Starting with the basics

Before I dive in, a quick disclaimer. Writing is personal. We all write for different reasons and in different ways, and you might think what I’m saying is a load of rubbish. That’s fine. You have to take onboard the advice that makes the most sense to you, and ignore what doesn’t work. That doesn’t make it bad advice; it just means it’s not for you. 

However, there are two things that I think are more important than anything else, and they are two of the easiest to understand. Read a lot. Write a lot.

That’s it. Class dismissed.

Ha, just kidding. There’s a little more to it. 

If you’re a writer, I’m guessing you already do read a lot. Why write if you don’t read? There is no better way to learn how stories work than to consume a lot of stories. Even the newest writers know that you should have a beginning, middle and end. The more you read, the more writing magic you absorb. Without realising it, you’ll get a feeling for the craft.

What’s great (aside from an excuse to read more books) is that you’ll learn as much from the books you didn’t enjoy as those that you did. It can be difficult to figure out why a story is so good, but it’s easier to see why a book didn’t chime with you. For example, I struggle with books where the main character doesn’t have a clear motivation. If I don’t know what the hero wants, then I don’t know what I want for them either. I need something to root for. It’s an easy lesson I take to my own writing, because I write the type of stories that I want to read. 

What you read is also important. I’ve met writers who want to write for children because they loved Enid Blyton as a child. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with this, but children’s publishing has moved on a lot since then. Even the first Harry Potter book is almost 30 years old. It’s the same with Agatha Christie and crime, or Isaac Asimov and sci-fi. Sure, read the classics, but if you want to publish, you need to know what is currently being published and how you fit into the industry. 

Of course, not all writers are looking to get published. Writing can absolutely be a hobby that you don’t want to monetise.  In which case, go nuts and do whatever the heck you want.

Onto the second part. Write a lot. The way I think about it is, you are going to make mistakes as a writer. Lots of them. The more you write, the quicker you get these mistakes out the way. In theory, at least. We’ll all be making mistakes until the day we lay down our pen, but let’s get the silliest ones out the way first. 

Let me give an example. Early in my writing life, I received feedback from an adjudicator. The competition was to submit the first 7,000 words of a middle grade novel (roughly ages 8 to 12). She said that she loved my voice (yay!) but nothing actually happened in the story. In 7,000 words. Nothing happened. That’s not acceptable for any age group, but especially for children. 

Is there another way I could’ve seen the error of my ways? Possibly, but sometimes you just have to make a mistake yourself in order to learn from it. 

You don’t know what you don’t know, and actually doing the thing you want to do is the best way to find out what you still need to learn.

I plan to share lots more writing advice in future, but plenty of reading and writing will build a strong foundation on which to build the rest of your writing skills. 

I don’t have a comment section on my website because I’m too scared of them, but if you have any thoughts on this post, please get in touch. 

Happy writing!