Having done a few posts on different kinds of publishing and which kinds to avoid, let me now start by giving some advice on how to start writing in a way aimed at getting published.
1. Most importantly, START WRITING! Don’t wait until you’ve read a bunch of theory before you start. Just start. If you don’t get in the habit of writing–and writing regularly–you won’t get good at it.
2. Be prepared to write a lot of stuff that never gets published. This is your practice work. Everyone learning any skill has to practice, and writing is no exception. As a result, relax. Don’t worry about whether this stuff is good enough to print. Don’t have that as a goal for your initial writings.
3. Become aware of what you read. As you read stuff–particularly stuff you like–ask yourself questions, like: "Why did he say it that way?" "How could he have said it differently?" "Why didn’t he?" "What is it about this writing that I like?" "What don’t I like?"
4. Get some books about how to write. There are lots of them out there, and they’re specialized by the kind of writing your want to do (e.g., non-fiction, fiction, science fiction, detective, romance, western, etc.). Read them.
5. Get the book Elements of Style by Strunk and White. This is a very short book offering concise writing advice. It is the standard work for beginning writers. Has been for decades. It’s also cheap.
6. Start getting feedback on your writing. This is very important, because if you don’t do it, you won’t know how others see your writing, and you won’t make progress past a certain point. Unfortunately, this is also a tricky step.
The easiest thing for most folks to do to get feedback is to hit up their friends and relatives. But there’s a problem: Your friends and relatives (at least the ones you’r likely to hit up) will want to be nice to you. That may interfere with their being honest with you. Honesty is what you need, though, to know whether your writing is succeeding or failing. Another problem is that your friends and family likely are not professional writers themselves and thus may not be able to help you make that much progress.
An alternative that many beginning writers try is joining a writers’ group. Just about every town has these (if you know where to look), and if yours doesn’t, you can start your own. Writers in the group meet, share what they’ve written, and critique it. But there’s a problem here, too: Writers’ groups tend to turn into groups of friends, which raises the niceness vs. honesty problem mentioned above. Worse, writers’ groups frequently end up spending most of their time socializing and comparatively little time critiqing writing. Also, while the writers in your group probably know more about writing than your friends and family, they usually aren’t professionals. Most of the writers who attend these groups are amateurs, and so there’s a limit to how much they can help you progress.
I speak from some experience on that one. I myself used to be a member of a sci-fi writers group. None of us (at the time) were published, and we turned into a group of friends and then started socializing and stopped working as a writers group. I still miss those guys. (Sniff.)
Another alternative is to take a writing class or–better–a series of writing classes. These are commonly available at your local community college. There are also some online. DO NOT NEGLECT TAKING COURSES THAT TEACH GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION. THESE ARE VITALLY IMPORTANT FOR GETTING PUBLISHED. Taking courses usually solves the niceness vs. honesty problem, because your teacher typically will be much more honest with your than your family and friends. (In fact, you may be horrified at all the red marks that come back on your homework.) Better, the teacher also probably knows more about writing than your family and friends–and there’s a good chance he’ll know more than the members of your writers’ group, too, at least about writing in general (if not your particular genre of interest).
The ultimate feedback is sending your material off to publishers (for professional publications, not vanity presses). This is the final threshold. If you can successfully get past this one (and it will take some doing), you’ve arrived in the world of professional publishing.
But that’s a whole ‘nother story.
In the meantime . . . START WRITING!
I really appreciate this series, Jimmy. Thank you!!
I don’t see a Rule 20 notice, so…, SKIP Jimmy’s No. 4. Books about how to write are a waste of time. I know, and I haven’t read any of them (he he he) but, engrave on your mind the rest of his rules, esp. the one about getting feedback, REAL FEEDBACK, from people who publish a lot and who don’t care about your feelings. Few will take the time because 1) they are busy, 2) they do care about your feelings, or 3) most people are soooo touchy about their writing and resist the great advice they might otherwise get. Also, for every page you write, read about 100 more. TTFN. …PS: Jimmy, your preview button still does not work.
I’d like to highlight something implicit in Jimmy’s advice, which is that in addition to doing lots of writing (write write write write write), I think that it’s vital also to do tons of reading (read read read read read).
Books on how to write ARE certainly important, but I’d rather read twenty books actually written in a given genre than two books on how to write in that genre. I learned to write apologetics reading C.S. Lewis (among others), to write film criticism reading Roger Ebert (among others), and to write various types of fiction from writers too numerous to begin to mention.
