Seven Things I Say About Writing

About a year ago when I was still living in Idaho, the Pocatello Writer’s Group invited me to share some insights about writing. I talked about my opinion of the much-beloved and much-maligned Hero’s Journey and shared other worthy methods for plotting a novel. I also shared some notes I had compiled after one member of the group asked for people’s advice on writing, which is where this list came from.

I’d been percolating on many of these nuggets of wisdom for years, and I’d shared them with people when appropriate, but never in a consolidated form. Sharing with the writer’s group gave me an opportunity to compile all of my observations into one succinct, single page of advice. You may feel not all (or any) of this applies to you or your writing process – and that’s fine. In fact, Rules 2 and 3 say more or less this exact thing: there’s no magic solution for being a successful writer, so just do what works best for you.

Take me, for example. I love to outline because it helps me see all the potential plot points I could incorporate into my novel. It also helps me estimate how long a chapter or scene sequence is likely to be (which is important since I often over-plan and write long scenes). So it’s a double-edged sword. I outline because it helps me ease into the drafting process (and helps give me a road map for my books), but it’s also easy to over-plan or use outlining as a procrastination tool when I’m really supposed to be writing the first draft of my next book (the one I’ve already outlined three or four times).

In fact, that’s the reason that Rule #1 is to just write crap and edit it afterwards. It’s not because I dislike plotting or disagree with it as a writing tool (far from it). My reason for making that Rule #1 is because I’ve seen how often aspiring writers can paralyse themselves with the fear of writing something bad. I’m prone to this myself (hence my need for outlining), and that’s okay. A healthy amount of fear will keep you from being content with the crap you produce.

But it doesn’t need to remain crap. Do your outline if you need to (I sure do), but at some point you need to set it aside and turn your beautiful outline into an ugly prose monster. That’s OKAY. It’s part of the process. And I need to remind myself of that just as often as I remind other aspiring authors (more often, probably).

Rule #1: The first draft of anything is bad, so just vomit it out.

Embrace the typos, the corniness, the disconnected thoughts, the lack of imagery. Write crap. You’re smart enough to make it more subtle, more believable, and more awesome later. So worry about that later. If you’re a planner, you should be done planning at this stage (give your architect the day off). If you’re a pantser, you’ll bring your architect in along with your editor . . . at the end of the drafting process. Either way, give your editor and your architect the day off. Don’t edit, polish, revise, criticize, outline, plot, or plan – just write.

Rule #2: There is no magic solution.

There is no device or app that will write your book for you. There is no distraction-free writing tool that will make you focus. No magic drug, pill or energy drink. Worst of all (and perhaps most of all), no one will believe in you more than you believe in yourself. So don’t wait for someone else to validate you. Don’t wait for it to get easier (it won’t). For me, writing often feels like squeezing blood from a stone. But I believe in myself and I know what I am doing, so I just keep squeezing till my hands are bloody. There is no other way to get it done. Pro tip: cutting down on social media consumption helps a lot because it’s usually just a way to procrastinate when you should actually be writing.

Rule #3: Do you.

Everyone works differently, so educate yourself and find what works well for you . . . then do it. Stop chasing ideal scenarios and get the writing done. If you need to write at night when people are sleeping, do it. If you need to write on the bus on your phone on the way to work, do it (anecdote: I wrote 60% of the first draft of my first fantasy novel on an iPhone while riding the bus to and from work each day). If you need to write when your kids are sleeping/eating, do it. If you are a plotter, plot. If you are a pantser, then fly by the seat of those pants. If you’re not sure what your method is, feel free to explore and listen to what works for other people. Test their advice out. Take notes. See what inspires you and results in good writing (but don’t get superstitious about rituals or specifics). Just find a way to get the work done. However you manage that best is what works for you, so do you. Likewise, people are VERY different, so it goes without saying that what works for some people won’t work for you (this goes for finding time to write, writing well, finding an agent, getting published, and pretty much anything else you do in your life). See Rule #2 above and remember that, while there is no magic solution, there is still a way (or multiple ways) for you to achieve your goals. Find that way. Don’t give up. Find it and do it.

