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Technique, Writing Life

10 tips to become a better writer

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Becoming a better writer

Is becoming a better writer on your list of New Year’s Resolutions? (No? Want to go add it really quickly? I’ll wait.)

That’s a pretty lofty goal. And like most goals, it’s kind of impossible to achieve without breaking it down into individual steps. Here are a few.

Begin with a benchmark

Pull up a file of something you’ve written recently (first draft or completed project). Save a copy of it in a specific place: your email, online backup, Google Drive, etc. Add a reminder to your calendar on December 31, 2014, to read the file (and include where you put it!). We’ll come back to this.

Quick tip: don’t use a document you’re planning on publishing in that exact form in 2014, unless you like exercises in futility and frustration.

Identify areas you can improve

Most of us are acutely aware of our own weaknesses. What skills do you want to work on?

  • Plotting
  • Writing faster/slower
  • Specific areas: dialogue, description, backstory, voice, character arcs, etc.
  • Structural macro-editing
  • Line editing
  • Critiquing others’ work (or maybe your own!)
  • Publishing workflow
  • Connecting with a community
  • Marketing

Take a class

When you know what skills you want to improve, find a class to help you. You can look at writers conferences in your area or online, or you can seek out classes through websites. I highly recommend Margie Lawson’s classes, but there are dozens of websites and email lists that offer fantastic resources. (As always, do your research before you pay anybody for a class online!)

Find a critique group, partner or mentor

If you don’t already have a trusty group of critique partners, this will probably be the #1 thing to move your writing forward in 2014. If you’re not quite ready to share your work with other writers for critique, then perhaps seek out a mentor to help foster and improve your writing: maybe not even someone who’s published, but someone who you trust and respect. And ask nicely 😉

Read a craft book

Head over to Amazon or your local library and pick up a book on writing craft. Explore another genre, borrow techniques from another medium (screenwriting books rock), or focus on a particular technique (like, say, Character Arcs?), even research a topic or location—no matter what you look at, you’re guaranteed to learn something!

Read a novel

I do focus so much on my own writing and critiquing that I don’t have as much time for reading as I would like. But every time I take the time to read, I always wonder why I don’t do this more often 😉 . Still, reading novels not only refills my creative wells and gives me new ideas, but—because I can’t turn off my internal editor while reading—it also helps me improve my craft, looking at how the story elements affect me as a reader and how they’re executed, and how I can emulate or improve upon those techniques.

That actually sounds horrible and boring. But it’s not.

Practice

All that training and preparation doesn’t do you much good if you don’t take the time to put it into action. WRITE SOMETHING NEW and apply the skills you’ve learned.

Try something new

If you followed my series about my first ten novels, you’ll see that with every novel, I shared the lessons I learned, either in craft or career. And they usually include “this was the first time . . . ”

I have to explore new themes and techniques in my work, or I lose interest. But doing that is also one of the best ways to continue to grow your craft. So try writing from a POV you don’t normally use—first, third, omniscient, etc. Try a new tense. Take a new genre for a test ride. Do something different—challenge yourself and see how much you grow!

Let go of perfectionism

Can you actually get better if you let go of striving to be perfect? Yes, if perfectionism is keeping you from moving forward. Whether it’s silencing the inner editor while you draft, moving past your insecurities to query or publish your work, or obsessing over someone else’s awesomeness and deriding yourself—stop.

Let go of fear

Uh, yeah. I have four small kids, so I never, ever see movies in the theatre (hate paying for tickets, hate paying for food, hate having to leave my house…). However, I have four small children, so I have an excuse to see every Disney film in the theatres. If you haven’t seen Frozen yet, it’s pretty wonderful.

One of my favorite parts happens after newly crowned Queen Elsa accidentally reveals her magical powers (manipulating ice and snow), after hiding them for many years. She runs away and gains perspective about her fears and her powers, and sings an awesome song, and has some pretty awesome graphics to go with it:


If fear is holding you back, LET IT GO and create something wonderful

(It was nominated for a Golden Globe, so yeah.)

