Actually, the title of this post should be 11 Writing Tips–ten from me and one from Colleen Lindsay, who has a blog post up today reminding all writers why we need to put contact info on manuscripts (aside from the obvious DUH factor).
Today a fourteen-year-old girl asked me for writing advice. I won’t go into specifics of what she asked, but I am going to share my answer with you, because I believe this is applicable to more people than just the one girl.
A few useful writing tips:
1. Writing a novel is really hard work. There is a reason why there are so many more people who say they are going to write a novel than there are people who actually write one. On top of your first draft, you will have to do countless rounds of rewrites, revisions, and edits. There is more to writing a book than just having a great idea; you need to be able to execute the idea in a compelling and well written way.
2. Practice the craft of writing at all times. This means every time you text, email, IM, or post questions and answers on Yahoo! Answers, do so with proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. You cannot expect your writing to get better if the every day writing is sloppy.
3. Become friends with the dictionary. Get a small one and carry it with you. When you read or hear a word you do not know, look it up. If you are writing something and you don’t know how to spell a certain word, look it up. The smaller dictionaries are abridged, so there will be words you can’t find in one. If you come across a word that is not in your travel dictionary, write it down and look it up in an unabridged dictionary as soon as possible.
4. Read. A lot. Read widely in the genre you write in as well as in other genres. When you come across something an author does that you really like, make a note of it. Conversely, when you come across an author doing something you don’t like, make a note of it. Learn from the books you read.
5. Write, write, write. The best way to improve your writing is to practice it. Write short stories, novels, poems, journal entries, blogs, whatever you can think to write. Remember the old saying, “practice makes perfect?” I would like to rephrase it as “perfect practice makes perfect.” All the practice in the world won’t help you become better if you are using poor spelling, etc.
6. Study grammar and learn how to use it. Strunk and White’s ELEMENTS OF STYLE is still a great go-to book for learning. Read it. Practice what you learn. I would recommend reading it once a year or so, just to brush up. Keep it close by for reference.
7. All those rules of grammar you are learning? Know that you can occasionally break them. Sometimes, for effect, narration needs to be done NOT “by the book.” Dialogue is often grammatically incorrect. However, in order to break grammar rules effectively and without looking sloppy, you will have to have a strong working knowledge of grammar.
8. As Ally Carter says, “don’t get it right, get it written.” First drafts stink. They have bad word choice, plot holes, choppy dialogue, and many other problems. But you know what? They are supposed to. Don’t spend your time fretting about making your first draft perfect; just get it written. Go back later and fix all the mistakes you made, flesh out parts that don’t make sense, and cut parts that are unnecessary. If you don’t know something and need to research it, just make it up for the first draft. Research anything you need after the draft is done and incorporate it in revisions. It is easy to get bogged down in research and not actually get any writing done; don’t let this happen.
9. Writers write. So set aside time for writing and then actually write during it! Don’t spend that time looking up agents and publishers, cruising the blogosphere, posting your ideas on forums looking for feedback, or anything else that takes away from your writing time. All those things can be done at other times. Writing time is for writing.
10. Last, but not least (and possibly most important): Have fun with your writing. Write because you are passionate about it. Don’t worry about publication at this point. Write because you love to. Publication is a great thing and a good goal for down the road, but should never be the reason you write.
