trends, and expose you to AMAZING writing for you to emulate. Let’s get real, those of us who decided to become writers did so because we read books we loved. Even reading books that end up disappointing you can still inspire incredible plots in your head and show you what not to do.
But beware: if you read lots of trashy, bad writing, you’ll end up writing trash too. Try as much as possible to toss aside books that aren’t any good in the first 50 pages and rely on trusted friends’ recommendations for must-reads.
5. Horrible First Drafts Are the Secret to Great Writing
Last but not least, perfectionism is the enemy of the first draft. All dirty, wretched first drafts can be edited and honed into something better. Blank pages cannot.
I’ve written before about having the bravery to write really bad stuff so you can learn, practice, crank word count, and have something to work with. And I cannot impress upon you how much this mentality will set you free to approach your writing with vigor and excitement. Don’t tip-toe around each paragraph and abandon your manuscript the second you hit a part you’re scared of “ruining.” Nobody—not even J K Rowling or Stephen King—has written a flawless book in one sitting. Both of these authorial giants have brainstormed, revised, written multiple versions of chapters, and worked with talented editors to create bestsellers.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again: great writing is not born in isolation. So realize that first drafts are only the first step of the crafting process. You’re shoveling mounds of sand into a sandbox to work with and pack together into towers and walls. Then later comes the shaping and detailing that turns all that sand into a sandcastle that will leave your readers saying, “How does she come up with this stuff?!”
Isn’t that every writer’s dream? To wow your readers? Writing those wretched first drafts is the foundation on which to build incredible books. ❧