Don’t worry about being overly influenced by other writers’ styles. You probably will be anyway, at least at first, but you’ll grow out of it. The big thing is to expose yourself to as wide a variety of stuff as you can.
The more you do that, the more you’ll absorb about different possible ways of writing — and I know I’ve absorbed, subconsciously, far more about writing from the stuff I’ve read than ever I’ve learned from books about writing.
There is no 20 at the bottom of this post, so folks are free to disagree with me publicly.
That being said, skip Ed’s acvice regarding skipping no. 4.
One of the best ways to learn any craft is by having those who do it explain to you *how* they do it. It’s called “training.” This not only gets you pointers for what to do but, just as importantly, pointers for what *not* to do.
If one can’t receive training directly from a professional, the next best thing is reading a book in which a professional explains the same thing.
Either a book . . . or a series of blog posts.
Yeah I think you were touching on a very good point–you have to work your way up to being published. I see all these things telling people to write for a certain genre then to push your way into getting published by submitting to publication xyz (sports magazine, gaming newsletter, etc)… and I think you’re just going to end up frustrating yourself if you do. I think you just know when it’s time to move on to the next level. I think when it’s time to move on to the next level, opportunities will open themselves up to you (God’s crazy and good like that). I seriously had three things land on my lap in less than a month. Honestly–I think I was trying too hard and angsting too much about it. Now I’m published and working on my next project. Hehe. I get to say next project. Still, I won’t consider myself a real writer till I can score some actual cash with the next job.
A couple of things… those writing books seldom agree. They all profess their own way as being the best and perhaps ONLY way. Don’t get discouraged–take that in stride. Absorb as many philosophies on writing as possible. Eventually you’re going to discover what is true for you. I write every day, but I don’t force myself. If it ends up being fiction, that’s fine. If it’s a really stupid blog entry, well, then so be it.
I also don’t do “outlines” for stories. I think I have a good enough handle on story structure and archetype that I can let things develop organically. I had a very good teacher that SWORE by outlines. TRY EVERYTHING. You’ll figure out what does and doesn’t work.
I’ve been writing since I was 15. It’s taken me 10 years to see something in print, and all it was was a lousy (and very boring) article for a digital libraries journal (thanks to Jimmy for the inspiration, BTW, it ended up involving some of the archiving techniques mentioned in the Codex Sianiticus article he posted. So if writing isn’t FUN, and you can’t do it just for the joy of writing, for the joy of improving with help, and the giggles you get by passing silly stories around with fellow writing friends (I have a whopping TWO that are real friends and can actually be harsh with my work), then you might wanna think of something else–you’re not going to write something publishable out of the starting gate.
And if I make one last interjection (ha HA, as if you could stop me!! well, you could delete the post, but I’d still have said it)… to a degree, ANY writing/reading you do is good. I’ve had SO many teachers in college telling me that certain efforts and directions wern’t worth it. I felt guilty for reading sci fi and horror because they were literature snobs. I felt guilty and stupid for just about everything I wrote up until about a year ago when I realized… wait a second–it’s them, not ME. Blogging is an exercise. Reading a magazine is an exercise. Heck, even writing fan fiction is an exercise. Don’t limit yourself–try to experience different things, but it has to be FUN. Not every “exercise” should be the literary equivalent of beating yourself with a splintery board.
Work hard, have fun. Try different stuff.
< /rant>
Tammy, your code isn’t working. You forgot the opening <rant> tag.
My bad. < rant> < /rant> Rant and unrant 😉
Books about how to write are invaluable tools, although you can’t use them as a substitute for starting to practice your own writing. The American Heritage Dictionary (or any good college dictionary), Fowler’s Guide to Modern English Usage (1965 edition), and The Writer’s Art, by James J. Kilpatrick, have been helpful. I tend to prefer the older editions, as they spoke to an age that actually studied (and used) grammar.
Since we’re talking about getting published, anybody know where you can get cheep or free server space for your own blog?
Caeli, try Blogger.com.
Ummm, ok, then skip Jimmy’s advice about skipping my advice on skipping Jimmy’s rule No. 4. Tag, you’re it!
When looking at how-to-write books — first look at the byline. If it’s not of a writer you recognize, check the about-the-author note.
Do not by how-to-write books by people who haven’t gotten published.
Some I’ve found useful: John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist; Orson Scott Card’s Character and Viewpoint; Nancy Kress’s Beginnings, Middles, and Ends; Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writingand Donald Maass’s Writing the Break-out Novel — though the last is not for beginners.
