 |
||||
 |
 |
|||
 |
||||
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
|
|
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
Knights of Ril
Writing Advice:
What is the Best Advice You Could Give an Aspiring Author?
At the For the Love Of Arts Faire this weekend, I had several aspiring authors visit to talk about writing and publishing. There were also three other authors exhibiting there (Julia Pearce, Kaylee V. Long, and Jason Clark) and you can’t help but end up “talking shop.”
In talking to these aspiring authors, each of them asked me the same question in almost the same words: “What is the best advice you could give an aspiring author?” After the first day, I decided to ask the other authors this question, then looked back at my past author interviews to see what they had to say to the same question. Here is the result.
My Advice
My best advice is write, write, write. You see a movie and a line of dialogue has you going down another path, write it down. You hear a song and a lyric strikes you, write it down. The best advice for someone wanting to be a writer is just that: start.
The best marketing is word of mouth. Nothing is more powerful than a recommendation by a friend you trust. However, getting the word out for people to know that it’s there is the trick. To do this, I have used Facebook quite a bit but, surprisingly, what has had the biggest impact recently are LinkedIn and Twitter. I had a LinkedIn account that I hadn’t done much with for years, then decided to try seeing what happens if I put more focus there. Through LinkedIn, I’ve made contacts for podcast interviews, blogs, and even critics. Twitter has amazed me with people who are so willing to re-tweet, spreading the word to a wider audience that you never had before.
Julia Pearce, author of the memoir The Boy Who Became More Than We Could Imagine
“Find your joy. Keep going. Write from the heart. Fill your days with pure love alongside everything that comes to you. Keep going. Keep finding it. Keep being you.”
Kaylee V. Long, author the fantasy novelette Porcelain
“The biggest thing that helped me is to write every single day. It doesn’t have to be your story, as long as you’re writing something. If it is your story, great! As long as you’re writing something every day, that’s what helps me keep my momentum.”
Jason Clark, author of the fantasy series The Training Grounds
“I’ve made my mistakes, so I would say, one of the big mistakes I’ve made is how I went about trying to market my book, paying for services that weren’t beneficial. The thing I found to be the most beneficial is word of mouth and trying to get my book in the hands of people who are really going to enjoy it, so they can tell their friends. That’s the only thing that’s worked for me so far.”
Nicolas Lemieux, author of the forthcoming science-fiction novel, Seven Drifts
When you first start, protect your work. Wait before you show it. Your work is precious, when it starts it's like a baby, fragile but growing stronger, slowly. It needs to be nurtured. It needs to learn how to walk. It needs to be allowed to fall on its behind and to cry out. Allow it. Give your ideas the time they need to grow, away from eyes other than your own. Wait. You'll know when it's time to move on to the next step and to start sharing what you do. Then choose carefully who you can trust to really respect your process.
Your process is your own. Learn it as you build it. Build it by trying things out. Follow your instincts. You'll see.
Avoid comparison. Just build your thing, one brick at a time. Be there, do the work, be yourself, learn resilience, allow yourself to fail (fail often, fail fast; that's the basics of the agile methodology), learn and grow, write, write, write, read, read read… and be gentle with yourself. Always respect your energy levels and don't forget to live your life. Get into an improvement feedback loop, but fight perfectionism — it's a disease. Learn to recognize your resistance and to live with it; you can even make it an ally (The War Of Art, Steven Pressfield). Persist. And then, whenever you feel ready (or before), reach out for more feedback and visibility.
And above all, never lose sight of the reason why you first wanted to write in the first place. Keep your sources of inspiration, whatever they may be, close to your heart and mind. When in doubt, always come back to your why, your reason for writing.
Clay Vermulm, author of the horror novel, Crevasse
“Never stop and do the work. Thinking about it, dreaming about it, talking about it … those are great, but they aren’t writing. You have to commit to putting in the time and you have to keep on going, no matter how hard it gets. If you really want to be a writer, it will all be worth it in the end.
Just like the writing itself, with publishing, you have to put in the work. I'd also say you have to find something you can love about it. There's lots of fun to be had in the publishing process, whether that be outreach and connection, creating the marketing content to sell yourself and your work, or querying and submitting. I've found moments of joy in all those, even though they are tough and time consuming. I encourage authors to go in with a positive mindset and try to enjoy the entire process.”
Jeff Bailey, author of the thriller novel, Not On My Watch
“Write every day. Read every day. Network every day. Market in your spare time. Don't be afraid to try something completely outlandish.”
Jasveer Singh Dangi, author of the fantasy novel, The Hunter Genesis
“Keep going, don’t stop and if you are afraid of starting then take that first step now.”
Rune S. Nielsen, author of the fantasy series, The Artifact War
“Do what feels right, but don't forget to push against your boundaries. To grow you need to try new things. Learn new lessons.
Publish because you want to write books. Not because you expect to get rich or famous. Each month Amazon publishes 50,000 new titles. The market is not only saturated with books. It's drowning in them. So, don't expect to earn a living from being an author (self-published or traditionally published).
Try your best and see how far you can get, and if you do make a living from it know that you're one of the few success stories in an ocean of good writers that don't.”
Uchechi Theresa Ezeuko, author of the historical fiction novel, Sochima, Awakening of the Gods
“Always trigger your creative imagination. That’s where the best stories are born.”
Advice from History and Those Who Wrote It
Aristotle
“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.”Benjamin Franklin
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”Robert Cormier
“The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.”E.L. Doctorow
“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”Edgar Rice Burroughs
"I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly."Robert Frost
"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."Paul McCartney
“But with writers, there's nothing wrong with melancholy. It's an important color in writing.”Louis L’Amour
"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on."
Writing Advice: Writing a Story
Writing Advice: ChoosingYour Narrative: Character-Driven or Plot-Driven
Writing Advice: Stuff People Usually Get Wrong
Writing Advice: Your Story Is Your Starship; Conflict Is Your Fuel
Writing Advice: Irony: It's Not Just Heavy Metal
Author Interview: Nicolas Lemieux
Author Interview: Clay Vermulm
Author Interview: Jasveer Singh Dangi
Author Interview: Rune S. Nielsen