My next prompt responce is to this. “I want you to write a post giving your very, very best writing advice. Pretend you’re speaking to the writers of tomorrow, or your younger self… or whatever you need to do. Put a lot of thought into it, and make it more than a few sentences!” From Ego’s blog challange wich can be found here.
I’ve never felt like I was the person to give writing advice. If I had to give advice to my younger self though this is what I’d say.
Don’t worry about making it perfect or doing it the “wrong way” if you do this you will never get it done or possibly never start. Just write and get the words out, you can do it I believe in you. The most important thing about writing is actually writing if you don’t do that you might not be getting anything done. Don’t get stuck in creating the perfect setting or let it take a decade to world build, have fun world-building, but remember writing is your ultimate goal.
I tended to get tunnel vision on my mistakes and this would slow down my writing because I felt it had to be perfect. My solution was to write everything first and edit second, I know not everyone can do this but it works for me. If I set my editing brain aside until I was done I could actually write uninterrupted and get stuff done. Things began to flow better and I have been able to complete projects.
Get critiqued and listen to what the person says. They most likely aren’t attacking you or your work and are trying to help you get better. Once I could get this and understand critique it has helped me grow more as a writer than anything else. Advice form other writers or even avid readers can be an untapped treasure. I had a story that the tone was completely off and gave off vibes that were not my intent, without my friend’s valuable critique I never would have noticed the problem and been able to fix it. I am now rewriting that story and fixing the flaws. I feel much more confident about the work now than I did before. Critique can be hard to hear, but ultimately it is worth it.
Something I used to fear was the saying that everything has been done before and there are no new ideas. I have found this to be the most unhelpful thought and to ultimately untrue. You put your own unique spin on what you write an that’s what makes it interesting. Sure there are similar ideas and tropes, but so long as you try to put your own original spin on it and it’s your own idea you should be good. Now if you’re copying a story one for one and just changing the main character that’s very bad and not at all what I’m saying. You don’t want to steal someone else’s work. It’s okay to be inspired by something, but don’t rip it off.
Step out of your comfort zone. You won’t grow as a writer if you don’t try something new once in a while. Heck who knows you might even love what you try. Every so often I will write something that has an aspect I am unfamiliar with. Main characters that are beastmen, a desert fantasy story, or something else. Try it, it can be fun and will ultimately help you grow as a writer.
Keep your goals in sight. If you have a plan to achieve your goals you will strive for it. This is what I’m working on right now. I’m creating a timeline for my goals and trying to figure out what I need to do by when to get Chaos Cross ready to be published then turned into a graphic novel. That is my ultimate dream and it excites me to think about it and strive for it.
This is all the advice I can think of that I’d give myself if I could talk to my past self. Take it with a grain of salt, it’s what works for me not for everyone we are all different. I hope you got something useful out of this.
Best wishes,
Zoya
