The internet is paved with good intentions for writers, particularly those starting out, however I have found that many of these pieces of ‘good advice,’ do not, in fact help at all. Many articles appear contradictory to others and provide an overwhelming list/tips to complete in order to be a ‘successful writer,’ that there is no hope to achieve and write/publish a book at the same time!
“The greatest harm can result from the best intentions. It sounds a paradox but kindness and good intentions can be an insidious path to destruction. Sometimes doing what seems right is wrong and can cause harm.”
Terry Goodkind
Here are some of the worst (at least in my opinion) of good intentions gone wrong.
- Edit, edit and edit again! This is my number one gripe!
Editing is important, probably one of the most important things a writer must do to their finished book. However, there are sites that suggest that the first edited draft, second edited draft, or even 3600th edited draft cannot be accepted as ready, there is always room for improvement.
If so, how will a writer ever know if their book is finished?
For me, this piece of advice is the number one culprit for stopping self-publishing dreams in their tracks. It nearly stopped mine and I had already published a book. Why? Because a book is a writers personal expression to the world. It is something so deep and personal, wholly created by us, that we have doubts about its completeness, every time we read a few lines. The questions and the doubts slip in, what if… But at some point it has to be good enough, only the writer can decide when and then find an editor who can help polish it to perfection. The editing process doesn’t have to stop with the writer. A writer doesn’t have to be the only one to check it over and continually edit the document. When it is the best it can be, hand it over to an editor, to finish it.
Following neatly on from editing:
2. Perfect spelling, punctuation, grammar and sentence construction. It is often said that the writer plays continually with their words and their placement in a sentence; adding and removing words until they are perfect.
However, if a writer continually ‘played’ around with every single sentence, it would take years to write one book. If you can write, but you are not perfect at punctuation, spelling or grammar, then just invest in a fantastic editor who will give the book a full edit. I am not able to use grammar or punctuation correctly every time (you have probably noticed, if you have read many of these unedited blog posts) but, I do not let that stop me.
I did the best I could, the best I could do and then? I paid for a full editing service.
I learnt from the editor so that the next book, and then the next book after that, had less grammatical errors to sort out. A good editor can teach a writer a lot about how a book is put together, formatted and their common mistakes.
3. Get a support network, such as beta readers, writing partners, online support groups, or a local writing group.
But, you may be surprised to know, it is not a necessity. If you don’t have access to any of these groups don’t worry about it. Amazingly, I did not know any other writers, I did not know which groups would be beneficial for me to join. I had no one reading in my genre that I could ask to read my book. Did I let that stop me? No. There will be adverts online, encouraging you to sign up to online support courses or paid for services that can help you to become a successful writer. If you join, they will not stop emailing you about what they are doing.
They can be helpful, but they are a distraction to what you should actually be doing: spending time on your own writing.
It is not necessary to be involved in group activities or giving feedback to others, when you could actually be writing your own story. This is especially the case when your time is at a premium.
4. Expand your knowledge. Listen to podcasts, follow publishing blogs, read articles about writing, follow your favourite authors.
But, it is important to decide how much of your writing time allocation you can give up to these things, because it is information overload, for your writing mind. It can be helpful, there are nuggets of pure gold, but a lot of it can chip away at your confidence or raise doubts. Experts talk with practised skill about their writing process and unfortunately for most of us, there is just no way to emulate their behaviours. There are the many success stories, the endless pieces of unreachable good advice and many of it will be contrary, leaving your head spinning: which route should you follow?
Better make your own path, with the resources that you have around you: for your own creative writing journey.
Rope in the experts when help is needed, and yes that will mean paying for it, before you make a single penny.
5. The gimmicks. Online sites that promise you can push out a novel in one month. Sounds too good to be true? It probably is! What about the quality, the reflection time, the editing? The online adverts, that promise a course, that can help you be a better writer with minimum input. These gimmicks are unrealistic.
Writing is a long hard slog, there is no short cut.
Your money would be better spent on editing or marketing than these gimmicks.
As I researched this blog post, I read many articles about writing, some are really simple and helpful, but others… they make my blood boil. We just don’t need that kind of comparison in our lives. We don’t need the added pressure or stress of what we ‘should’ be doing.
My good advice:
Only search for specific advice when needed, don’t just randomly search online with words such as: ‘advice for new writers,’ it is overwhelming. The online advice will make you doubt yourself and allow you to faulter, because some articles lead you to believe that they have the answers and if you don’t do them all, then everyone is doing it better than you.
It is not true.
There is no easy fix, successful writers become just that, through hard work and determination. They made mistakes. They learnt from those and carried on, they didn’t give up. They probably didn’t listen to all the good advice, but cherry picked what was helpful to them. I imagine that they stayed true to their writing and never gave up that belief.
The people who wrote these articles:
They didn’t know what the hell they were doing either, when they started writing. This good advice is from years of practise and mistakes, till they found out what worked for them. The companies that write articles have shared generic advice, through research which have shown on most occasions to work. But, get this, everyone is different, circumstances, time, place, responsibilities.
If you want to write, you will write, because you will find the time. If you want to publish you will publish because nothing will stop you. If you want to be a successful writer, you will find a way.
But it will not happen overnight, like with writing, it is a long, time consuming journey. You have to love it, to want to do it.
It is easy to follow the crowd, follow the experts, allow the self-doubt to seep in when reading these types of articles with a seemingly endless to do list of good advice. Do what is right for you, listen to your heart, if you decide you need to rewrite sections of your book, for the tenth time, because you don’t think it is exactly what you want to read, then do it, but don’t start pulling your book apart or start doing things a different way just because someone else (an online expert/article) told you, you should. Don’t allow the good advice to distract you from your course of action, from writing and publishing your own work.
Find your own formula that works. Everyone is different, this story is your creation, your work, your magic, it comes from deep inside you. No one can tell you how that is meant to sound or how you are meant to share it with the world, only you can do that.
And finally…
I would advise to not even look at the internet for support in the first few months of writing. Instead, if you need to, complete some kind of writing course, whether online or at school which teaches the basics of creative writing and then just go for it.
Just do what you can, however you can, whenever you can.