Joining us today is author Michelle Rabe to discuss writing.
There are a lot of writing how-to books which are going to give the beginning writer advice, and a lot of the books will contradict one another. One book might suggest writing in the morning and another the evening. Like almost all creative pursuits you’re going to find almost as many pieces of advice about how to write as you will writers. There are a few things that I think every new writer should be doing and those are what I’m going to talk about today.
The first thing that I believe every beginning writer should be doing is reading a lot.Only through lots of reading will the new author learn why certain things work and others don’t. The young writer will see how other authors are doing things and will either decide that’s how they want to do things or sometimes more importantly how they don’t want to do things. The new writer will also get an idea for different genres and points of view, how back story is handled,description and dialogue.
The young writer also needs to write a lot. The more you write, the more you figure out how you tell stories. Writing also gets your mind, body and imagination used to the process of writing. While writing isn’t tough physical labor it does take discipline to sit in front of a blank screen or piece of paper and pour out bits of your soul on to disk or page. It is emotionally and mentally difficult and getting into a routine of writing in the same place at roughly the same time every day is a lot like working out. The more you do it the easier it becomes.
Get honest feedback from people that you trust. There are a lot of people who will tell you that friends and family are the worst people to ask for feedback on your work but I’m not one of them. I consider every person in my writing group a friend and I get their feedback all the time. My harshest critic is my mom, she reads a lot and calls me on it when I’ve taken the easy way out. The important thing is to choose people whose opinions you trust and who are readers.
Perhaps the most important and, seemingly ignored, piece of advice I have is that real writers revise. No first draft is perfect, there are always going to be changes that need to be made, typos that need to be rooted out and plot holes that need to be filled. Part of growing as a writer is learning to take editorial notes without letting your ego get in the way. Even though I’d been through the manuscript of Cast in Blood several times and so had my writing group I still hired an editor (Kathy Lapeyre) and she caught errors that had been missed. She also saw repetition of words and phrases that when revised made the book stronger.
I have two final pieces of advice. The first is to have a thick skin, there are going to be people who don’t like your work. They may even make suggestions on how to fix it based on their tastes. Sometimes their advice is good, most of the time it’s not. Use your judgment on which feedback to listen to and which to ignore. The last piece of advice is to have fun. I’ve found that writing is at its best and easiest (well it’s never really easy) when you’re enjoying yourself and telling your story. So, have fun and see where the story takes you … you may be surprised.
Thank you so much for being here! I don't know about anyone else but this is certainly eye opening for me.
Michelle Rabe wrote Cast in Blood, now available on amazon. To learn more about herself and her work please follow her on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMichelleRabe
