New Authors, Unite! Advice For The Aspiring Writer

    Hi there!

    Part of the reason I started this blog is because I love to write, and part of it is because I love encouraging other people to write. So today, I have some writing advice--and some writing resources--for any young authors like myself who might be out there.

    If you're not yet a published author, I'd say all of this advice can apply to you; however, don't take anything I say too seriously, because what works for me might not work for you. There are as many ways to write as there are writers, and trying to say that there is only One Way To Write, and that this Way is the only Way that can ever work for anybody, or that this Way will work for everybody... Yeah, that's a massive fallacy. Don't let yourself indulge in it; it'll only bring you grief. Just a tip. ;)

    If you've already published some books, congratulations, because you're farther along in the process than I am, and what are you doing looking to me for advice? Of course, if you have any additional tips, you're more than welcome to drop them in the comments. Who knows? Maybe there's somebody out there who could benefit from what you have to say.

    Ultimately, I have 8 pieces of advice for any total newbies out there. They're in no particular order, except that the one I absolutely know applies to everyone is placed last (it's sort of in the definition of being a writer; don't get mad at me for contradicting myself). The rest are just optional things that may or may not make your writing life easier.

    Also, what I have to say here is primarily directed toward the fantasy community, because I write fantasy. Don't ask me to tell you how to write a romance. The best I can do is point you at Hallmark and say, 'Copy that.'

    Number One: There are no rules in the fantasy genre. Write whatever you want. As long as you can justify it to the reader's satisfaction (and some readers will take any token justification you provide), you can absolutely write a story about hot-pink lizard-ponies with glass wings. If that interests you, go for it! I don't care. If it's a good story, I'll read it. Make up whatever crazy stuff you want. Go wild with it! This is fantasy, for goodness sake! If we aren't comfortable writing about the wacky things that interest us, what has our genre come to? Of course, one downside to there being no rules is that there is also no perfect formula for writing a saleable novel. Every book is a little different and requires a slightly different process from every other book. Sorry. No magic recipes 'round here.

    Number Two: Don't take writing too seriously! Go ahead and have fun with your writing. If you're not published yet, odds are that you've got at least a few years to go before you can quit your day job and write full-time. So, while you still have the freedom of a stable income and no set deadlines, let yourself goof off. Go ahead and write that story about hot-pink lizard-ponies with glass wings (challenge: how many times can I say hot-pink lizard-ponies with glass wings in this blog post?)! If it's garbage, it's okay--nobody has to see it. And as long as you're having fun, whoever reads your story will probably be having fun, too. The way my orchestra-teacher dad puts it: If he's bored, the kids are bored. So he makes his classes interesting for him, and that makes them interesting for his students, too. Writing is exactly the same way.

    Number Three: Silence your inner critic. We all have that little voice inside our brains that says our writing is crap. And frankly, it's right the majority of the time when we're just starting out. Thing is, as time goes on and we write more, that inner critic starts to be wrong. So just ignore it from the get-go. Don't listen to that little negative voice in your head; it's an evil demon that wants to put your writing down and euthanize it so it'll never come back again. Kill the critic; you only need it during revisions, and sometimes not even then. Think positively about your writing. If you can't say that a piece you've written is good, then call it practice or a learning experience, and exult in how much better your next piece will be. The only person grading your writing right now is you, so you get to choose if it gets an F- or an A+.

    Number Four: Recognize that writing is hard mental work. Even for those of us who use it as a way to relax and recharge, there's only so much writing you can do in a day. One estimate I've seen is that most authors can only handle around two hours of writing in a stretch, and then they need to get up and exercise, or go take a nap, or chill out watching TV or playing video games for a while before they go in for another session. Another thing to consider is that if you're still in school, any really intellectual or academic classes you're taking can drain your brain's energy and dry up your writing reservoir. If you don't feel like writing after reading your sociology assignment, then go give your brain a break. Get some food, read a book under a tree, bake some cookies and deliver them to a neighbor. Just do something to help your mind relax and recharge before you try to write some more. It's really easy to get lost in your own mental world, dreaming about those hot-pink lizard-ponies; get your butt out of your chair and go find something to bring yourself into the real world for a while.

    Number Five: I got this one from Gail Carson Levine. Ready? Save what you write. Like, all of it. Every snippet, every half-finished story, every piece-of-junk writing experiment. Save it all. It might seem like a load of garbage right now, but in a few years you'll be thinking back and saying, 'I wish I had that idea right now. I know it was really genius, and I swear it had something to do with lizard-ponies. What did I do with it?' And then you'll be searching through the pages and pages of files in your computer or flash drive, and ultimately realize that you threw it away. That feeling sucks, let me tell you. So just save what you write. And back it up, because if your computer crashes or your flash drive dies, whatever's on that thing is gone forever. So back it up often, and in two or three places, so that you don't lose quite so much material if your tech dies.

