Chances are you’re here because you want to write fiction. Maybe you have all these ideas for stories in your head (or one great one) that you’d like to explore. Maybe you love reading fiction and want to see if you can craft it yourself. Maybe you’re swirling with creative energy and you need an outlet for it or you’ll die in withering anguish.
Whatever the reason, I’m excited for you! If you ask me, creative writing is an adventure like no other. There’s hardly anything in my life that brings me greater joy than writing stories. I still remember the thrill when I first started many years ago. And now you’re in the same boat. I’m so proud of you that I could cry.
But like any good parent watching their child brave something new and exciting, I want to give you a word of warning. The writer’s path is not easy. Of course, it depends on what you want to achieve with your writing. If you just want to write for your own personal enjoyment, and maybe share your work with a few friends and family, then don’t sweat it; you can be as mediocre as you like!
But if you’re serious about becoming the best writer you can and creating impactful stories, then it’s important to know that writing stories well comes with a steep learning curve.
Fret not! That’s what this blog is all about. I’m here to share the knowledge I’ve gained from nearly fifteen years of writing fiction. I’m going to tell you things I wish I’d known as a new writer.
I’ll help you avoid mistakes and adopt strategies and techniques that’ll make that learning curve a little smoother. But always keep in mind that writing fiction is a craft. You don’t become a master painter after filling one canvas. You don’t become a remarkable musician after learning a handful of chords. Just like any other craft, writing takes discipline, commitment, and practice. And it takes failure too, so you can learn how to do things better next time.
New writers are often intimidated and don’t know where to start. There are so many things to consider before putting pen to paper (or finger to key?), and they get completely paralyzed by the fear that whatever they write will be absolute crap. Here’s the good news: it probably will be!
Er…that came out wrong. I meant that the good news is that all writers, even the most accomplished ones, constantly make mistakes. As cliché as it sounds, it’s the mistakes that lead to the best opportunities for growth.
“But where do I even start?” you might ask. Well, I’ve compiled 5 convenient tips for the beginning writer. These are general ideas, meant to guide you through the process of constructing your first story without introducing you to a lot of jargon or craft knowledge…yet. And I’d argue that the first tip is the most important one, which is…
- Get Out of Your Head and Write Something!
Do I really need to say it again? Please just write something. It doesn’t matter if it’s trash. 93.5% of first-time stories are. I just made that statistic up, but I stand by it. The truth is you’ll probably encounter this advice over and over again throughout your journey of becoming a better writer. You might even say it’s overused. But it’s also
Very. Freakin’. Important.
Do you have all these ideas in your head, but you just don’t know how to organize them? Have you thought a great deal about the kind of story you want to tell, but you just can’t seem to figure out how to get it off the ground? Do you agonize over the details of characters, plot, worldbuilding, setting, and so on? Are you hesitant to begin your story because you don’t have all your pieces fully developed or aligned?
You, my friend, are suffering a bad case of perfectionism. In the craft of writing, perfectionism is a horrible monster that stunts your growth. So, how do you overcome it?
Start writing. Simple as that. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have all your pieces in place. It doesn’t even matter if you know anything about what you’re going to write. The key is that you’re putting words on the page.
Before you accuse me of giving glib advice, look at this way: all artists must practice their craft by doing their craft. Painters and musicians grow in their abilities through practice and active learning. It doesn’t do them any good to keep their projects locked in their heads until they feel ready to execute them perfectly. It doesn’t work like that. And it won’t for you either.
So, get out of your head and write something. Recognize that whatever you write won’t be perfect. Growth is part of the process. Have confidence knowing that with every sentence you write you’re honing your craft. And always give yourself permission to make mistakes, as long as you try to learn from them. Now go write! (But first read the rest of this blog.)
- Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
I know, you might be thinking “Well that was insufferably basic advice. What is this, some generic pop self-help nonsense?” The short answer is yes. But a ton of you needed to hear it anyway. But I get it, so the rest of my tips are going to be a little more specific; lessons that I learned the hard way as a writer. And one of the lessons that took me the longest to learn is to write at a scale appropriate for my ability. What the hell does that mean? I’ll tell you.
For nearly thirteen years, from the very first moment I started writing, I worked on ONE project. Please don’t do this. Like many fantasy writers, I was initially inspired by Lord of the Rings (shocking). As a result, my first story took place on a similarly grand scale.
I developed a massive continent with all kinds of cultures and complex beliefs. I devised a plot that spanned the globe and included a roster of a dozen viewpoint characters. For thirteen years I toiled to bring this story into being, certain it would be the next big thing. This probably describes the ambitious projects of many new writers. But it’s TOO MUCH.
Trust me.
I can hear you already: “But this is my dream! This is my darling!” I get it. I really do. I thought that way for a long time. But you know what? I wasn’t good enough yet to tackle a story of that kind of scale and complexity. That may be disheartening for some of you to hear, but it’s an important practice in self-awareness.
If you’re a new writer, realize that your knowledge of the craft and your abilities are going to be limited. Talent can be natural; skill must be cultivated. A writer doesn’t need talent to succeed, but they do need skill.
The best thing you can do for yourself is write stories on a more modest scale. This will allow you to practice and gradually improve your skills without committing too heavily to one project and vision. A musician learns to play songs before they create symphonies.
Start small, preferably with short stories so you can finish a project quickly and move on to the next. Baby steps. Small bites. You know, that kind of idea. Don’t go crazy like me and try to write a multi-book epic when you’re first starting to learn the ropes. I wish someone had told me that. Now I’m telling you.
- Finish Your Projects
Speaking of taking on manageable projects, finish writing your stories! I can’t stress this enough. Sometimes, when a story really isn’t panning out and you feel like you need to switch gears and start something new, then you should follow that instinct.
