The Best Writing Advice Ever

What is the best writing advice? I'm often asked this question and, while one piece of advice is never the ultimate golden nugget guaranteed to work for every single writer on the planet, I will always repeat advice given to me:

"Keep writing and don't give up."

If you do keep writing and striving to improve, then you will:

Gain confidence. The more you write, the more comfortable you'll become writing. With this comfort, comes confidence.

Discover your voice. If you keep writing, then you'll find your own voice, rather than borrowing the voice of a favourite author. Your uniqueness will naturally begin to shine.

Master the theory. There's only so much theory one can read about. You have to put it into practice to truly understand it. Some people suggest, once you've written a million words, then you start to 'get it'. This number is not an absolute, of course. Some writers need more, some less. But it takes time and this means never giving up.

Find freedom. If you keep writing, then you'll find the freedom you need to try different things, explore concepts you wouldn't normally explore. You'll become less precious over your every word and you'll stop overthinking every sentence.

Maintain sanity. It's sheer insanity for a writer to give up writing. I know; I tried it once. Not smart. The stories crying out to be written don't go away. The characters begging to be born don't suddenly vanish. The need for creative expression doesn't dry up. Sure, they might hide in the background for a while, but they come out in other ways, such as grumpiness, distraction, and a growing dissatisfaction with life.

Consequently, my heartfelt advice to all writers, new and established: Keep writing and don't give up.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Why Bad Reviews Don't Bother Me and Shouldn't Bother You

Because I throw everything I have into my stories and my writing means so much to me, I thought I'd have an exceptionally hard time when it came to reviews. I expected my heart to rip in two at any slightly negative comment coming my way. Certain I'd lose sleep for days, I readied my emergency stash of chocolate.

Instead I found myself totally fine with the whole process. Sure, I won't deny the initial sting when I found someone who didn't like one of my stories, but I got over it pretty fast--way faster than I ever could've guessed. Surprise made me work out the reason for my duck's back reaction and I thought I'd share why bad reviews don't bother me and shouldn't bother you.

Confidence in the story. If I'm not completely happy with my story, I won't put it out into the public forum. To have the confidence to put it out there, I first need to make sure it's the best it can be--by sending it to critique partners and beta readers, using the expertise of professional editors, and listening to their advice. Let's not forget the benefits of learning the craft, attending workshops and conferences to develop the craft, and writing more than just one story. If I like my story, then it won't matter as much what other people think.

We can't please everyone. It's often just a matter of finding your audience. Often reviews come from readers who picked up the book for free and who would not have normally read a story in that genre. I can shake them off because it's not personal, whether the reviewer tries to make it personal or not. Not every story will suit the same audience either.

Bad reviews validate good reviews. When I check a novel's reviews before I buy and it only has glowing five star ratings, I'll skip the book because this tells me only the author's friends and family have given a review. I no longer trust the good reviews. Every book gets some bad reviews. It's inevitable and it's needed for a balanced representation of the novel.

We can learn from bad reviews. Some less than shining reviews can be truly helpful through the constructive criticism they offer. Rather than getting upset, or dismissing them in a huff, it's worth rereading them to see if something can be learned from them.

Not all reviews are honest. I find it difficult to get upset over a review that was written out of spite, a need to knock down the competition, or a general grumpiness due to quitting caffeine the day before. Because most readers of reviews can spot these types, they bear little weight. They tend to reflect more poorly on the reviewer than the story being reviewed. Whatever a person's motivation behind writing a bad review, if it's not an honest review, then it can easily be dismissed. Perhaps a small chocolate can help wash away the negativity.

Getting upset dulls the shine. It's just not worth wasting our precious time getting upset over the little things. Yes, bad reviews count as the little things. If you're being reviewed, that means you're published. Celebrate that instead.

How do you handle--or think you'll handle--bad reviews? 

Ways to Become an Insecure Writer

Start Querying:

• Don't write anything while waiting for a response.
• Check your email every five minutes.
• Question everything you've written in the manuscript, the query letter and everything else you've written over the expanse of your entire life.
• Take the first form letter rejection to mean your work is no good and must be tweaked, or better yet, tossed.

Read only the bad reviews:

• Read those bad reviews just before going to bed at night. 
• And again first thing after waking up in the morning.
• Check every five minutes for the number of sales, likes, and reviews. If they haven't gone up since the last time you checked, then that means you're a failure.
• Ignore the good reviews, because really, what do those reviewers know?

Compare your work to others:

• Compare your first draft to a polished classic.
• Strive to write like your favourite authors, even if it means sacrificing your own voice and story.
• Expect your work to become an overnight success, just like the Greats.

