I wish I'd been one of those writers who knew everything when they first put fingers to keyboard and typed Chapter One of their debut novel. Unfortunately for me, writing has been a learning process. A loooooooong learning process.
It's not that way for everyone, and honestly, I didn't think it would be that way for me. I consider myself to be a smart, mature, educated woman. I have a bachelor's degree in science and a master's in education. I've always been a good writer and a voracious reader, and heck, I even taught junior high reading one term (when I was forced). So when I decided to sit down and write my very first book, I thought, no big deal. I can do this.
I had no idea how clueless I really was.
It took me almost four years to get to the point I am now where I finally feel like I have a handle on the craft aspect of writing, two years of searching to find an agent who loves my work, five manuscripts before I discovered my voice, and I-don't-know-how-long before I sell my first book. Most of you (hopefully) will "get there" in much less time than it's taken me. But if not, in case you're finding writing isn't quite as easy as you thought it would be, I'm going to share the things I wish I'd known before I ever started. If I had, maybe the learning curve wouldn't have been so long.
The Things I Wish I'd Known When I First Started Writing
1. Voice - Your voice is unique to YOUR writing. It's what makes your stories different from everyone elses. Don't fight your voice. Don't try to make it sound like Nora Roberts or Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Jennifer Crusie. Write with YOUR voice and don't be afraid of it.
2. POV - Write in one POV per scene until you get the hang of how it works. I didn't. For a long time. In fact, I fought this whole one-scene POV thing with tooth and nail (and fingernails and toenails and incisors...well, you get the picture). Other successful writers swap back and forth, so why can't I? One reason - they know what the hell they're doing, and when they switch, it's done for a very good reason. When I stopped swapping POV, my writing got better, my characters got deeper, my scenes flowed easier. When you've got it, when you know how to do it well, by all means, swap POV to your heart's content. Until then stick with one per scene.
3. Commas - Learn how to use a comma. Go to an online tutorial (like Using Commas by Purdue University's Online Writing Lab) and learn when to use one and when not to use one. Nothing slows down a read like a comma in the wrong spot or an author who doesn't have a clue how to use one.
4. Misplaced Modifiers - This one took me a long time to learn. Thankfully, my English teacher CP was patient with me. Misplaced modifiers are descriptive words or phrases that are placed far away from the word they're supposed to be modifying. Here's an example:
Misplaced: Walking through the park, the grass tickled my feet.
Sounds like the grass is walking. That's a misplaced modifier.
Correct: Walking through the park, I felt the grass tickle my feet.
5. Clauses - Starting too many sentences with clauses, especially in close proximity, overwhelms readers. It's one of the things I highlight most when I'm critiquing. Keep your sentence structures varied in length and style. Don't start them all the same.
6. Verb Tense - Watch carefully to make sure you aren't mixing verb tenses in the same sentence, especially -ing and -ed verbs.
7. Rules - Hang out on any of the loops and you'll quickly learn the rules to writing romance. I'm convinced they were started by a few contest judges who wanted people to write the way they did. Their responses spread like wildfire along the contest circuit until we reached the point we're at now where we all know what they are. (Things like - never use a prologue or an epilogue; stay in one POV; avoid the word was; never use -ly adverbs, etc.) I'm not telling you to ignore the rules. On the contrary, pay attention to them. Some are good and worth using. But by all means, don't follow them to the letter. Know when to break the rules to make your story stronger. And remember there's no one way to do something right. For every writer who followed the rules and sold, there's another who broke them and sold anyway.
And finally, the last thing I wish I'd known way back when...
8. Rejection - Rejection is a good thing. Yeah, it hurts. And yeah, it sucks, but it's a stepping stone to get you where you want to be. If you aren't subbing and consequently getting R's, then you aren't putting yourself out there. And if you aren't putting yourself out there, you'll never make a sale. Sometimes there's even good stuff in those rejection letters that helps you hone your craft. Be objective when reading those rejections, feel crappy for 24 hours - you're allowed (but no longer) - and then send out five more queries. Persistence pays off.
That's it. Eight things I wish I'd known four years ago. Anyone care to add to the list? What things do you wish you'd known when you first started?
4 comments:
I wish someone would have given me a list like this! LOL
Starting out can be daunting and it does take a while for all that you need to know to sink in - and it takes more than one book to get published. As Elisabeth said, you have to find your voice and that most likely won't happen in your first book. Or your second or third. Sometimes it takes a few and learning more along the way. I just learned some interesting things this weekend, that I'll blog about tomorrow, that I plan to incorporate in the book that was requested this weekend.
Can't wait to hear what you learned at Emerald City, Paty!
You're right. A lot of times everything doesn't come together in that first book - plot, characterization, craft, voice. However, there are the exceptions. There are writers out there who have sold their first manuscripts (Jacey Burton comes to mind). So for anyone who's just starting out, take heart. It CAN happen, but you have to make it happen. Knowing as much as you can ahead of time will make it that much easier for you.
Unfortunately for me, my first manuscript has so many things wrong with it, it's way beyond fixable. The bright spot though is that it, like everything else I've done, has been a stepping stone for me. And I wouldn't go back and change that for the world. I've learned too much along the way.
Yep, Eli, great list. I wish I'd had a copy of it a few years back too.
You've come a long way baby! We're proud of you, you're an excellent writer, and all of us are just waiting to hear your publication date announced any day now.
Back to the list, I was thinking about it, and you could also write the example sentence you used as:
"The grass tickled my feet as I walked through the park" to get rid of the word "felt", which is on the no-no list of words when writing in first person. The rules never end, do they? And you are right, bend them, heed them, ignore them, whatever works for you and your story.
I remember in school, when it was a serious no-no to start a sentence with "but" or "and"?
Pish. No big deal now. Even in journalism.
Danita, I love starting sentences with And and But. I do it all the time. I once had a contest judge go through and put big red marks through all my sentences that started with And. (She was an unpublished judge, wouldn't you know it. The published judge wrote on the top of the ms: why aren't you published yet?) Consequently, my agent did not say one single thing about the sentences I started with And and But. Go figure.
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