Writers - Writing Tips PART 1

There are many places you can go to learn how to write and learn the difference between a subjunctive and a predicate. Writing courses exist only a click and PayPal transaction away, mostly written by the published and prolific. These courses are structured and detailed and usually worth the price (links to available courses will be updated at a later date).

What we have here, is a list of some of the tools a new writer will need before mastering a piece of fiction. It is by no means complete or definitive, but chances are good that you'll find at least one point here that will improve your writing. Even if all you do is master step 1, you are that much closer to becoming a writer.

Let’s not complicate the writing process any more than it already is!
Anybody can write. Whether you believe you can write well or not is immaterial, until you answer the question: do you WANT to write? Do you want to write as you want to breathe? Are your days empty and meaningless unless you’ve written something? Does the scratch of pen on paper or the clicking of a keyboard crawl under your skin and soak the butterfly-recesses of your belly?

If ‘yes’, then you’ll find something useful here. We’ve condensed some of the basics here for you – for free! You don't have to agree with everything here, we're all different after all, but some things are universal.

We will not tell you how to flush your muse out of its misdeeds or where to find something worthy of your writerly-attentions. We’re just sticking to the basic industrial tools you will need on your adventure.

1. WRITE
Possibly the simplest yet often the most difficult step for a novice writer to take – and the most fundamental for any writer, no matter where they come from or how much they know: Write. Just write. Write anywhere, any time. Write anything. Just write. The more you write, the better you will become. It’s a natural process. Write with a pen, a keyboard or a blood-soaked finger on a crumbling wall, but write.

There are many excuses to not write and many stories don’t get written because the author is waiting for the ‘right time’ – “I’ll start writing as soon as the kids are older” or “when I move into a bigger house” or “when my bills are paid”. While these are all important things, don’t let them degenerate into excuses to not write. You have a creative mind so it won’t be a stretch to concoct yet another excuse as soon as the last is invalid.

What about “I’ll write when I feel more confident” or “as soon as I can write something that’s not trash”? Firstly, you’ll never become confident in your writing until you’ve done it for a while. Your writing will naturally improve with practise, but first you have to write. Think of all the junk you write as the beginning; it’s just the muck you’re clearing out the way before revealing the treasure underneath. Everyone has to get through it. You’re not alone.

Write now. Write anything. Just write.


2. FIRST DRAFT FORGIVEN
You write in a mad frenzy of inspiration, filling pages and pages crawling with words and vivid colours. When your energy begins to flag, you look at the substantial hill you’ve created and think: “Now what?”

First, congratulate yourself for producing more than you had in the minutes before you started. Then, before you read your masterpiece, deliberately, calmly and lovingly forgive yourself. This step is incredibly important yet so often ignored – you’ll see why in a moment. Then step away mentally, removing as much personal involvement in your story as possible.

If you aren’t prepared, you may need to catch your jaw as it falls to the ground; you will find SPaG errors, holes in the plot large enough to swallow a herd of elephants and characters you wish you’d never introduced to paper parading across your exquisite heart-song. You know what? That’s okay. Forgive yourself.

Writers who can produce near-flawless copy on the first draft are incredibly rare – if not fantastical creatures. Your first draft probably looks very similar to countless writers’ first drafts of highly-acclaimed novels. They’re just wise enough to know never to show those first drafts to anyone!

Get over it and start getting on with the real work of a writer.


3. FALL IN LOVE
Sometimes a story pops out so sweetly you could call it Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But more often, we need to pound the words into submission like a crazed stalker with a pick-axe.

If you don’t enjoy the company of your story, can you expect anyone else to? Enjoy what you’re doing and who you’re spending time with. If a performer on stage isn’t enjoying himself even if his performance is technically correct, he won’t be thrilling anyone.

Writing, especially when you get to editing the same piece for the hundredth time, can be exhausting. But always remember the joy of what you do, love the whole process – bunions and all. Make a conscious effort to maintain the passion you have for writing. Sound like marriage counselling much? Reeking of commitment and slog times ahead? Damn straight!

Sometimes the love just fades and nothing we do can revive it. Sometimes we need to know when to put a story aside. Lucky for us, polygamy in this game is perfectly acceptable. The story won’t mind taking a break while you get on with writing another affair.

Get over it and start getting on with the real work of a writer.


4. CRITICISM
Learn to both give and receive critiques.

Being able to give a good crit takes practise, but one of the immediate benefits you’ll receive is learning to look at a piece critically without the emotional attachment you would have to your own work.
You may suddenly notice the thing you hated most in someone else’s work is smearing grimy fingers across your own story, sniggering in glee. So, peeking at others’ efforts is a good place to find that disinfectant and assorted monster muzzles...
(Want to know where you can go? Details to follow later).

Receiving crits is a completely different monster. First, you need the guts to hand out your work for review. Then you need a bulletproof vest, shatterproof helmet, nuclear-proof tank and enough food to last a week. At least. And while you’re hunkering down in a miserable puddle of rejection-fear, read this:

You are the CEO/author. You own the work. You love your work. Everyone else is merely opinionated. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong, but it means you’re entitled to politely accept or reject anything they say. Let no literary giant trespass where they are unwelcome, for under every face society places over them, they are after all, only human. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether it’s widely accepted or not. Including you.
And when you emerge onto the apocalyptic field, hopefully unscathed, you may even have learned something new.

Now, for the last time, get over it and start getting on with the real work of a writer.


Go to: Writing Tips PART 2