Measure your success by others:

• Choose the big names like J K Rowling or Stephen King.
• Or choose one of those authors who claim they got an agent on their first manuscript, which took them only a month to write, during a snow storm, using nothing but crayons on tissue paper.

Keep yourself in isolation:

• Don't join supportive writing groups, such as The Insecure Writers' Support Group. Those kinds of groups will only give you encouragement and before you know it, you'll no longer be insecure.

Can you think of other ways to become an insecure writer? Which way works best for you?

--

If you haven't guessed already, this post was written for the Insecure Writers' Support Group, founded by Alex J Cavanaugh. Members of this group post on the first Wednesday of every month. I'm posting a tad early because I like to be a rebel.

#IWSG


T F Walsh tagged me last week in a LOOK challenge where I'm supposed to post a portion of my WIP containing the word look. Continuing the rebel theme, I've instead written a classy sentence for this challenge: Bob looked lonesome as he looked out from the lookout overlooking Look Bay.
Feel free to improve on that sentence.


.

5 Reasons to Embrace the Genius Within

After reading some of the comments from my previous post about why we should shed the genius within, I thought it was important to write a follow up post on why we should also embrace the genius within. In truth, it's about finding the balance between the two.

Below are my reasons for also embracing the genius within and finding that balance:

1. To guard against the doubts. It's easy for us writers to think our talent isn't so fabulous, especially when we compare our work to the polished pieces sitting on our bookshelves. When a novel is well written, it appears effortless. We think, 'I can do that!' only to discover, it's not so easy and there's far more effort involved than we thought. Doubts begin to set in. Those doubts can cause us to quit too early. If we embrace the genius within, then we can know we can get through the days when the doubts speak loudest. We can know we are good enough if we keep striving.

2. To keep the passion alive. To ride the rollercoaster to publication, I believe we must nurture passion for our work and slog on regardless of what the inner voices say about it, regardless of what reviewers say about it, regardless of what family members might think about it. It's the passion that keeps the hope alive, that drives us forward, that helps us to persevere. 

3. To have the courage to share our work. If we never think our work is good enough then we'll never get a second opinion. We'll hide away our writing so that no one ever gets to read it. That, I think, would be a tragedy. Part of the joy of writing is sharing it with others. 

4. To know that anything can be fixed. Often when we're writing a first draft we think we've come up with the best concept in the world and we fall in love with our characters. It's when we sink ourselves into the revisions, when we question everything we're just written, that the task becomes daunting. We realise we don't have a masterpiece. This is when it's important to both shed and embrace the genius. Shed, because we have to find the faults. Embrace, because we have to know we can fix the draft and turn it into something special. 

5. To gain confidence and a clear perspective. I don't think anyone's work lacks potential. I don't think natural talent is a prerequisite to publication. I do think perseverance and hard work are key. If we're too busy trying to avoid over confidence, then we'll swing the other way and hate our work. We'll believe the lies about not being good enough. To gain a clearer perspective I think we should accept that maybe, just maybe, we have enough genius within us to do what it takes to achieve our dreams.

In summary, find your passion and love your work. Take satisfaction in the hard slog because deep down you know it will be worth it in the end because you'll be able to take pride in the words you've produced.

Do you lean one way more than the other when it comes to confidence? What do you do to keep a balance in the way you approach your writing life?
--

Thanks so much to Shah from Words in Sync for the One Lovely Blog Award. It is hugely appreciated.

Pic: I just wanted to share with you the grandness of almost seeing a lunar eclipse. That's pretty much all I got to see of it on Saturday due to clouds.  

Confidence: A Key Element of Writing

I am back from the Sydney Writers’ Festival. It was a truly fantastic experience and I met so many wonderful people. I attended workshops, listened to discussion panels, volunteered as a helper and soaked in the amazing atmosphere.

The one piece of advice that stood out above the rest during the festival was that as writers we must have confidence.

How can we sell our work if we don’t believe in it?
How can we negotiate contracts if we don’t think we are worth it?
How can we find our unique voice, if we aren’t brave enough to write from that hidden place within us?
How will we ever succeed in publication if we think it’s not possible?
How can we brave the criticisms of editors, book reviewers and the general public if we listen to our doubts?
How can we even finish a book if we think it will go nowhere?

This is why we need confidence -- so that nothing can hold us back.

After you've been shaken, what are the things that make you feel confident again as a writer? 

--
I’ll write in more detail about the festival in posts to come. Right now, I'm still recovering (lol) plus I haven't written for a week and I'm eager to get back to my manuscript. I'm inspired!

Also forgot to mention this blog turned one year old during the festival! YAY!