If fear is holding you back, let it go and create something wonderful. [Tweet this!]

Check back

At the end of 2014, take another example of your most recent writing: whether that’s the polished version of the file you picked out at the end of 2013 or a different piece (though I would suggest not comparing a 2013 finished product to a 2014 first draft). Read through all or part of your 2013 file and your 2014 file. What would you change about your 2013 file? Is it better or worse than you thought?

What do you think? How have you become a better writer? How will you work to improve in 2014? Would you like monthly challenges & assessments here to work on becoming a better writer?

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Technique

Finding your weaknesses

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Becoming a better writer

When we first start writing, we often have . . . well, delusions of grandeur, to put it gently. We think our prose is the most mind-blowing thing to happen to books since Gutenberg.

Yeeeah, probably not. And that’s okay. When you’re first starting out, you often need that kind of enthusiasm and even pride to get going. It has its place—but it’s only useful if you can get past it.

WEAKDiscovering that you’re not, actually, the next Shakespeare is the first step. Once you really want to improve, you have to figure out where you need to work on next. Assessing your own weaknesses can be a challenge, but it’s an important part of becoming a better writer.

Reading

A writer should be a reader. Can you imagine a premiere chef who ate the same dinner—spaghettios and bagged salad—every night? That sounds ridiculous! We all recognize that a chef must cultivate his or her palate.

Reading functions a lot like eating for writers, and not just that we might die without either of them 😉 . There are other good reasons—you can identify tropes, trends and clichés;s, you can tell what you like and don’t in techniques, you can get great ideas. But possibly the most important reason a writer needs to read is to cultivate a literary “palate.”

We must learn to recognize good, “strong” writing and storytelling. At the very least, this is what I described on Janice Hardy’s blog last month as “technically solid writing that engages your emotions, tells a well-structured story, and doesn’t get in the way of connecting with the characters.” To understand this, you need to see good writing in action.

Another bonus: filling your head with other characters and plot lines and words can help to move your words out of the short- and medium-term memory banks, giving you fresh eyes for your own words again.

Time

First and foremost, you need to take time away from your writing. I know I often need to forget parts of a story, or the aspects of a character, or the individual words and sentences I crafted to create that story before I can look at them objectively. Some writers recommend weeks away from a story; others say months.

The exact time limit depends on you, and how well you already know your story. If you pounded it out in a matter of days (no judgments there!), and set it aside for two weeks, that might already be long enough. If you labored over it for six months, I’m guessing there may be some pieces in there you’ve already forgotten, but a good rest of a couple months or more will help give you fresh eyes.

Longer than six months drafting? Get started on your next draft and come back to this one when you’re done.

Eventually, with practice, you might learn to be less attached to your plot lines and characters, and you can judge their weaknesses more quickly.

Outside eyes

Possibly the biggest help would have to be good beta readers and critique partners. As far more impartial readers who want to help you make your story better (we hope), they have a vested interest in helping you eliminate all the weaknesses. They aren’t as attached to your story and your characters, so they are better at identifying places that don’t do much to move the story forward—the parts where their attention starts wandering. (Also helpful: the parts where they don’t know what you’re talking about.)

More writing

I love this example author Michelle Davidson Argyle shared here last year. Once, early in her career, her skill level seemed to be stagnant, despite working hard to improve and edit her work. Eventually, she decided to write a new manuscript, and she realized that was exactly what she needed to do to get better. She concluded (emphasis mine):

I’ve found that the more novels I complete, the more I learn and the better I get. The longer I spend on one novel doesn’t seem to get me nearly as far. I am not expanding my mind to different ways of thinking, different characters, different viewpoints, and different ways of experimenting with structure and telling a story. For me, at least, only new projects have been able to do that.

Amen!

