advice

Write Like A Pro

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Last week on Publisher’s Weekly, bestselling author Ann Packer wrote a great article about five important writing tips. They all really resonated with me and spoke to my own personal experiences. Therefore, I thought I should pass her pieces of advice along to you. You can never repeat good advice enough. Repetition helps us to learn.

1)      “Write what you want to write.”  Ann suggests not to write what you think people want you to write, but rather what you want to write. This is true on many different levels and it’s really great to hear a successful author say this herself. If you are writing about something you have no interest in the quality of work will certainly suffer and it will most likely be much more difficult to write. You may be able to get the words onto the page, but can you really convince your reader to believe what you are saying? You want your audience to feel your conviction and if that conviction is never there in the first place, your readers will notice. This also applies to writing something you believe in, even if other people tell you it will never work. If you believe in something so much that you feel the absolute urge to write about it or you might just explode then write about it, no matter who shoots you down in the process. Writing is a great way to express passion and passion always makes for a great read.

2)      “Let yourself explore silly ideas.” Ann suggests that you never know where your main story line will come from. She recommends writing down any idea that comes to you, even ideas that you know your internal voice would not usually approve of. I think this holds true not only for story lines, but for book ideas in general. You just never know where you will get your next book idea from and you might not even realize it at the time. You might get another book idea while writing minute details for another book- write it down. You might notice silly/odd behavior out in public at a grocery store, the shopping mall, or restaurant that just makes you stop to think. If it catches your attention, write it down. You never know what will develop from it months or even years down the road. Feel free to indulge even in the craziest of ideas, if only for a moment or two and nothing else. Inspiration comes from the places we least expect, don’t miss it.

3)      “Find some people you trust, and ask for their help.”   Ann suggests having someone else look at your work who can give you advice, but you must be weary. Only pick and choose what advice you want to use, don’t feel like you need to listen to all of it or any of it for that matter. The hardest part of this for some writers, especially some self-published authors, is that you may not have a trusted person to bounce ideas off of or someone you can send pages of your work to for an honest opinion. If you are just simply someone who enjoys to write, perhaps it’s just a hobby for you, you may not have had an opportunity to cultivate those necessary relationships in the classroom, at a workshop, or in a professional setting. Lucky for you, this person doesn’t need to be another writer or a publishing professional. If you don’t have access to someone like that, entrust the help of a spouse, a friend, a sibling, parent, or co-worker. They will have a totally different outlook on things that might end up being your most vital tool. Always seek opinion, but proceed with those opinions with caution. Trust your gut.

4)      “Revise, revise, revise.”  This is personally my favorite, and certainly the most important, tip. Revisions are always key. With each revision your work gets stronger and stronger. It’s your only opportunity to take out words that were doing nothing but clogging the page and to add on to areas that were left unaided and overlooked. Personally, I would revise this tip to read, “Revise to the 10th degree.”

5)      “Allow yourself to not work.”  Lastly, Ann suggests that we all need to take a break from our work. She makes a very interesting observation that due to the “unscheduled working of your unconscious mind, you will be in a different mental position from the one you occupied when you left.” Spoiler alert- our minds continue to work even when we take breaks. New ideas will still sprout up and new details can still emerge. Trust me, don’t skip your breaks- your mind will cover for you while your gone. You will probably think of things you never would of thought of or noticed before.

It is always great to get solid tips from such a wonderful author, take this advice and practice it. We can hear this or that all day long, but it means a whole lot more coming from someone who has been there. Especially when the advice mirrors so close with reality. Advice like this really helps to keep us all in check. Write on.

The Colors of Success

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Sometimes it is impossible to tell with any precision how the public will react to a book, even for someone working in the publishing industry. It’s not unheard of for a book to be successful for reasons no one even previously thought of. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised with how well some books do, while other times I am disappointed with some books performances that had all the qualities to do well. What works for one book, won’t necessarily work for the next. At a certain point, people get tired of the same thing, the same story line, the same plot, or the same genre over and over again. This is when it becomes difficult to predict. Life is about variety and change, and so is publishing. People are always searching for the next “big thing.” This requires chances to be taken and gut feelings to be trusted. Sometimes the best we can do is make educated predictions based off of market and social media trends. Maybe it will stick, maybe it won’t. Maybe it will stick next time. Maybe it will take five more times.

Right now, two of the bestselling books on Amazon are coloring books… geared towards adults! Of all the amazing content out there in the abyss that is Amazon, coloring books? I was a little surprised to see that. My initial thought was who has time to color? I have a list of literary books I want to read that just keeps getting longer and longer, why would I pick up a coloring book? As I thought more and more about it over the weekend, a coloring book topping the charts of Amazon actually made me really happy.

colortwo

Think for a moment about the purpose of a book. The rudimentary purpose of a book is to transport the reader into a different world. To remove them from their chaotic life, even just for a brief moment, and put them into the book’s world. Well, this is exactly what coloring books do too. They give the readers/artists a mental break from their own life. It’s a mindless activity meant to relax and calm the soul, where your biggest problem is what color to make that flower in the corner. They also give the reader/artist a chance to be creative, to take something and make it their own. They can make their world any color, shade, or texture they want- wherever they please. You can also color outside of the lines, if you wish, by adding elements of your own design- adding on to the content that is already there. You are the captain of this literary adventure, not the author.

colorone

Don’t be afraid to take chances with your writing and think outside the lines that are already there. No one ever knows for sure what is going to sell from one published work to another. Success always requires the biggest risks.