Some not how-to-write books I’ve found useful: Wayne C. Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fiction, John Gardner’s On Moral Fiction, C.S. Lewis’s Studies in Words, Henning Nelms’s Magic and Showmanship, and Umberto Eco’s Six Walks in the Fictional Woods.
LOL don’t read Art of Fiction FIRST though!! I don’t think you’ll ever pick up a pen again if you read Gardner’s book first LOL. It’s probably only “encouraging” to the most stout of heart. I read it and I was like great, I’ll just quit now and save myself the inevidable disappointment of being “that person that sucks” for the rest of my life. Oh yeah and don’t read it if you’re under the age of 20 and have low self esteem. you’ll search for a bridge 😉
Interesting. He specifically talks about going to college and what to major in. . . . 0:)
Incidentially, another problem with families and friends is that hearing your work criticizes can hurt
And sometimes the more just the criticism, the worse.
At the very least, have them write down what they want to say, so that you can read it in privacy.
Learning how to take criticism is a skill you build up over time. Part of the trick is knowing WHO to take criticism from. Fellow writers can be good, but so can a careful reader. Turning yourself into a careful reader is essential. Not a person that picks things apart like a 10th grade English teacher, but someone who understands mechanics. Mom or best friend Cheryl might like the car because it’s shiny and red, you need someone who understands what that sound is under the hood. They need to understand what they’re reading insofar as they can understand their own reactions to the work, where those reactions are coming from. “I don’t like this part” is a far cry from “I don’t like this part BECAUSE it moves too fast. We need to see how the character does XYZ, because you built it up to be SO important, but we dont see the struggle to actually get free.” The WHY is very important. When you’re reading other people’s works, published and not, be cognisant of your own reactions. The better you’re able to verbalize what you’re feeling, the better of a reader you’ll be, and the more useful you’ll be to ANOTHER writer. Your “favorite” readers will be the ones who can tell you WHY, and can do it impartially. You need someone who’s trying to do their best for the work, and for you, without personalities interfering. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
I just worked on a project for a haunted house, developing a back story… My first draft… right out the window. We sat down, and, I do not joke–exactly THREE sentences out of the entire story were kept. I had to go back and do it over-but they were right. It wasn’t working as good as it COULD have worked. On the other hand, a fellow writer for the journal wrote the above-mentioned article. She hacked and slashed and practically rewrote every sentence, changing word choice and order (why–I don’t know. I never got reasons. She just marked things up according to how she thought it should be written). I ended up giving it to one of my dedicated readers who made suggestions, I made the changes and the thing was actually published 🙂 Learning who to trust, how to understand what they’re saying (and what they MEAN by what they’re saying) and how to make changes to your work accordingly is a HUGE part of the process. Don’t skip ahead and freak out about revision yet tho 🙂 You need to write stuff that needs to be revised first 😉
Short-time reader, first-time commenter.
I love this series. I enjoy reading from writers about writing, so this is really interesting for me, especially since I only recently discovered apologetics at all.
And by the way, I love my Strunk and White (how I refer to it, and how the teacher who introduced it to me referred to it). Grammar rocks.
I love these tips. Keep them coming. Here is something I wrote for practice. Do you guys mind reviewing it for me?
http://christiansurvey.blogspot.com/2005/08/you-appealed-to-history-to-history-you.html
Tammy’s advice should come with a warning:
You are about to change the way you read for pleasure.
Forever.
You will not be able to turn being a careful reader off just because it’s not your work.
Very true, Mary.
And, beyond writing, having done so much proofreading and copy editing in my time working for a publisher (Catholc Answers), I cannot turn off my inner proofreader and copy editor when I read for pleasure.
Folks who haven’t done this work would be *amazed* at how many typos professionally published work has.
Question: hypothetically, if you were to get two different publishers really interested in a piece, how would you choose which one to go with?
Does it just come down to money, or what?
Money. Contract terms. Ability to distribute. Etc.
To expand on the start writing — write what you want to write. The skills are often transferable, but not entirely.
In particular, if you want to write original fiction, do not write fan fic. If all you can do in originality is filing off the serial numbers — renaming the characters and changing the hair color — you’re starting. More will come in time.
Mary–you’re certainly right about “turning off” the careful reader. My husband hates that it takes me forever to read ANYTHING, including a comic book, but it’s because I. read. every. single. word. If I can read a book and be so interested in the story (or the content–I’m a non-fiction junkie) that I’m not automatically ANALizing every coma, then it’s a VERY satisfying and rare read.
