Ask the Author: Pat Luther
Answered Questions (3)
Pat Luther
A fantasy novella, inspired by Robert E. Howard's Conan books, Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series, and The Eye of Argon, and a series of short stories I wrote in high school.
Pat Luther
Write. Write a lot. Write for yourself. You don't have to show everything to write to anyone else, especially your first drafts, so do your best to let go of any concept of judgement.
Write every day. I have two rules for myself in my writing:
1. Write one sentence every day.
2. Don't beat myself up if I don't even make that goal, just come back to it the next day and continue.
Write every day. I have two rules for myself in my writing:
1. Write one sentence every day.
2. Don't beat myself up if I don't even make that goal, just come back to it the next day and continue.
Pat Luther
By writing.
I have a goal of writing one sentence per day. Even if it's stupid, even if I erase it later, I will have written at least one sentence. Even when I don't feel like writing, hate the whole book and the direction it's going, and feel like throwing the entire thing out and restarting from scratch on a completely different project, I'll write at least one sentence. Usually, that will be followed by more sentences, and hopefully a page or two, but there have been times when that one sentence is literally the only thing I wrote that day, but at least it's some progress, and I retain the habit of sitting down to write at some point. The next day, there'll usually be more.
Also, I think a lot of writer's block comes from insecurity, or not liking what you're writing, and worrying that it sucks. It's OK for a first draft to suck. Best writing advice I've ever heard, and it's oft quoted but I think I first heard it from Jane Espenson is "Give yourself permission to write crap." Nobody else is going to see your first draft, so it doesn't matter what it looks like. First draft is getting the story. Quality is for the edit.
I have a goal of writing one sentence per day. Even if it's stupid, even if I erase it later, I will have written at least one sentence. Even when I don't feel like writing, hate the whole book and the direction it's going, and feel like throwing the entire thing out and restarting from scratch on a completely different project, I'll write at least one sentence. Usually, that will be followed by more sentences, and hopefully a page or two, but there have been times when that one sentence is literally the only thing I wrote that day, but at least it's some progress, and I retain the habit of sitting down to write at some point. The next day, there'll usually be more.
Also, I think a lot of writer's block comes from insecurity, or not liking what you're writing, and worrying that it sucks. It's OK for a first draft to suck. Best writing advice I've ever heard, and it's oft quoted but I think I first heard it from Jane Espenson is "Give yourself permission to write crap." Nobody else is going to see your first draft, so it doesn't matter what it looks like. First draft is getting the story. Quality is for the edit.
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