Michael J. Edwards
1. LEARN THE CRAFT
Writing is a craft, and like any craft, it has a set of basic skills you have to learn if you want to be good at it. Point of view, description, characterization, character arc, dialog, pacing, orchestration, structure, and so on. Read books by successful writers and ask yourself how they handle each of these. Read books about each of these skills. Take a writing class. Attend the craft sessions at a writers’ conference. Learn the craft.
2. PRACTICE
Like any craft, your writing will improve with practice. I wrote several short stories and two practice novels before I felt I had mastered the craft well enough to write The Emissary.
3. FIND BETA READERS
Preferably other writers in the same genre who are willing to read and critique your manuscript. I’m not talking about critique groups where small pieces of your story are critiqued. You need critiques of the entire book so things like structure and character arcs are included. Check out Goodreads’ beta reader group.
4. WRITE WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED
The trick on your first draft is to kill your inner editor. You know, that voice in your head telling you to go back and fix the sentence you just mangled. The goal of your first draft is to get your story onto the page as fast as you can. THEN go back and start revising.
I have a friend who refers to her first draft as “my SFD—shitty first draft.” Someone once said, “If your first draft isn’t crap, you’re doing it wrong.” Supposedly Ernest Hemingway said, “Write drunk, edit sober.” (He didn’t, and neither should you.) The best way I know to shut down my inner editor is to type with my eyes closed. If my inner editor doesn’t see it, he can’t complain about it. It takes a little practice and a lot of self-discipline. Oh, and you have to learn to type without looking at the keyboard (called touch typing). If you never learned how to do that, try turning off the monitor while writing. Your inner editor will whine, but just slap her and tell her to live with it.
5. LEARN THE RULES OF GRAMMAR
Presumably you use a writing tool that includes spell check (I use Scrivener). Use it when you get to the second draft. Beyond that, learn the English rules of grammar. I keep a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style on a table where I write. Whenever I hit something I’m not sure about (e.g., commas, hyphens, capitalization, grammar, names and titles) I read up on it and improve my mastery of the English language.
Writing is a craft, and like any craft, it has a set of basic skills you have to learn if you want to be good at it. Point of view, description, characterization, character arc, dialog, pacing, orchestration, structure, and so on. Read books by successful writers and ask yourself how they handle each of these. Read books about each of these skills. Take a writing class. Attend the craft sessions at a writers’ conference. Learn the craft.
2. PRACTICE
Like any craft, your writing will improve with practice. I wrote several short stories and two practice novels before I felt I had mastered the craft well enough to write The Emissary.
3. FIND BETA READERS
Preferably other writers in the same genre who are willing to read and critique your manuscript. I’m not talking about critique groups where small pieces of your story are critiqued. You need critiques of the entire book so things like structure and character arcs are included. Check out Goodreads’ beta reader group.
4. WRITE WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED
The trick on your first draft is to kill your inner editor. You know, that voice in your head telling you to go back and fix the sentence you just mangled. The goal of your first draft is to get your story onto the page as fast as you can. THEN go back and start revising.
I have a friend who refers to her first draft as “my SFD—shitty first draft.” Someone once said, “If your first draft isn’t crap, you’re doing it wrong.” Supposedly Ernest Hemingway said, “Write drunk, edit sober.” (He didn’t, and neither should you.) The best way I know to shut down my inner editor is to type with my eyes closed. If my inner editor doesn’t see it, he can’t complain about it. It takes a little practice and a lot of self-discipline. Oh, and you have to learn to type without looking at the keyboard (called touch typing). If you never learned how to do that, try turning off the monitor while writing. Your inner editor will whine, but just slap her and tell her to live with it.
5. LEARN THE RULES OF GRAMMAR
Presumably you use a writing tool that includes spell check (I use Scrivener). Use it when you get to the second draft. Beyond that, learn the English rules of grammar. I keep a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style on a table where I write. Whenever I hit something I’m not sure about (e.g., commas, hyphens, capitalization, grammar, names and titles) I read up on it and improve my mastery of the English language.
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