Advice on Writing

I recently had the opportunity to ask January’s featured member, Karsten, for advice on writing, and she was kind enough to provide me with five excellent tips for young writers. Thanks again for taking the time to help me out, Karsten!

• Finish what you start. You learn a ton from finishing a piece: how to write endings, how to revise a piece as a whole, how to move on to the next. Also, when you’ve finished one you know you can finish another. A track record of finishing projects gives you confidence and experience.

When I mentioned “learning how to write endings” to another writer, she thought it was “entirely ridiculous” of me to assume that she couldn’t write an ending. I wasn’t assuming she couldn’t write an ending; I was intending to stress the importance of knowing how to write an ending. Do you ever read stories, and the end feels like the author got bored of having you as their audience, and picked you up (with a back hoe) and dropped you over the side of a cliff?

How about when it feels like the ending is “tacked on”, as in it has a final rush of events that have had no prior hinting and are entirely unexpected and don’t fit the story at all. Or, maybe you’ve written a story and cannot find a good closing, and go for the anti climatic approach, and while it’s not a cliff hanger, it certainly doesn’t feel like you closed the story.

Finishing what you write is good practice for endings, as well as everything else. If you begin different works, you practice beginnings, (perhaps) middles, but no endings. You can’t expect someone to play the final note of Moonlight Sonata if they never practice it. You gain a “complete eye” when you finish, an eye that allows you to step back from your writing and dig under the surface for flaws.

• Take pride in small achievements. It’s easy to keep your eyes on the final goal (a book deal, for example) and forget to celebrate all the smaller stages of success. Finishing a chapter is important. Creating a new character is important. Learning to recognise show vs tell problems is important. Your final goal may be years and years away, so be proud of what you’ve accomplished today.

Work in stages — it’s easy to see your smaller accomplishments when you do. Writing is a long journey, not a one time deal where once the words are out, it takes a single read over, and it’s done. Reward yourself with breaks after you finish a chapter, so that when you return to writing, you approach it relaxed, with fresh interest, rather than what carried over from your previous chapter.

• Have realistic expectations. Don’t expect to write brilliantly during your first draft or your first ever story. Writing is a process: every new thing you write is (or should be) better than the last. So once you finish your novel, be proud, but also know that you now need to write another, better novel.

If you’re shooting for a book deal, then, tell yourself that the book deal can wait. More importantly, work on suiting your work so that it’s appreciated by peers, then reach for an outer audience. Take the process gradually, and it’s not about how fast you get there. If you move too fast, you’re bound to miss out some important part or another; take it like training for a race. You’ll crash midway if you don’t give yourself the time to train and prepare.

• Give back to the writing community. If somebody reviewed you, encouraged you or showed you how to improve, return the favour. SF writer Robert Heinlein suggested that you can’t always pay back the people who helped you when you were starting out, because they’re already a step ahead of you — in which case, pay it forward. Find a deserving person and help them the way you were helped.

Having others review you is one thing– they point out what they see in your writing, and you paying it forward to others lets you do the same. If you spot a common usage, mechanics, or grammar error in someone else’s writing, check your story for it. It’s easier to see a mistake when you realize someone else is making it, and it’s better to be safe than sorry later on.

• Learn to fish. You know the saying, give a man a fish and you’ve fed him for today, teach him to fish and you’ve fed him for a lifetime? You can’t constantly ask for fish (help and advice) from more experienced fishermen (writers). You have to learn to fish for yourself. The sea is full of fish if you know how to catch them. Learn to google. Track down writing resources like Holly Lisle’s excellent website for writers. Get writing books like Stephen King’s On Writing or Browne & King’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers out of the library. Educate yourself.