The Single, Critical Key to Writing Better is Writing More

 

No doubt you're well aware (because I keep telling you) that I've been struggling to get my writing mojo back and to write as much as I used to.

Up until a year or two ago, I was quite a prolific writer, and I enjoyed it a lot. But somehow I lost it and all but gave up writing. Thankfully, I'm now a recovering non-writer, but it took a lot of figuring out as to what had gone wrong and how to fix it. Once I knew what the problem was, the fix was obvious and had been staring me right in the face the whole time. And, once I was honest with myself, I knew all along what I needed to do to get back to writing more and writing better.

The solution is to write. There are no shortcuts to writing, not even using AI. It takes time to write every day, so that is what I had to do, regardless of whether or not I felt like writing.

So I sat down and figured out a writing schedule. I can't remember exactly how I used to schedule my time, so I had to devise one from scratch. But what I do know is that I used to write for up to five hours a day, which may seem like a lot, but it's not for a full-time writer. And this is what's easy to miss. To write more, I have to have plenty of butt-in-chair time. If I had a full-time job, I'd have to work a lot more hours than that, and have to spend time in the evenings writing as well.

What I find is that the more time I spend in my chair, the more I write. And like anything we do, the more I do it, the better I get. Even sometimes when I think I'm not writing at my best, if I keep going and get it done. Usually, when I read it through later, it's actually pretty good.

Something I have learned is to write to please myself first. When I write to try to please my readers, I start to edit myself too much, and that never works out well.

And the truth is that no one knows whether readers will like what they write or not. No one knows how popular something is going to be. Writers don't know which books will be best sellers, musicians don't know which of their songs will be popular, and artists never know if others will like their work. Everyone has successes and flops.

That's why it's better to write for yourself because it's freeing and more enjoyable.Also, writing faster produces better writing (IMHO), because you can see in your writing how much you enjoyed doing it without your critical brain trying to stop you. 

You can't please everyone, so don't even try. Just enjoy writing, because if you don't enjoy what you do, it's not sustainable.

I used to sit and write for hours. I enjoyed it, and I wrote a lot. I didn't second-guess myself. I just wrote and loved doing it.

Somehow I lost my confidence, but I'm getting my mojo back so I can write more and write better.

Dorothea Brande talks about this in her book, "Becoming a Writer."  In it, she makes 3 clear points:

1. There's a huge difference between how to write and how to be a writer.

2. You'll struggle with your inner critic until you write a lot and then it will be silenced.

3. Your biggest critics are those who know you, so never tell them what you're going to write.

I never talk to anyone about what I'm writing. Not ever. They probably wouldn't care anyway.

If you talk too much about what you're going to write, there's also the problem of "a tale twice told" feeling like it's already done.

So just keep writing. It's the only thing that works.

Writing and Weight Loss Update

A few weeks ago, I told you about my plans to finish writing my current book and, at the same time, lose 6 kilos. You can see that post here. 

So the time was up last month, so how did I do?

My goal was to do it all in 12 weeks following The 12 Week Year. Having a deadline made it easy for me to map out how much I needed to write per day and how much weight I needed to lose each week. You can see where I talked about this here.

I can report that I did finish writing my manuscript, but I only lost 4 kilos by my deadline, and I have lost another kilo since then. The reason for the delay was that Dean and I took an unplanned two-week holiday two months ago. We both felt a bit fed up, and it had been ages since we took a break, so we chose where to go, which was Byron Bay in New South Wales, packed up and went. We also stopped at other places on the way there and back.

While we were gone, we were doing so much travelling that I didn't get time to write, even though I did take my writing things with me. I also found it hard to stick rigidly to my diet, due to eating out and cooking at the camp sites, which was simple and quick food, but probably too much fat and sugar.

We did, though, find one really good place to eat in Byron Bay, called Manna Haven. It was a cafe/restaurant owned by the Seventh Day Adventists, and it was all fresh, home-cooked food, and because it was all vegan, it had fewer calories. And it was all delicious, so we ate there more than once.

