Books and magazines by the thousands boast that they will reveal the “Ten Secrets” or “Fifteen Steps” (or whatever) that will make you a better writer. I’ve read many of them and there is usually something of value to be found, but be cautious about promises that you will write a blockbuster novel in six months if you buy this or that book and follow its instructions. I am going to distill here what I have learned and come to believe about writing.
1. You better love it. Writing will require a lot of isolation, hard work, and (usually) a fair amount of rejection. If you don’t love it, don’t sign up for it. It won’t always be a joy but it needs to be in your soul, something you can’t live without doing.
2. The classic idea of “write what you know” is valid, but don’t let it limit you. You can write about anything at all; but it helps to have concrete experiences or precise knowledge to draw from. If guns are going to be an important part of your story you need to know about them—never “wing it” when you can fill your story up with powerful details with a little research.
3. You ought to love reading at least as much as you do writing. Read prodigiously. Discover writers that blow you away, make you angry, make you cry. Study them. Absorb them. Learn from them. See their stories as the profound gifts they are.
4. Take in all artistic forms of expression: fiction, poetry, music, film, painting, sculpture. Whether you love or hate any specific piece, let it speak to you. Ask what it says about the human condition.
5. Keep tabs on what’s being published today. Good writing should always get a fair hearing; but be aware that trends shift, what editors seem to be looking for varies. Don’t compromise your work but do understand the marketplace. Target it—when your work fits a given niche, your odds of publication go up exponentially.
6. As Winston Churchill has said, “Never give in. Never, never, never, never.”
Life throws stuff at us. Struggles, hardship, challenges, disappointment. Draw from it all. Find the essential emotion in it. Examine what drives you to dream. Take apart your fears and longings. If you’re 16—that’s great. Work hard, keep getting better, live your life as fully as you can—that’s where your best writing will come from. If you’re 50 and never been published—that’s great too. Or 79. Just do it. If you love it. Do it.
SUBMIT YOUR STUFF! Be sure it’s the best you’ve got—but submit. Unless it’s just a personal exercise for you, you MUST put your work out there. Let the rejection slip teach you its lesson. Ultimately you’re a writer because you write not because you’ve been given a big fat check or because the world says you’re a bloody genius.
Write on. Dream on.
That is all.