Who knows, maybe a Mad Libs book will top the Amazon charts next. Write on.

Modernize Your Grammar

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One of the scariest aspects of self-publishing is the editing process. You don’t have a built in editor waiting for your next draft. If you don’t possess a doctorate degree in the English language, you feel prone to have a ‘professional’ edit your work which often comes with hefty fees. You worry about following every grammatical ‘rule’ because you fear that any poor grammar will cast your work in a negative light or will be judged by readers and/or critics, just because you are not following the ‘conventional rules’ despite how well you write. We all have heard and seen authors get slammed for poor grammar and the last thing we want is to be the next victim. Go ahead and breathe because I don’t want you to spend another second worrying about it. I recently came across a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, called “There Is No Proper English.” I think this article is so important because it’s something that we all lose sight of during the writing process. We always have a need to strive for perfection, but perfection is rarely ever reality.

Alright, let’s take a step back for a moment. Punctuation and spelling are both really important and should never ever be overlooked. You need to dedicate a large amount of time proofreading your work for these errors before you publish. In fact, you need to read through your work multiple times focusing solely on grammar to the point you are practically banging your head against the nearest desk, table, or wall. Grammar can often set a part a good book from a great book. However, given the age that we currently live in, what is mostly important is to convey your message the best way you know how and this might not always be the “proper” way. The article goes into detail about different grammatical rules such as double negatives, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”  We are taught not to use double negatives all the way back to elementary school, but that does not mean it is wrong. Many of the grammatical rules we have are simply suggestions that a society, at a certain time, followed. How is a student supposed to look back at a grammar book with roots in the 1880’s and be expected to abide by those rules?  Society, along with language, words, and grammar, are all fluid and will change. What is seen as “correct” should not be dictated by individuals from the past, but rather our contemporaries. It’s who you are writing for after all. The bottom line is common sense, if it doesn’t make sense to follow a rule then don’t follow the rule. This reminds me of something I read a while ago. I have no idea where I read this or who told me it but I will try to recreate it the best I can:

A mother was cooking a roast with her daughter; the mother cut the end of the roast off and put it in the pan.

The daughter asked, “Mom, why did you cut the end of the roast off?”

The mother responded that it is just how I always did it, there probably is some good reason for it.

The next week the mother and daughter where visiting the grandmother and the mother asked, “Mom, why did you always cut the end of the roast off before you cooked it?”

The grandmother responded, “Because my pot was never big enough.”

Most traditions and rules are only societal guidelines. Rules of grammar are dictated by best practices from a society during a certain time period. In the age that we live in- with the invention of text messages, e-mails, Facebook wall posts, comments in a blog section, we are not required to speak or write like we are from the 1880’s. In fact, that would be counterproductive. The goal today is to get large quantities of information relayed as quickly as possible. ‘Brevity’ and ‘informative’ should serve as the guidelines for the grammar rules for our society. Don’t worry about the rest. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Write on.

The Art Of Patience

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Andrew Solomon, who is a well decorated and popular author, gave a speech at this year’s Whiting Writers’ Awards. After, it was adapted into an article in The New Yorker. The article really made me stop and think about why we write and some important creative concepts to remember when you are writing, especially for young or new writers.

Solomon tracked the thinking of Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet.” It describes the writing process the way many of us have heard it before: don’t dive too deep into literary criticism, learn the value of asking questions, use your own experiences to write, embrace any urgency you feel to write, and accept challenges. Writing is a process in which the writer grows- don’t rush it, have patience, and just breathe.

This is all very good advice (much of which I follow myself), but I am most interested in Solomon’s view on the left part of the “middle”, the benefits and pitfalls of a younger or newer writer. Solomon makes a very astute observation that all old people have been young, but no young people have been old. It’s true that every young person wants to be mature enough to have success in their respective industry and every older person wants to be physically young again, to have the absolute freedom they once had. He suggests that both age groups think they are “experts” or know everything there is to know. But, neither is correct. Each stage of life has something the other stage does not. When you are young, you have an eagerness filled with energy. When you are older, you have your maturity and patience. The paradox Solomon suggests is that young people, who can afford to be temporarily patient with their creativity, are typically impatient. While older people, who don’t have as much time to be patient, are much more likely to be creatively patient.

What I take away from Solomon’s message is that it is important for young people to be patient with their work. Let it develop and ripen. Your creativity will flourish, but it may take some time. Don’t stress out about it, don’t obsess over it because as a young writer you have one of the best advantages- time.

This article is undeniably thought provoking to me for many more reasons than one. I could honestly sit here all night writing about it, but it really puts the concept of time and creativity into a new light. Older authors should not feel defeated by time because their creativity has already ripened.Older individuals who may have just started writing, should not feel defeated by time either because their life experiences have had time to ripen. Both must use their ripe creativity or ripe experiences to their advantage and foster that young eagerness they once had inside their now mature mind.

My best advice for young writers is if you have an idea write it down. If you have another idea, write that down too. Don’t let any idea, good or bad, completely escape you. Every idea or emotion you have is a piece of the process. Take the time you have right now to think about your ideas. Let them ripen, let them ferment- both in your mind and on paper. Write on.