by Edie Melson
Several months
ago I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about Writing
Advice You Should NEVER Follow. Today I want to share writing advice you
should always follow. Now, like ninety-nine percent of publishing rules, take
these with a grain of salt. Writing is rarely a one-size-fits-all proposition.
1. Keep a
regular schedule. Notice
a said REGULAR schedule, not normal (and I didn’t say write every day). Your
schedule may be writing on the bus everyday to work, or from midnight to 2 a.m.
or even only on the weekend. Whatever works best for you, stick with it. Small
bites are the best way to devour a huge task.
2. Don’t stop
learning. Even if this
weren’t an industry that’s ever changing, you’d still need to keep honing your
skills. I don’t care who you are, or how long you’ve been writing, you never
arrive.
3. Plug into
a supportive team. You’ve
often heard that writing is a solitary pursuit. Yes…and no. The act of putting
words on paper is rarely a team sport. But producing publishable work is not.
It takes a good support system to help you cover all the bases.
4. Build your
platform BEFORE you get published. Yep, you read that right. So many writers put off building their
social media networks until they sign with an agent or a publisher. I’m telling
you that’s too late. Start building now and you’ll find yourself more
attractive to editors and agents.
5. Don’t let
the voices in your head derail your progress. As a whole, we writers are an insecure
bunch. And most of our insecurity starts in our minds. We convince ourselves to
fail before we even get started good. Who am I fooling, I can’t write. That
editor/agent didn’t mean it when he said to send him a proposal. I don’t know
why I bother, none of this is any good. Any of these sound familiar?
6. Learn the
rules so you know how to break them effectively. Part of developing as a writer is knowing
when to break the rules. It’s hard to do if you don’t know them to begin with.
For example, you’ll hear the advice to get rid of repeated words. In most cases
that’ good advice, but there are instances when you’ll want to repeat a word
for emphasis.
7. Don’t
EVER talk bad about anyone in the industry. Publishing is a small family, and people move around a lot. An agent
at this company today, may be at a different company next year. The person
sitting next to you at a conference, could be your editor. You get the idea.
8. Take
critique, but don’t let it silence your voice. It’s important to develop a tough skin in
this business. That means learning from tough critiques. BUT and this is vital,
remember that a critique is just someone’s opinion. If you incorporate every
critique into your WIP you’ll lose that distinctive thing called voice. This
means sometimes throwing out advice from people you trust, and breaking some
rules.
9. Write
what you love. It's
tempting to try to follow what's popular, but it rarely works out well. Life's
short, spend it doing something you love.
10. Don’t
quit. I’ve been around
this business a long time. I’ve learned that while talent is good, perseverance
will get you a whole lot farther. You’re going to have bad days, bad weeks,
even bad months, but that’s still no reason to quit.
I’ve given you
my best advice. Now I’d like to hear from you. What is the best writing advice
you’ve ever gotten?
Don’t forget to
join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie
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