    Number Six: Know the difference between criticism and critique. Any thesaurus is going to tell you that these two words are synonyms. But that thesaurus is wrong, 100%. Criticism isn't helpful. It's when a reader looks at your story and says, 'Hot-pink lizard-ponies with glass wings are dumb. You should write a story about something else.' Or, worse, they say, 'Hot-pink lizard-ponies are dumb; why are you even writing in the first place?/You should go find a real job.' Criticism does nothing but beat you down and tell you your writing sucks. It has no constructive or positive effect. The best thing you can do is to ignore it.

    Critique, however, is helpful and constructive. Oh, it doesn't always sound like it is. But it is. Critique is when a reader looks at your story and says, 'I know you really want these hot-pink lizard-ponies to have glass wings, but that doesn't seem very plausible.' And that comment tells you that you need to add a little more justification to your story about why these hot-pink lizard-ponies' glass wings work, which ultimately makes your story better.

    Number Seven: Rough drafts don't have to look pretty. There's a reason they're called rough drafts. Just get the story down on paper; you can rework it later. If the prose isn't pretty or there are spelling mistakes, it's okay. That's stuff you'll get figured out right before it's time to publish. And if there are massive plot holes or characterization issues, that's okay, too! There's reason we do revisions. If you're not satisfied with your story as it stands when you're writing it out the first time, recognize that you can go back and fix it later.

    Number Eight: Remember what I said back at Tip Number One, about there being no rules to writing? That wasn't entirely correct. See, there is one rule I know of about writing that applies to every author, whether amateur or professional: write. Sound obvious? Sure. It's kind of a definitional thing. If you want to be a writer, you have to write.

    But the reason I have this one on here is because some people (and that includes me, sometimes) dream about their grand blockbuster novel that they're going to write. They dream up the plot, the characters. They spend forever fine-tuning their worldbuilding, figuring out their locations and descriptions, designing the characters' clothing. And then it's ten or twenty or fifty years later, and they have thousands of pages of notes on the world's history and the cultures and their customs and the fantastical locations they're going to include--but there's no story to go along with it. Just notes. And nobody likes to read notes. This phenomenon is known among writer communities as World-Builder's Disease.

    Then there are the people (again, like me, sometimes) who start a story, realize it ain't going anywhere, and toss it. Start another story, get bored, toss it. Start another story... ten or twenty or fifty years later, this person has thousands of pages of scene snippets and story-starts and awesome endings with no preceding story attached, but not one finished book to their name.

    So, if you really want to be a writer, and not just a world-builder or dreamer, you have got to get your butt in your chair and your hands on your keyboard and write consistently. It doesn't matter if it's once a week or twice a month or eight hours in one day, every six weeks. As long as you're writing consistently--and adding words to your project consistently--then you are a writer. And if you are a writer, one day you will have a book to publish. That is the only rule there is to writing, because you can't write if you don't write.

    Those are my tips. If you want more resources, from people who are actually qualified to talk about writing, let me recommend a few:

1. Patricia C. Wrede's blog, located at pcwrede.com/blog. I also have a link to it in the left sidebar of this blog.

2. Brandon Sanderson's BYU Creative Writing lectures. There are several versions on YouTube. The one I watched is by Camera Panda.

3. Writing Tools, by Roy Peter Clark. This one isn't specifically for fantasy writing per se, but it is meant for anyone and everyone who wants to write. The philosophy behind this book is that anyone can write, and these are tools anyone can use, though I want to emphasize that this book contains 55 tools, not 55 rules. You have full permission to deviate from Clark's advice, and you can still write something good while doing so.

4. Read The Dragon Keeper Chronicles, by Donita K. Paul. I learned so much about writing by reading these books, and it was because I got to see a million new-author mistakes in the first book, and then watch as the number of new-author mistakes decreased over the course of the series. No, they're not very well written, but that's the beauty of it. I have never found a better illustration of what sorts of things generally throw readers out of the story. Though I do recommend you utilize the previous resources first, so you can read with a slightly more critical eye and actually spot those things. If you don't know about it, how can you analyze it? One thing I ask with this one, though: Do not (and I repeat, do not) judge the author or criticize the work. Don't say it's dumb, or stupid, or bad. It's a fantastic story, with well-rounded characters, awesome and hilarious world-building, and a million other things that I love. The only thing it has going against it is that it's unpolished and could probably do with a couple more rounds of revisions. To be completely honest with you, I have enormous respect for this author, because I would not be the writer I am today without her work.

    Anyhow. Thanks for joining me today. I hope some of the advice I had to give, and some of the resources I recommended, have some use for you as a new author. Go learn, and write, and learn some more, and keep writing. Your writing might not be very good now, but in a few years, it will be. Trust me on that.

    Good luck, and enjoy the journey!

    Also, for today's hat photo:

    Frankly, this is one of my favorite winter beanies. :)