Are you struggling with an aspect of your writing?
The chances are, lots of hugely successful writers have felt just the same way.
Here’s some advice that may help you change your perspective and break through.
Advice on Overcoming Your Fear of Not Being Good Enough
“The one thing I have learned over the years is it’s not ever as much about being a good writer as it is about being a persistent writer.”
Neil Gaiman
“YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD WHO CAN KILL YOUR DREAM. *NO ONE* can make you quit. *NO ONE* can take your dream away.”
Jim Butcher, Fantasy Author
“How do you defeat the devils of self-doubt that are usually the things that are stopping people? It’s always better to actually do something – you know, sit at the keyboard, pick up the pen – rather than to brood about the fact that you’re not doing it. Do it no matter how crummy you think the result may be. At least you’re moving.”
Margaret Atwood
Advice on Writing Productively
“Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.”
John Steinbeck
“I have a trick that makes things easier for me. Since writing is very hard and rewriting is comparatively easy and rather fun, I always write my scripts all the way through as fast as I can, the first day, if possible, putting in crap jokes and pattern dialogue—“Homer, I don’t want you to do that.” “Then I won’t do it.” Then the next day, when I get up, the script’s been written. It’s lousy, but it’s a script. The hard part is done. It’s like a crappy little elf has snuck into my office and badly done all my work for me, and then left with a tip of his crappy hat. All I have to do from that point on is fix it. So I’ve taken a very hard job, writing, and turned it into an easy one, rewriting, overnight. I advise all writers to do their scripts and other writing this way. And be sure to send me a small royalty every time you do it.”
John Swartzwelder, writer of 59 episodes of “The Simpsons”
Advice on Overcoming Writer’s Block
“I think “writer’s block” is often us judging what we write. I will allow myself to write shit – sometimes for hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks. Sometimes it’s not as bad as I think and other times I have to write lot of shit before I start to flow and get to the good stuff.”
James Gunn
“If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.”
John Steinbeck
Advice on Character Development
“The only way to make my characters really interesting to children is to exaggerate all their good or bad qualities.”
Roald Dahl
Advice on Writing Style
“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”
C.S. Lewis
“In six seconds, you’ll hate me.
But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.
From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.
The list should also include: Loves and Hates.
And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those, later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”
Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”
Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.”
You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her ass. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”
In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.”
Chuck Palahniuck, author of Fight Club
Advice on Writing Dialogue
“If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.”
John Steinbeck
Advice on Thinking About Your Reader
“Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.”
John Steinbeck
Advice About Ignoring Writing Advice
“There are no rules for writers.”
Anne Rice
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
W. Somerset Maugham
I hope you found something useful in these words.
Is there other advice from a famous writer that has had a profound influence on you? I’d love to hear about it.