“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.”
—Ray Bradbury
A few ideas on writing. I’d love to hear what your thoughts are!
- Read outside of the subgenre you’re writing in. If you’re a writer, you should be a reader. If you want your novel to have depth, read as widely outside of your subgenre as possible. Why? There is so much competition and a lot of it sounds alike (the word incestuous comes to mind) so one way to make your book stand out from the maze of books is to make it different without breaking the rules of your own sub-genre.
- Get one hardass as a beta reader (or more if you can stand it). The last thing you want are “yes” people as your beta readers. Get at least one person who is somewhat knowledgeable about your sub-genre, who reads voraciously, and who nitpicks. You don’t have to accept everything this person says, but it’s likely they’ll provide you will a different point-of-view from the people who don’t want to hurt your feelings.
- Edit and proofread every single thing you write and share. As a writer and blogger, I know that sometimes typos and “oops’s” slip through. But hopefully you’ve read your work a couple of times before sharing, used your spelling and grammar check, and then reread once you’ve shared. You might think this is nitpicky, but words and grammar are your tools as a writer. If you don’t care about whether your work is laden with typos, why should anyone care about reading it?
- Read, read, read! Lately I’ve read that some writers don’t want to be influenced or they don’t have the time or a half-dozen other excuses as to why they don’t read. Somehow they’ve convinced themselves that reading isn’t necessary. If you want to be published, how do you expect to learn your market if you don’t read? And that’s the very least reason to read.
- Write, write, write! Even when you don’t feel like it. Even when the muse isn’t sitting on your shoulder. Practice your writing. Free write. Write about nothing and everything and whatever ventures into your mind.
I love your second point. I don’t like to just get positive feedback. I want something a bit more useful and honesty.
I know what you mean. While it’s always great to get an attagirl or attaboy, it doesn’t help if your mss is a mess. 🙂
lol I’m looking for “hard ass beta readers.” They are the best ones, if it’s s*it then tell me… in a nice way of course.
I used to belong to a critique group; the hard asses were the ones whose opinions were most valued–most of them were tactful but honest. 🙂
Humm, it helps grow a thick skin too I think. That’s a good group to belong to. Not everyone will love your writing style, humour etc even if you do. As a writer you need to learn to hear” I don’t like it because” so when you hear “I loved it!” It means so much more. That said, I do also think you need to stay true to who you are, what you write and how you write. You can’t write to please there is a reader out there for every writer! Some things you do have to use judgement on what to take with a pinch of salt. I like your description ” hard-ass” that had me in stitches.
I 100% agree with remaining true to yourself. I think when a writer is writing *just* to please others their writing begins to suck. Maybe it’s because their lack of passion shows. Flipside: it’s a happy world when you write something you like and find an audience who *truly* loves it.
Write on! 🙂
Write on ! Agreed.
hank yo! his was an amazing and eye opening read! I am just starting my real writing journey, submitting and get rejections and acceptance. SO it was so good to get advice like this. I struggle with #1 the most I will admit, I have certain likes and always stay within that, joining a book club has helped me get out of that rut, as the is a mixed group and we recommend books not of a particular genre. that has helped me read books I would not other wise. again thank you for sharing this!
I understand. I never used to read YA novels until someone gave me one. Then I realized that they weren’t just for kids. I may never write in the subgenre, but I certainly found something lovely to read. 🙂
I’m very happy if you found something in the post to help! 🙂
YA novels were an eye opener for me, my kids read them and would have much to say that I would read and find it was a moving life story, not only for teenagers. Being young once, all of us can relate to those emotions. yes i did find lots of things to take away from this post.
You said it all how to come out of maze- my favorite read and write and have a critic closer.
Thank you for the tips, will follow them