When Peevish Penman first talked about this blogfest on advice for new authors, I signed up there and then. I remember when I started out at the tender age of 12 and the Internet was not available to me (the World Wide Web had just been invented and the idea of hooking my computer up to a telephone line was met with the same response by my parents as if I had just asked them if I could set fire to the house) so advice was hard to come by. I’m glad it’s not any more because if you’re like me, the first steps in a writing career would be hard without someone there to point out the pitfalls.
Anyway, let’s get down to what you actually came here for: advice on writing, with an emphasis on being an author. There are different sorts of writing and each requires its own styles and disciplines, so finding the right advice for the writing career you want is definitely the first step. Look for websites giving tips for authors, not journalists or copy writers. You’ll save yourself a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Know What You Want to Write About
The main tip anyone can give you as an author is to plan ahead. If you sit down to write your novel without a clue about where it is going, what will happen or even who will be in it, you will fail. Okay there are probably some successful authors who write using this method but I’ll tell you this for nothing: I’ve never heard of any who can make a career out of writing without ideas.
In On Writing, Stephen King mentions that he writes without a complete plan of his novel and that’s fine. I do the same, and so does my partner. Nevertheless, we still have ideas about what we are setting out to do. Stephen King says he comes at the story with a clash of ideas (such as in Carrie where he mixes burgeoning magic powers and the onset of puberty in a naïve girl). My partner and I discuss what we want to achieve from our books, where they will go and what the main characters will be doing. We don’t have a clear ending in sight but we do have an idea of what the resolution will be.
If you have a plan like this, you will be better placed to structure your novel. This makes writing it so much easier because you can concentrate on getting the words down on paper, rather than spending half your time trying to think up ideas for where the book is going.
Kill Your Editor
To get anywhere in writing, you need to be able to write without worrying about whether your writing is any good. You can edit, re-write and do a million other things with your work later on, but you have to have it down on paper (or on screen if you’re modern) before you can do it.
Imagine bursting out of the wardrobe, knife in hand and screaming obscenities the world has never seen before, if that’s what you have to do. Just stop going over what you’ve written until it’s all actually written.
Talk to Other Writers
There are many writers’ forums on the Internet and there are even more writers’ groups in real life. Join one or two that seem to meet your needs, or suit your style/outlook on life. Feel free to leave if they don’t meet your requirements, of course, but do try to get involved with at least one.
Talking to other writers helps clear your mind and make it easier to write. Just being able to discuss things with someone who understand where you’re coming from can be a major easing factor on stress and other problems that affect writers the world over. I speak from personal experience in this because when I was growing up in a country village, nobody else was a writer and I didn’t have anyone to bash out ideas with, discuss tips on overcoming writers’ block or anything. As a consequence, my writing didn’t really take off until I went to university and found my first writing group.
Join a group today. You can thank me for it later.
Stop Slacking Off
The key to a successful career as an author or any other kind of writer is not slacking off. Set aside an hour or two (or more, if you want) per day to actually get some writing done, and actually write. Use a program that blocks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so forth for that time period if you have to. Just make sure your writing time actually involves writing.
You can start any project with the most enthusiasm anyone in history could ever have had, but it will soon drain away if you don’t have self-discipline. Set yourself a target number of words and don’t stop until you reach it, if that helps. Tell yourself you’ll finish Chapter X by the end of the week if that works for you. Whatever you do, make sure you’re writing. You can’t finish that book if you don’t get the words down.
There are hundreds of other tips I could give you here and I have no doubt that other people involved in this blogfest will give some of them. Some of them will work for you, some will not. Find what works and stick with it.
Good luck and above all, have fun!
