Robert I. Katz
I was at a panel a couple of years ago and Connie Willis was asked this question. Her answer was simple: "Learn to plot."
In reality, it takes a long time for most writers to get good enough to be worth reading, and I suspect that every writer's journey to this point is different. I've always read a lot. I've always wanted to write. I majored in English in college (before going to medical school). It probably would have helped greatly if I had taken a creative writing course or two, but when I started to write, I did read a lot of books on the process. A few that I thought were better than most were The Art and Craft of Novel Writing by Oakley Hall, Technique in Fiction by Makauley and Lanning and Structuring the Novel by Meredith and Fitzgerald. There are plenty more.
Basically, you can't be a writer unless you write. I don't put a lot of stock in the blanket rules that you sometimes come across, like "you have to write every day" or "you can't be a writer unless you are obsessed with writing" or "a writer can't be anything else." For most of us, it's not a compulsion, it's a hobby and it's definitely a craft, since very few can earn enough to do it for a living. Some writers produce successful books working one day a week. Some write in the morning and some write in the evening. One writer supposedly can't write unless her feet are sitting in a bucket of warm water. Whatever works for you is what you should do.
One very good bit of advice, that I got from Lawrence Block: when you write, have a goal in mind, and stick to the goal. For me, it's 500 words a day. I'll sit there as long as it takes to get those 500 words down on paper. Make it a fixed amount of work. If you decide that you'll write for a fixed amount of time, it's all too easy to sit in front of the keyboard and produce nothing. If your goal is a page, or two or five or ten, then some days it's easy and some days it's hard but you can't give yourself the excuse that today, the muse just wouldn't come. Treat it like a profession, even if you never do become a professional. Make certain that you actually write.
In reality, it takes a long time for most writers to get good enough to be worth reading, and I suspect that every writer's journey to this point is different. I've always read a lot. I've always wanted to write. I majored in English in college (before going to medical school). It probably would have helped greatly if I had taken a creative writing course or two, but when I started to write, I did read a lot of books on the process. A few that I thought were better than most were The Art and Craft of Novel Writing by Oakley Hall, Technique in Fiction by Makauley and Lanning and Structuring the Novel by Meredith and Fitzgerald. There are plenty more.
Basically, you can't be a writer unless you write. I don't put a lot of stock in the blanket rules that you sometimes come across, like "you have to write every day" or "you can't be a writer unless you are obsessed with writing" or "a writer can't be anything else." For most of us, it's not a compulsion, it's a hobby and it's definitely a craft, since very few can earn enough to do it for a living. Some writers produce successful books working one day a week. Some write in the morning and some write in the evening. One writer supposedly can't write unless her feet are sitting in a bucket of warm water. Whatever works for you is what you should do.
One very good bit of advice, that I got from Lawrence Block: when you write, have a goal in mind, and stick to the goal. For me, it's 500 words a day. I'll sit there as long as it takes to get those 500 words down on paper. Make it a fixed amount of work. If you decide that you'll write for a fixed amount of time, it's all too easy to sit in front of the keyboard and produce nothing. If your goal is a page, or two or five or ten, then some days it's easy and some days it's hard but you can't give yourself the excuse that today, the muse just wouldn't come. Treat it like a profession, even if you never do become a professional. Make certain that you actually write.
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