I did a bit of ‘writer math’ the other day and was shocked to discover that I’m two thirds of the way through my course at SFU!
How has the time gone so quickly? What have I been doing? Writing obviously.
But it made me realize that I’ve learnt so much about how to write. The practice of perseverance has featured heavily in my learning journey this year. I’ve carved out time to create new work, evaluate my coursemates’ writing and developed a host of skills that I didn’t have prior to joining The Writer’s Studio.
So this post is to share a bit of that all-consuming wisdom. I’ve summarised key advice that has drastically helped me through the writing process.
Writing is rewriting.
I’ve lost count of the number of panicked online posts from writers losing it because they’ve written thousands of words that are “useless”. Instead of seeing rewrites as a failure, see it as an opportunity to build on the foundation of the idea. There may be angles that you wouldn’t have thought of if you hadn’t ‘wasted’ time writing those paragraphs you no longer need.
Lock away your first draft
There’s no better feeling than powering through the first draft. The next step is to put it in a drawer somewhere, or save in the recesses of your google drive, and leave it for at least a month. By the time you return, you will have created enough distance to truly edit in an objective way.
Successful writers aren’t the ones with the best material, they are the ones that persevere
Not all published books are bad, just like not all published books are good. It’s creating a sustainable writing practice that works best for you and your lifestyle. If you can’t write everyday, don’t put that expectation on yourself. Look at the times and days where you can truly focus and work on your project.
Rules are meant to be broken
Sometimes colouring outside the lines creates a book that is truly amazing, unique and goes against the status quo. These are the books that find their way into reader hands and create interesting discourse around “what is good?”, “what is a novel?”, “who made the rule that I can’t start a sentence with an -ing word?”
Take risks and experiment
If you had told me last year that I would have written a complete science-fiction dystopian novella followed up by a short story in the vigilante thriller genre, I would have said you had the wrong writer.
But that is the point of finding your ‘niche’ and developing your voice and style. I had to explore genres that were completely unfamiliar to me and take risks with characters that not everyone would like. In turn, it’s made me a better writer and, dare I say, more empathetic?!?
Do what you will with this advice. Who knows, if these habits work for published folks, they might just work for you too.