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10 Dos and Don'ts For the Aspiring Novelist (Article)

Jabrosky

Banned
Start small. Writing short stories is a great way to do that. Many novelists have started this way, including me. Writing a good short story forces you to create and develop a character and take a plot from beginning to end in a limited number of pages. It also prepares you for writing a novel, because each chapter is basically a short story. Writing a short story is also much less intimidating than writing a novel.
This makes intuitive sense, but one problem I have run into is knowing which ideas work for a short story and which are more conducive to a novel. I'll never forget the day I shared one of my short stories with another message board, and they said it should have been a novel due to all the things that happened in it. How can you distinguish a short story idea from a novel idea?
 

GeekDavid

Auror
10 Dos & Don'ts For the Aspiring Novelist | WritersDigest.com

So I know we don't generally believe in absolutism around here, but I thought maybe some could find some good habits out of this article.

Thoughts?

I am highly skeptical and I've only gotten to #2.

#1 is talking about short stories, and, lo and behold, Writer's Digest is running a short story contest!

#2 is talking about taking a writing class, and, well, it's surely just a coincidence that Writer's Digest runs a lot of very expensive writing classes.

See my point?
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean it's bad advice. I think Writer's Digest has a lot of good thoughts about writing that I think may be ignored because maybe people think they're being marketed to.

3. Write things down.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm constantly writing things down even when I don't plan to use the idea for a long time. I have idea notebooks scattered all over the place.

4. Try to write something everyday even if it's a few paragraphs.

Some may disagree with this, but I find most pros are going to suggest the same thing. If you spend most of your days dallying, then that's that much longer your work isn't being seen by an audience.

5. Take advice from other authors.

I'd say, "Take advice that works for you" or "Take advice from writers you admire." For example, I greatly admire Steven King, George R.R. Martin, Jim Butcher, and Joe Abercrombie. So if they give writing advice, I usually perk up more.

DON'Ts

1. Don't let your day job get in the way.

Easier said than done, but yeah, I agree. You have to make the time to do anything worth doing.

2. Don't fall in love with your words.

Something I've learned more and more. I never fall in love with anything I write anymore because I know it's subject to change. I still get excited and think an novel can really work, but I don't fall in love with anything until I know it's finished.

3. Don't keep your work hidden away.

I'd suggest submitting things as often as you can. It will help gauge how ready you are if you get some acceptances and some rejections. A lot of writers over the years who have been successful don't wait until they're "ready," they learned by doing. Sometimes it's just better to go in both guns blazing.

4. Don't be afraid to ask friends for help.

Something this community and others can be great for.

5. Don't forget that you're a writer.

I take this to mean that just because some people don't like what you're doing, that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. You have to figure out for yourself what works for you best.

See? Not so bad advice. :)

For Jabrosky, I think short stories work best for me when the conflict is self-contained. If you're trying to cram an epic into a short story, it's not going to work. If it's about one or two conflicts that happen over a shorter period of time, I think those lengths seem to work better.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
Honestly, Phil, when they put the things that make them money in the first two slots, I don't think I'm being marketed to, I know I am.

If they want to help authors, they could put the obvious advertisements for themselves in the drawer.

Look at it this way... if you came here for help and I said, "Yes, I can help you... I covered this in my book, buy it!" how would you feel? That's how I feel when I see that sort of stuff in a WD article.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
It annoyed me a little that they put in some adds in the text that were, at a glance, hard to tell apart from the actual article.

That said, the points mentioned are good.

I think my main issue at the moment is the 2nd thing not to do. I spend so much time tweaking words back and forth it's hard to not get attached to the end result. Giving the words some time to sit and mature on the page really helps though. Once you've distanced yourself from them a little it's much easier to see their flaws.
I'm too impatient though. I write something, I read it, change it, polish it, and then I want to show it off to others right away. Intuitively I know I should wait a bit - maybe a week or so - but I'm always so eager to show my stuff off.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
7 Dos and Don'ts from Writers Indigest

1. Do read Do and Don't lists
2. Don't take them too seriously
3. Do use all the ones that work for you
4. Don't use the ones that don't work for you
5. Do write
6. Don't not write
7. Try not to spend too much time writing smart-ass replies to well-meant posts on forums

-= Skip =-
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
Honestly, Phil, when they put the things that make them money in the first two slots, I don't think I'm being marketed to, I know I am.

If they want to help authors, they could put the obvious advertisements for themselves in the drawer.

Look at it this way... if you came here for help and I said, "Yes, I can help you... I covered this in my book, buy it!" how would you feel? That's how I feel when I see that sort of stuff in a WD article.

Fair enough, but I try not to let that bother me. A lot of writing books actually are used to promote another book. "In my book, blah, blah, blah I tried to..." That's just part of the business I suppose.

That said, if you see past these things, I think they do have a lot of good points for beginning writers. If you're not a beginning writer, then it probably doesn't apply to you. I personally try to post things here that I think can help people or at least get them thinking. There are many lurkers here on the site that may be afraid to post, but do like to read anything that may help them or get them to have good habits. So for me, articles like this might be helpful for someone time and again.
 

Lawfire

Sage
7 Dos and Don'ts from Writers Indigest

1. Do read Do and Don't lists
2. Don't take them too seriously
3. Do use all the ones that work for you
4. Don't use the ones that don't work for you
5. Do write
6. Don't not write
7. Try not to spend too much time writing smart-ass replies to well-meant posts on forums

Hear, hear! Well said.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
Fair enough, but I try not to let that bother me. A lot of writing books actually are used to promote another book. "In my book, blah, blah, blah I tried to..." That's just part of the business I suppose.

That said, if you see past these things, I think they do have a lot of good points for beginning writers. If you're not a beginning writer, then it probably doesn't apply to you. I personally try to post things here that I think can help people or at least get them thinking. There are many lurkers here on the site that may be afraid to post, but do like to read anything that may help them or get them to have good habits. So for me, articles like this might be helpful for someone time and again.

There's also this, Phil:

wd-capture.png


"That book the article says you need to get is on sale right now!"

Now if that isn't being marketed to within the article, I dunno what is.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
Fair enough, but I try not to let that bother me. A lot of writing books actually are used to promote another book. "In my book, blah, blah, blah I tried to..." That's just part of the business I suppose.

That said, if you see past these things, I think they do have a lot of good points for beginning writers. If you're not a beginning writer, then it probably doesn't apply to you. I personally try to post things here that I think can help people or at least get them thinking. There are many lurkers here on the site that may be afraid to post, but do like to read anything that may help them or get them to have good habits. So for me, articles like this might be helpful for someone time and again.

Absolutely agree, Phil. Writer's Digest is an excellent resource for the beginning writer, imo. I myself like to read what they have to offer because a little reminder of the basics every now and again never hurts. Yes, they market like crazy - if you don't like it, blow it off. I do. We're all artists, but we're artists in the entertainment business. Boiled down pretty much everything we do publicly is marketing - our blogs, our twitters, it's all marketing to encourage more people to read our stories. Far be it for me to begrudge anyone else in this business their marketing practices. At least Writer's Digest means well.
 
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