Things I picked up through life experiences, faithfully attending the school of hard knocks, and just applying common sense. I’m not a pro, but I learn fast and these are things I learned. If you disagree with anything below, welcome to Earth where we all have opinions. I’m just trying to share.
- If you’re an author, then write. Don’t waste endless hours making funny little images to post on social media. And don’t spend all day on fb either. Set a goal and stick to it. It could be a certain number of words per day, or finishing a chapter by a certain date. Just do it. You can always come back to social media after.
- The story comes first. The actual plot. That is more important than anything, in my opinion. So focus on that, get that nailed, and then start writing. Don’t let others throw you off-track. Write how you write. It seems everyone who writes a book suddenly becomes an editor, and has lots of info to share with you. They know all the rules and like to point that out. But you know what? It’s your book, so it’s your rules.
- What I do is this… I come up with the story in my head. I copy my previous book, which is on Word, and paste it in a new Word file. Then I go through and delete all the ‘stuff’ I wrote. By that I mean, I leave the front matter (title page, copyright page, table of contents, etc.), the chapter titles throughout the book, and the back matter (author bio, also written by page) and delete the actual ‘story.’ Later I can change the table of contents. So I’m now left with about 15 or 20 Chapters, with a chapter name perhaps, but completely blank after that. Then I type in a line or two describing what happens in each chapter, keeping in mind the three-act principle. Beginning, middle, and ending. Although I modify it slightly. After that, I just write each chapter, editing as I go.
- Fluff scenes are fun and I use them. Did you ever watch a Marvel movie or a show on tv and see a scene that adds very little to the story, but it’s light and entertaining? It happens all the time, whether it’s Iron Man joking with the Captain, or when Kate smashes shit with a nickel on Hawkeye. It reveals a lot about your character and the readers enjoy that kind of intimacy,
- I like a scene where a couple of characters are sitting around talking about what’s unfolding, maybe trying to bounce ideas of one another in order to solve the mystery. It opens up a door and lets readers get to know the characters. It also allows me, as the author, to reveal some potentially important plot points in the dialogue.
- Light funny bits followed immediately by horror or shocking scenes are perfect. I try to make my books as much like a movie as I can, and that’s something I noticed is used a lot in ‘scary’ movies. So why not? Like when a cat knocks something over, and everyone in the room jumps. Then they laugh. Then a body comes flying through a window. That’s when they all stop laughing.
- Don’t let apps re-write your book for you. Use a grammar app to check on important little things like spelling, punctuation, and that type of thing. Most of those apps use generative AI to offer you writing tips. So if you’re against AI in your text, as I am, avoid following all of their changes. As far as unusual punctuation… I avoid that, too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to read a page of someone’s book and have to struggle through half a dozen semi-colons, brackets, em-dashes and en-dashes, and more. When I write, I find there is always a better and easier way to write the sentence. No need to show off your amazing skills in advanced punctuation.
- Remember that when you’re on social media asking advice from others, they may be slightly biased. If you ask about editing, you’ll get a lot of response from people who may make their living editing. Same goes for cover design. Artists don’t want you to design your own covers, or us AI to help you. Just keep that in mind. If you can afford editors, artists, and others, all the power to you. But not everyone can. And sometimes you can get better results in other ways. Cheaper ways.
9. Write the way you write. Don’t suddenly decide that your book should be written to fit into a certain genre or age group, and try to write like that. If that’s not how you normally write, it will probably fail. Just remember… there are billions of people on Earth, so there’s likely a market for your book.
10. Write every day, if you can. As much as you can. (I aim for 2,000 to 4,000 words, then heavy editing. I correct the spelling and punctuation before letting anyone read it, too.) The more you write, the better you’ll get. It’s not all ‘art’. Some of it is skill and can be learned. Being gifted is one thing, but lots of talented writers spent years honing their craft. Imagination is the key, however, so don’t whittle that out of the carving. Someone told me I should read lots of books by others. If that works for you, by all means, fill your boots (cliche?). But to me, if I wanted to be good at something, such as playing hockey, I would buy skates and join a team. I don’t think spending hours watch hockey on TV will make me any good. I want to be a good writer, not an expert reader. Plus, I’ve read hundreds of books in the past. So there’s that.
11. Don’t listen to everything people tell you about writing. Even me (especially me…haha). Because I don’t make the rules. I break them. Although it’s important to know the rules to be able to break them creatively. I’m talking about things like font size, chapter length, double or single spacing, and bunches of other little things that seem to tick hard-core authors off.
12. Lastly, if you write fiction (as I do), especially science fiction (as I do), don’t let anyone tell you that you need to change something you wrote because it is impossible. It’s your world, you set the stage, and whatever happens is up to you. So yes, people can fly if you want them to. If someone is eager enough to dig through history and tell me a certain brand of cellphone came out three months after one of my characters was using it in a novel, I’m not going to panic. I might change it. Or I might not. It depends if it really makes such a difference or not.
13. Another thing… lots of people want you to fit into a certain box. They want you to write the way you’re supposed to write. The way they read on the internet that ‘you’re supposed to write.’ I kind of disagree. I believe we all have something to bring to the table. Something unique. I would hate if we all wrote the same.
14. As for self-publishing, here’s my two cents worth. The publishing business is changing, and physical book stores may be on the way out. A lot of players are banding together to fight self-publishing, because a lot of them have something to lose. The markets are shifting and people are more comfortable buying online. They may still buy actual books rather than eBooks, but they may order them from a POD service. It’s so convenient. I self-publish and I love the freedom of what it allows. If you think that might be the path for you, search the internet. There are many sites that offer free advice.
I didn’t spell check this, so if you spot any glaring errors try not to let it spoil your day. And finally… YES that’s me in that photo. But I modified it slightly so I could walk around town and still remain somewhat anonymous. Not that I’m famous, because I’m not. I also want to prevent identity theft. That scares me.