As for avoiding fan fiction… I gotta disagree with ya there. Sure there’s the possibility of falling into the trap of not being able to come up with ideas on your own. But I think I NEEDED it when I was a teenager and in college. It allowed me to get a lot of bad writing out of the way in a rather enjoyable fashion. I have learned to look at it as a reading exercise as much of a writing exercize. There’re a lot of things you can learn about character and plot and structure by imitating others. It’s funny, when you write something based on a figment of pop culture, it’s fan fiction. When you imitate Kafka, it’s pastiche 😉 I think if it’s meant to be, and you’re going to be a “real writer” some day, it’ll work itself out, you’ll get bored with it after you’ve learned what you were meant to learn, and you’ll move on to the next thing.
I had someone tell me when I was 15 that you need to write one million bad pages of ANYTHING before you’re ready to REALLY write. And I think I hit the one million mark last November 🙂 It sort of made me a bit philisophical about the whole thing. I’ve spent a good ten years or so questioning myself over every single thing I was interested in or tried to write, now I’ve sort of developed the philosophy that if it’s meant to be, it’ll work out 🙂
I only heard a million words.
And you can write horribly derivative original writing. I wrote reams of it myself. I think I progressed much more quickly to actually original writing than my cousin, who has certainly written millions of words of fan fic and is still struggling with trying to write anything original.
You mean I wrote all those extra pages for nothing 😉 There’s no one path that’s going to lead EVERYBODY to being a writer. There may be some piece of the puzzle your cousin just hasn’t found yet. It’s possible to write some truely pedantic “original” stuff too 🙂 I took ALL those college writing workshops… I have a degree in playwriting and a certificate in “English Writing” (whatever the heck THAT is)… which is really just a degree and certificate in reading/writing really lousy stuff.
there’s nothing quite so sad as kids trying SO hard to be “original,” but really just writing vapid imitations of writers they happen to like. But we ALLLLLLLLLLL gotta do it 🙂 Some of us recover from that phase, some of us don’t. I still write fanfic now and again–it’s relaxing. No pressure. And I know it’ll always make my friends giggle. My job’s high stress, and sometimes I need to just deflate. Getting published isn’t/shouldn’t be the goal of writing itself. If it’s not fun, then it’s just a job. You can be an office monkey for all that.
I was 20 when I started grad school the first time around (second time’s a charm, I hear). I dropped out after a semester–I was in for playwrighting… and I honestly couldn’t stand to listen to my classmates speak. They all thought everything they did or touched was or should be high art. That’s just not my philosophy. It ended up being a good thing. First, I had nothing to write about at age 20. Going out and living my life was a pretty good deal. And it got me away from the stuffy intellectual illitist academics. Education’s one thing. Getting entrenched in academia is another. Again < /rant>
But what if, er, no one is interested in reading one’s attempts enough to give any feedback at all?(hint, hint)
I did look over your blog briefly 🙂 I’m working like 60 hrs a week, 7 days a week right now, so it doesn’t leave me with much time to read/comment. finding people to be readers is difficult. Most of the time it’s like finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. You work sooooo hard to find one, and then when you stop, a dedicated reader falls into your lap 🙂 Taking classes is good for that–your teacher and classmates are FORCED to read and comment. There’re some critiquing groups like “critters” that can be helpful if you dont have folks around you interested in critiquing. Oh yeah, I also can’t spell. Thank god for the little squiggly lines under words in Word.
While I was getting the English degree I just *had* to have (for all the good it’s done me) I worked as a tutor in the writing center. I learned more about writing from reading other people’s papers than I did from analyzing John Milton.. Trouble is, this was academic writing, not “real” writing, but wouldn’t it be useful? I found after a time that I had “cracked the code” and could see instantly what each paper needed to make it stronger, often without extensive re-writing. I had thought of applying the same strategy to fiction, or non-fiction, just don’t know if it would work.
Yes, reading other people’s bad writing is invauable. Occationally I whip out my old stuff (not that old, even, maybe two or three years old) and I’m like ARRGG how could I do that !!??
Just remember, Tammy — all spell-checkers hate you and want to make you look like an idiot.
They are not quite as bad as thesaruses or grammar checkers, but bad enough. Use ’em but don’t trust ’em.
Mia Storm: THANK YOU for letting me know about blogger.com. That site is slicker n’ dog snot! Yeehaw!!!