On Writing, Part 1

"...most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don't understand very much about what they do - not why it works when it's good, not why it doesn't when it's bad. I figured the shorter the book, the less the bullshit." - Stephen King (On Writing)

This won't even be a short book. Hardly lengthy at all, and that's how it should be.

Yes, I'm having my first book published next year, but who am I to tell anyone how to write? I won't do it. I don't have THAT much to say on the topic. I'm doing this now three-part blog (it was a two-parter) because if I can be helpful in any way to someone out there who's struggling writing a story and feeling that sense of doubt that they'll ever "make it" and quit before they start, let alone wrestling with the feeling that they'll never finish if they've already begun, my hope is I can inspire them to keep going. To keep writing.

To create their own path.

I'll keep this very minimal. Hopefully completely devoid of B.S.

Instead of talking about writing, what I thought I would do is share what I've learned. Consider it a Top Ten List of the things that worked for me/helped me. Your journey will be different from mine and everyone else's. You'll eventually come up with your own Top Ten as you go on. Consider this a start into devising your own list.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt. Do what works for you.

The Top Ten...On Writing:

1. There are NO rules.
No matter what you read online in anyone's blog or in Writer's Digest magazine, don't be fooled. There's no one certain way to tell a story. What I've discovered is people have specific ways and want to share them with the world and that's fine, but it's not necessarily "the way". There is no "the way" so don't bother. You got a story in mind? Write it. That's all.

This leads into...

2. Write the story YOU want to tell.
Don't write what's popular. Don't write a vampire story or a boy wizard story just because of the successes of Twilight and Harry Potter. Yes, E.L. James made a lot of money and earned a lot of fame from a trilogy of books based off Twilight fan fiction she tweaked. But she was an exception (and not a very good one, I hear, when it comes down to her abilities). There are not many exceptions. Point is: write the story you want to tell. Don't put a year (or more) of your life into a story you feel you should write just because of how it's exploding the market. Chances are by the time you finish (if you don't lose interest beforehand because it's not something that speaks to you), readers will have moved on to the "next big thing".

At the same time, if your love is vampire fiction, by all means write it. Write what YOU want, not what the market wants.

3. Write every day, even if it's only a little.
Got some free time in the morning? At lunch? In the evening? Write. Write whatever you can and don't let anyone make you feel bad for how much (or how little) you get down on paper. Stephen King recommends writing 2,000 words a day. This is where I call B.S. on him (and he's one of my favorite authors). Unless you're well off financially and can afford to stay home (like King) and put the effort into reaching a 2,000 word limit every single day, you've got to fit writing in wherever you can. That means around work, around cooking meals and doing laundry and dishes and spending time with your family/spouse/significant other, and taking out the trash. Don't forget the recycling. You simply cannot ignore life and be able to write successfully. I write during my lunch break and in the mornings and some evenings on weekends when I can. Sometimes I put down only 300 words, sometimes it's 500. Sometimes I manage 1,000 or even 1,500 on really good days when the words and story are flowing. But, all the same, I write, with no goal of word count in mind. I work in the time I can find and what's doable. It's not about passion for writing (if you're a committed writer you have the passion), it's that many of us find our time split between the many things in our lives that are important.

And that's where I end tonight, because my wife's in the living room and I've spent enough time on this computer. And The Walking Dead is coming on. I got my writing in for the day and even the first part of this blog so I'm happy.

Part 2 of this list coming soon.