But the holiday, while good, threw me back a bit with my plans. Thankfully, I didn't put on any weight during our trip, but I didn't lose any either.

Using The 12-Week Year helped me immensely. At first I thought it was impossible to condense 12 months' plans into 12 weeks, but I was wrong.

It's a fascinating way to work and showed me just how much I'm actually capable of doing.

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The Final 10 Writing Tips From J A Konrath

 

Here are the final 10 writing tips in my writing quiver - for now. I hope you find them all helpful. The ebook I got them from, The Newbie's Guide to Publishing (Everything A Writer Needs To Know), is well worth the time it takes to read it, and it only costs a couple of dollars.

Here are the final 10 tips:

31. Read what’s currently selling, and come up with comparable ideas.

32. Show, don't tell. This means you don't need a one-paragraph description of a bedroom, a character's thoughts on everything, and for god's sake, don't put any backstory in the first chapter.

33. Always ask: “Does the story pull the reader in right away and then hold their interest?” In other words, does your story hook the reader?

34. Short stories pay poorly, but they’re extremely important for getting your name out there. Try to send out a few every month.

35. Talking about writing, reading about writing, taking writing classes, joining writing groups, discussing writing online, and attending writing conventions, are not substitutes for sitting down and actually writing. "Writers write."

36. Don’t be the writer who has ten projects going at once but never finishes any of them. Complete a project to the end.

37. Don’t be the writer who has a drawer full of finished manuscripts but no rejection slips because you never sent them to agents or editors. If you want to sell, you have to query.

38. Never listen to praise. Praise is like chocolate —we love to eat it up, but it isn't good for us. Being told something is good doesn't help you get better.

39. Know when to stop writing. There is ALWAYS something that can be fixed, edited, or told in a better way. To paraphrase Hemingway, writing is never completed, it is simply due.

40. Writing is a craft, and craft can be taught.

AND...

Because Joe Konrath is a funny as well as a helpful guy, here is a bit of bonus writing and publishing advice from him:

How to Become A Successful Crime Writer In Just Six Easy Steps:

Step #1: Read. 

Step #2: Outline.

Step #3: Write.

Step #4: Keep Writing.

Step #5: Edit.

Step #6: Sell It For A Lot Of Money.

And, as a famous cartoon pig once (actually way more than once) said:

That's all folks.

Another 10 More Writing Tips From J A Konrath

 

As promised last time, here are the penultimate 10 writing tips from J A Konrath.

21. If you feel blocked, pause and connect with your characters to determine what they are feeling, what they want, and what they should do next. This is known as how to "write from" emotion rather than "write for" emotion.

22. If you’re stuck, read what you wrote the day before. This can give you a launching point for the next scene.

23. Give yourself permission to write crap. “Spend too much time thinking, questioning, judging, dismissing, and second-guessing, and you’ll never get anything finished.” You can always fix things in the edit.

24. Questions keep the pages turning. The obvious question, ‘What happens next?’ is what both your characters and your readers should be thinking.

25. When you finish, put the writing away. A week is good. Two weeks is better. The longer you can stay away from it, the more you can forget what you wrote and approach it with fresh eyes.

26. We’re not writers. We’re rewriters. Nobody gets it right the first time. And even when you do sell it, you’ll be required to make even more changes. This is a business. Leave the ego at the door . . .  and be prepared to work hard if you want to make some money in this biz.

27. Research shouldn’t take the place of writing, but it is certainly required if you want to paint an accurate picture in your reader’s mind.

28. Read like a writer. Re-read passages from books you love and ask yourself, what is the author doing here that’s working so well? And if you see something that you think is bad, ask yourself, why is this bad? What could the author have done differently to make it work?

29. Ask, “What if?” Here’s one example. “What if someone cloned dinosaurs and planned to open a dinosaur theme park on a remote island?” (Jurassic Park).

30. Seek criticism, not praise. Knowing what’s wrong will help you improve.

More advice coming next time.