I came across a thread on Reddit where a new writer was asking for advice on how to improve and avoid mistakes. So here’s my advice to new writers.
You ever see someone get on a bike for the first time, and wheelie perfectly? Or someone bounce on a trampoline, and effortlessly backflip? Then why do you think creative writing is something where you can walk in and do well effortlessly?
This mentality of thinking the first thing you’ve ever written is probably… well…
You need to realise that it’s terrible.
No, scratch that.
It’s probably really, really terrible.
Fact. I’m sorry. Everyone I know wrote absolute garbage when they started. No matter what you say, there’s a small part of you that thinks what you’re writing is good. It’s not. Now for the good news…
This is the worst you’ll ever be at writing. In fact that last piece, you’re already a better writer than that. Congrats!
I’m just telling you all this now, so that when you get a critique from an outside perspective for the first time, you don’t give up.
When I got my first piece properly critiqued, it was destroyed. Massacred. Obliterated. Comments included things like;
I’m finding these long paragraphs of exposition on each character a little grating. I’d much rather see their character’s played out than be told about them, if that makes sense?
So I’m going to write the really annoying Show Don’t Tell thing here. This story become immediately more exiting if we learn everything through dialogue, action and their relationships
And a real gem
If it’s at the same time you don’t need the past tense “had”
It was taken apart because what I’d written deserved it. I tried to introduce 7 characters in my first chapter, I mixed up the present and past tense throughout, and I had huge info dumps littered throughout to try and educated the reader on my oh-so-brilliant world.
But it wasn’t a punishment. It may have felt a bit like it, but in truth it was a lesson. A whole series of lessons. Teaching me how to improve my grammar, my storytelling, and how to write for the reader. Most importantly, it taught me that I had a long way to go.
I like to believe that I’ve gotten better at writing since then. I almost certainly have, I have been writing quite a bit. But I never stop thinking that I can improve. None of us should, because our writing can always be better.
So to new writer, I say this. If you want to get better at you writing, there are a few short and simple things you can do.
- Write regularly. Some people have absurd schedules, and insist on writing 1000 words a day. This is nonsense, but you do need to keep practising. Whatever pace suits you, but keep on writing.
- Get outside criticism on your work. Your friends and family are always going to go gently on you. Put your pieces out there for critique for critique, or join a writers group. Just make sure whoever’s reading your work isn’t afraid to really lay into it, and that you get multiple perspectives. You don’t want to base criticism off of one persons thoughts.
- Don’t give up. I’ve known lots of people who have decided that they either aren’t suited to writing, or aren’t willing to commit to improve. Writing can be incredibly fun, but only if you’re willing to put your pride to one side and take some heat.
I mean what I say. I love writing. But if you love writing, you have to be committed to improving. And to be committed to improving, you have to accept that there’s a lot you’re doing wrong.
No one walked into their first karate session a black belt. And none of us start writing as a New York Times bestseller. To get there, you’ve got to be ready to take the punches.
If you are, one day your writing won’t be terrible.
Maybe.
The Fellowship Of Ink 