Maybe you’re not enthusiastic about your story anymore, or it’s not working for whatever reason (of which there are many), or you’re just feeling burnt out and need to try something new. All these are valid reasons to write something else.
BUT.
And this is a big but. To really grow as a writer, you need to finish your projects. Not only will it bolster your self-esteem, it’ll give you crucial experience in finishing a story start to finish. This is very important because a story is about creating narrative threads that you tie up by the end. If you always abandon your projects partway through, then you’ll never get skilled at tying those threads together.
Establishing the threads is only half the battle; the way you resolve them is just as important. And, just like everything else, getting good at this requires practice.
Completing projects, even if they don’t end up working out, will give you valuable insight into where your story structure derailed (if it did). This will help with revising that story and also make you a better writer for future projects.
The bottom line is that the best knowledge is knowledge gained through experience. So, abandon your stories if you must, but get into the habit of finishing them. For their sake and for yours.
- Avoid Endless Revisions. Start Something New
If you’ve completed a full project, especially a novel, then congratulations! This is a big step in your journey as a writer. But now that you’ve finished, you’ll need to go back and revise it. Editing is a complex process that goes far beyond just checking for typos and grammatical errors, and it’s completely necessary to getting your manuscript into shape.
A good revision includes many things: adding content, cutting content, tweaking content, and all the specific things those entail. I could write a whole blog post about what a writer should be prepared to address in a revision (and I will!). But that’s not what this tip is about.
Instead, I want you to avoid a problem that many new writers have struggled with, including myself. Stop revising your first and only project over and over! Granted, it often takes even accomplished writers several revisions before they have a final draft. But they’re doing it systematically, with years of experience and knowledge to guide them in the right direction. When you’re just starting, you have neither the knowledge nor the experience to make the most of your revisions.
What tends to happen is that a new writer will get trapped in a vicious cycle of revising their project repeatedly, thinking that every draft will finally be good enough for publication. The real problems with the story often go unnoticed because the new writer hasn’t learned how to spot them yet.
So they end up digging themselves into a hole. Without the tools and know-how to fix what’s broken, they put in a lot of misguided effort. And the whole time this is happening their growth has slowed to a crawl because they’re not tackling any new projects.
This is exactly what happened to me with my first story. I worked on it exclusively for over twelve years. That’s too much time, people! I’d bitten off far more than I could chew with the story’s scope (remember my tip about this?), though I didn’t realize it at the time. I thought that if I just kept revising then I could shape it into the remarkable story I believed in. The truth is that I didn’t have the expertise to tackle it yet. I needed to grow as a writer first. So, finally, I moved onto new projects.
I can’t emphasize enough how much faster this contributes to your growth as a writer. By working on something new (new settings, characters, plots, themes, ideas, etc.) then you’re applying the skills you have learned in a fresh way. This both reinforces those skills and gives insight into how they can be adapted to new contexts. It accelerates your growth because you’re diversifying your practice of the craft.
Think of it this way: practicing the same song over and over again won’t really make you a better guitarist. If you practice a wide range of songs, on the other hand, and learn the different finger techniques that each one requires, you’ll grow into a more skilled and well-rounded musician.
So, yes, you should revise your work until it’s the best it can be. But don’t get stuck in a cycle of revising your one darling project endlessly. Your time is much better spent moving onto something new and growing as a writer first. Down the road, you can return to it with new skills and new knowledge that’ll help you make stronger revisions.
I know, it’s often the last thing a new writer wants to hear after working on their story for so long. But I think it’s a very important lesson. Be honest with yourself: have you developed enough as a writer to successfully tackle whatever project you’re stuck on? Often, the answer is “not yet”. That was certainly the answer for me, and it only took me twelve years to realize!
There’s nothing wrong with moving on, disheartening as it might be. Embrace something new. Commit to learning and becoming better first. Your project will be waiting for you, and will be thrilled when you come back a stronger writer!
- Make the Effort to Learn the Craft
What kind of tip list would this be if I didn’t include this last one? Most of the advice in this post should’ve led you to the same conclusion. As a new writer, you need to make an effort to learn the craft! This is non-negotiable. A writer must learn how the tools work before using them correctly, lest they risk firing a nail through their hand.
I wrote for far too long in isolation, without making any real effort to learn more about the craft of writing. I just kept hammering away at my manuscript. Sure, the story got better and my prose improved dramatically over time. But my growth proceeded at a snail’s pace because I didn’t know how to improve my writing.
I was just stabbing blindly, trying to create a masterpiece based only on my ability to recognize what “worked” in the novels that I enjoyed. This just doesn’t cut it. Most of what makes a story effective is invisible to the reader unless they know what to look for.
Just like any other craft, writing requires that you learn concepts, processes, and techniques that are unique to the medium. So, get out there and learn how to write! Don’t just practice blindly. Be active in the way you engage with the craft.
Take classes, read books, listen to podcasts, get active on social media, keep following this blog. There are so many resources to learn, so you really have no excuse. Aside from writing itself, it’s the most important aspect of becoming a better writer. So do it. Seriously.
You’ll thank me when you’re famous.
What now?
I know, I know. You’re probably thinking these tips didn’t teach you anything about the craft of writing. They weren’t supposed to. These were meant to give you a productive approach to writing, to get you into a helpful mindset if you’re just starting out. These are important principles for all writers, but especially new ones. So, I think it’s a great place to begin your journey to becoming a better writer. But now it’s time to get into the finer details; the actual nitty-gritty of what it takes to write effective, compelling stories.
Check out [blog] to get started!
Austin Jacques 
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