Rule #4: Set goals and write them down.

If you don’t have goals or deadlines, you aren’t accountable to anyone. Make yourself accountable, share your goals/deadlines if it helps, and hold yourself to them. If you can’t do that, then you will never know whether you are achieving your goals. For me, word count goals are immensely helpful when I am drafting. When I am revising, it helps to have a date set for finishing my revisions.

Rule #5: Patience and persistence will trump talent.

If you’re not talented, you can use your patience and persistence to educate yourself and become a better writer. You’ll need to be realistic about your strengths and weaknesses, and you’ll need to learn to recognize when you are being given good/bad advice (see Rule #3 above), but if you’re not persistent, you won’t overcome your writer’s block (see Rules #1 and #2), you won’t grow as a writer, and you will give up before you write anything worth reading.

Rule #6: Do it right and don’t settle for less.

If you are unhappy with something, fix it (see Rule #5). Just don’t let it stop you from writing (see Rule #1). Also, success is relative (see Rule #3), so decide what you want – what makes YOU happy – and achieve that goal. For example, if you’re trying to be published by a major publisher, then do it. Don’t settle for anything less; find out how others did it, then see what works for you (see Rule #3 again). This may mean you will need to educate yourself (in fact, this is almost a certainty), so be persistent and get it done (remember, there are no short-cuts). Alternatively, if you are just writing for yourself or your family – that’s great! No shame in that (as long as you admit that is what you really want). It’s inspiring to meet someone that has a clear vision of their goals, no matter how big or small they are. You want to self-publish yourself? That’s great, too! Do you and don’t apologize for it. But don’t do it half-assed or half-way. Educate yourself and do it right (don’t settle for less, don’t take shortcuts; know your goals and get them done).

Rule #7: Writing isn’t easy – it’s hard. Good writing is even
harder.

Maybe you only write when the muse strikes you. You go on writing binges and it’s fantastic stuff, but when the muse is gone, you can’t get a single sentence on the page. Well, put on your big boy pants (or big girl panties) and do the hard work. That’s what makes you a writer. If the impulse to binge write comes, you should still embrace it and take advantage of it, but in my experience, if you wait for those moments to come, they don’t come often enough. Frankly, I think they are more often a product of your brain looking for something fun to do when it should be doing something else; as soon as “writing my novel” becomes the thing you are *supposed* to be doing, you look for something else to do (google “procrastination” and “instant gratification monkey” and you’ll see what I’m talking about). If you really want to milk those binge impulses, you could always look for other things to do to distract you (and then persuade yourself to write when you should really be doing those other things)…but my guess is you’ll end up doing neither of the things you planned to do and will instead do something mindless, unproductive, or unfulfilling (because that is how the gratification monkey works). The best solution is to simply teach yourself to write (even when it is hard, and you hate it, and you only write a few hundred words a day, or five words a day). Eventually the words add up and you have a book to revise. Then you revise it and you have a book to sell. Persistence pays off. For myself, I accept that I have weaknesses, but I don’t let them become part of my script. Yes, sometimes I convince myself that I will feel better getting on social media before writing, or I will feel better researching this one non-essential thing before I start writing, but it’s never true. I always regret the time I could have spent getting more writing done, and you’ll only gain confidence in yourself once you teach yourself to overcome those impulses and simply do the thing you’re *supposed* to be doing. Confidence is huge. Become confident in your ability to write every day, and you *will* write every day. If you don’t have that confidence yet, believe that you can get it and keep working toward it. That, or give up and stop torturing yourself with something you don’t really want to do (or don’t have the discipline to do). You’re the only one who can decide if that last part applies to you.

The post Seven Things I Say About Writing appeared first on Justin T Call.