An objective, complete read

Once I’ve taken the time to regain some objectivity, finally, one of the most important editing techniques I use is to give a draft—and hopefully each draft—an objective (you know, kinda), complete read, from start to finish.

This may work a bit differently for you, but when I do this, I also forbid myself to change things as I read. I’m allowed to fix typos and make notes (comments in Word), but I’m not allowed to get bogged down in fixing a problem I see right now. I make a note of it and move on, keeping up the momentum so I can get a better view of the manuscript as a whole.

As you read, you’ll begin to notice patterns—in your writing, in your critique partners’ comments. Do you tell and then show, or vice versa? Do you tend to use summary to move things along? Do you have characters that sound the same? Do your emotions need more depth, your plot need more twists, your characters need more conflict and growth? Where does your writing fall short of what you’ve learned is “good” from cultivating your palate?

You found a weakness. Now you know where to grow!

Check out my tips to becoming a better writer—and be sure to join my email newsletter, where we’ll take this tip to the next level this week!

Photo credit: Brooke Novak

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Writing Life

Give yourself permission to write!

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This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Becoming a better writer

It’s my first-ever vlog!

Writing may take time away from your family, friends and other pursuits. If you’re struggling with guilt over devoting time to writing, this is for you!

The notes I spoke from (not really a transcript, but good enough to get the gist)

Recently, I had a lot of family in town, and we were talking about writing. The conversation turned to a friend who was a writer as well as the primary breadwinner for his family. I confirmed that most writers don’t make enough money to quit a day job, so essentially this guy was working two jobs, one to feed his family, and one to feed his soul.

All of us sacrifice something to make the time to write, whether that’s time with our family and friends, sleep, other hobbies, entertainment, recreation, or even cleaning. (guilty) Sometimes these sacrifices make us feel like we’re abandoning our responsibilities. We even feel guilty.

I stay at home with my four children, and squeeze in working around their schedules. Sometimes I my schedule is extra demanding, and I’m not as engaged with my children as I feel like I should be. I feel this guilt, too.

But I also feel it’s really important to do what I said earlier, and feed my soul. Writing helps me feel happier. It’s a creative outlet, and it’s part of who I am.

Accepting that has made finding “balance” in my life so much easier. I’m a better friend and a better wife and a better mother when I do take this time to refuel, to do something for myself, to pursue a passion. When I give myself permission to focus on taking care of myself sometimes, to set aside some time for writing, I’m a happier person, and I’m better able to fulfill my other roles and responsibilities.

Conclusion

But fretting over what I “should” and “shouldn’t” do has only hindered me and hampered me with guilt, making it harder to write and to be happy when I’m not writing.

I’m a writer, and writers write. I can still have relationships and a life, but I need my writing time to make all of those things more fulfilling. Give yourself permission to write, to make sacrifices to write, and banish the guilt.

Be sure to join my email newsletter by Wednesday, March 12, for more about giving yourself permission to write!

I’ve wanted to try vlogging for a while, but I probably won’t give it another go until I can find a way to minimize the buzz from my computer’s fan.

What do you think? Have you given yourself permission to write?

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Technique

Becoming a better writer: read a craft book

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Becoming a better writer

I. Love. Books. I assume most writers do! I especially love to read books on the craft of writing. Studying these books always helps to up my craft, even if the specifics aren’t geared toward me, and there are lots of amazing books out there on screenwriting, storytelling, the life of a writer, and more, as well as specific aspects to hone your craft.

Here are some of the great craft books that I’ve read (affiliate links):

Story Engineering by Larry Brooks Elements of Fiction Writing – Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques For Dramatic Storytelling by James N. Frey
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron
Write Great Fiction – Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

You could also try or . . . just sayin’.

This year, I’m reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and rereading Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge on my Kindle, and hopefully finding those awesome writing books that were somewhere in my TBR before I moved . . . hm….

What do you think? What are your favorite writing craft or writing life books? What will you read this year?

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!