Tips for Writers
what I've learned in twenty five years of writing stories
What I Know
I know that there are a lot of people who want to be writers, who could be writers, who should be writers. Writing, recording language, is an important part of being human. I think, therefore I write!This page is devoted to sharing some things that have helped me, not to become a successful published author (at least not yet), but that have helped me to improve my craft and be able to put the beautiful dreams in my head down on paper so that others can share them.
Isn't that what writing is about?
Tip 1. Write Down Whatever You Dream Up
I have found that the biggest hinderance to my writing is trying to decide if something will work before it is on paper. As I go about my daily grind my imagination roams free; spinning out dialog, painting scenery, playing through the action. Then in the evening I sit down at the computer, stare at the screen, and wonder if it is going to sound stupid when I type it out.NO!
No time for self-doubt and hesitation! If I have learned one thing in my twenty five years of writing fiction, it is that you can never tell if something is going to be good or not until you write it down. In fact, you usually can't tell if it is good or not until you have written it down, then put it away for several weeks until you've nearly forgotten about it. Then, and only then, can you hope to judge its merit.
So, write down whatever you dream up. Then go back to it later. If you decide it didn't work as well as you had hoped, make it work better with good revision. Even if you think it is so horrible that revision is futile, there's usually something good in there you can use later in another piece. And every now and then you come back to something you wrote a while ago and find it was absolutely brilliant! Yes! See! You are a good writer!
Tip 2. Practice Practice Practice
Writing is an art. Great artists practice their craft. Concert pianists play for eight to ten hours a day. They start with an hour or two of drills, then bang away at their concert pieces in order to achieve their ideal of execution.My sister is an illustrator. She practiced drawing every day of her life from the time she was about ten. When she started out she was good for her age, but after a few years she was simply amazing. She filled up sketchbook after sketchbook in high school. She studied illustration in college. She learned anatomy. She tried all sorts of different media; pencil, watercolor, oil, tempera, acrylic, the list goes on. Her house is full of books of prints by the great artists she admires. She loves drawing and painting, and I love to sit and watch her do it, to see a blank canvas turn into a vision.
Now, when my sister so much as doodles on the back of a program in church, you could put that doodle in a frame. She has trained her hand, her eye, her mind, until she is an illustrator.
A good writer should do the same. Practice writing every day. Fill up stacks of notebooks with words. Tackle the art of writing with all the love and enthusiasm you have. I don't mean you have to go spend a lot of money going to workshops and seminars. I do mean that you have to practice. Study and practice. Learn all you can about the craft, and work at it until you get what you want out of your writing.
A lot of people seem to think that a writer can just sit down and turn out a great novel. Some of them can, but only after years and years of practice. Great performance has a price.
Tip 3. When in Doubt, Return to Reality
When you write fiction you have two main problems. You have to:
1. Make up what happens
2. Describe what happens clearly enough so that the reader can see it, feel
it, hear it, understand it, just as plain as you saw it in your head
One of my favorite ways to improve my writing is to eliminate problem number one for a while. Instead of inventing something, I try to remember something that really happened to me and describe it as clearly as possible. I try to put down every word exactly as it was said, detail every feeling, describe everything I noticed (sometimes not much) about what was going on around me. Think of it as a writer's warm up.
And not just a warm up. In a hundred years your fiction might still be interesting, if you're lucky, but what people will really want to know is: what was it like to be real plain old every day you! The most important gift that language gives us is the ability to share our experiences with other people.
So, every day, take a little time to detail some tiny glimpse of your life. Practice using different prose styles. Expand your technique. Paint a little still-life in words. Not only to make you a better writer, but to leave posterity a portrait of something utterly unique: you, here, now.
Tip #4. Be Kind: Revise
Nothing disturbs me more than to come across a passage in a printed, published book that suddenly stands out as being only first or second draft. I do not appreciate having to read back over a sentence in order to untangle its meaning. It really interrupts the flow of a good story to come to a section plagued with inconsistencies, omissions, or clumsy prose.Now, all writers know that we all write bad sentences. We all occasionally slip into inconsistency, leave something out, make glaring mistakes, or stumble over the words. That's fine IN THE FIRST DRAFT! In fact, if you try to write your first draft like it is the final draft you get back to the problem I discussed in Tip #1: utter stagnation! The point of the first draft is to get something down on paper, however horrible it is. Then go back later and make it better.
But you must go back later. Read over what you wrote. If something seems not quite right, fix it or try something else! Trust your instinct. Revise, wait, read, revise again. Then ask someone else to read it, carefully listen to any suggestions, and revise again! Watch your manuscript go from amateurish schlop to brilliant work of genius.
The difference between a lousy book and a decent one, between a good book and a great one, is REVISION.
Tip 5. Read Read Read
I need to remember this tip myself. With five children to take care of I hardly have time for my writing. When do I have time to read?Nothing inspires me to be a better writer than reading a good book. It reminds me what I do it for. I want to give other readers the kind of exhilaration I get from watching characters I really care about brave their struggles and come out stronger. I love watching clever plot strands weave, dart, twine, then all come together in a triumphantly satisfactory climax. Most of all I enjoy simply hanging out in other places and times, sharing experience through the written word.
On the other hand, nothing is so discouraging as reading a bad book. I start to worry that maybe my books are this bad, I just can't tell because I wrote them. But then I can go pick up one of my old favorite books, and the sun comes out again.
So read a lot of books, a lot of good books. Check out my book list for a hundred or so suggestions to get you started. If Juvenile Fiction is not your thing, you can find lots of other book lists on the internet. Go to the library. Join a book club. Start a book club if you can't find one. Read, read, read!