Tools for becoming a solid writer

While I am not a professional writer, I do turn out quite a bit of writing. I don't believe you need to attend a university unless you are looking for a job in a field of professional writing.

My advice, write. Write again. Write some more. Just write.

You will find that your writing evolves as you learn to put yourself to the paper.

Thats just my two cents.

-Cold

 

No, you definitely don't need any kind of formal education to write good stories.

The best thing you can do is just read a lot. Read lots and lots of book in your field. Read books from other fields. Read mythologies from various lands. Mythology is the original fantasy literature. Read writing books, and don't be afraid to try their advice, but also don't be afraid to discard their advice if it doesn't work for you. Read as much as you can.

And then write a lot. It doesn't matter if what you're writing isn't very good. The more you write the better you will get. Experiment with your writing. Practice trying to write like various authors you enjoy. Practice various techniques you've read in books you liked. Just write as much as you can.

Keep trying to learn from everything you read and everything you write along the way. But don't forget how to be simply entertained by stories.

 

Well School or classes aren't going to hurt I guess, but they are far from necessary in my humble opinion. I think there are three things you can do that will really help you out.

1. Start writing. Like right now! It doesn't matter what, but short stories are often suggested as novels can take a while and being able to say you 'finished' something can help stave off discouragement in beginners. Don't worry about wasting 'good' ideas, you'll have better ones later no matter how good your current ideas are.

2. Read! Read a lot. Take notes about what you like and what keeps you interested as well as what you don't like. I'm also partial to writing one or two line summaries of chapters of books I read.

3. Get ready to have your heart ripped out. Have other people read your work and get crits on it. I'm not saying you need to do what everyone says, but at least listen to them and try to understand where they are coming from. You'll need to grow a thick skin and not take it personally. They aren't attacking you, they are attacking your work. And that's a good thing! It will only get stronger as a result.

Good luck!

 

Everything that was said above me. But I think it helps if you know what you're getting into.

Writing isn't art. Storytelling is. Writing is a craft, a means to achieve a very specific, artistic goal—a story well-told. Writing is work. It's hard work. I'm not saying writing isn't fun, because it is. Just picture yourself as a sculptor. You're given a block of marble, and your story is hidden inside. Writing is the chisel you take to it to give it shape. Or perhaps a painter with a blank canvas. Writing is your brush.

Writing is something you'll slowly become better at with every word you type, with every critique you receive. Learning to understand the ever-elusive story is much harder. Scenes, turning points, characters and characterisation, sequences, acts, structure. It's enough to make your head spin. I've read a bunch of books on storytelling, signed them all off as total bullshit, read some more, disregarded them as well, read some more and found some truth in them. The trick, I think, in the end, is to find your truth as a storyteller. Some people just have it, they simply understand. Most people don't. I certainly didn't.

So, no, you don't need a formal education. But you do need an education. Look up anything that has to do with the art of storytelling, and get to studying.

And yes, write. This can't be reiterated enough. Write everything and nothing. And more importantly, write with honesty.

 

When I was in jr. high 30-odd years ago I read Macroscope by Piers Anthony. I recently found the note I wrote afterwards in which I laid out all the subjects I thought I had to be proficient in in order to write a novel: anthropology, astronomy, astrology, biology, chemistry, history, etc. Pretty much every dept in a university. The crazy thing is, having just finished my novel, I realized I'd researched every single one of those topics for some small or large reason. Of course, what my 14yo self didn't imagine was that I could have truncated my list to two things: Wikipedia and Google.

For a writing exercise, I would adapt an one that Keith Olbermann recommends for aspiring sports commentators. He says they should transcribe someone's call of a game, then read it back along with the call to understand the commentator's rhythm, diction, etc. You might do something similar with short stories you admire: rewrite them in your own words or rewrite them from a different point of view. Or simply edit them. That will make you think about why each word/sentence/graph does what it does where it does it in a scene/chapter/book. For instance, if you have the time, the world is waiting for a fan-edit of Two Towers. It will also make life a bit easier: having all the characters and story, you can concentrate simply on the craft. That's why I think fan fiction is a valuable exercise as well. I, for one, desperately want to write a story in the Vonnegut universe for the Amazon program. I know it will revolve around Tralfamadore, making it the Tanalorn of his universe, I just haven't had the time to figure out what characters should meet there yet.

As for writing in general, read Hemingway's essay "Monologue to the Maestro," which will tell you everything you need to know about writing, including the unimpeachable advice to read everything so you know what you have to beat.

 

Brush up on your grammar know-how and knowledge of writing style. I highly recommend Rhetorical Grammar and Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. These books have writing exercises in them, and really boosted my writing technique and editing skills.

You don't have to attend higher education to be a writer (I was writing novels before I graduated High School), but I would highly recommend it. I can't say enough how much pursuing an English degree improved my writing. One of the best things I liked about school was how much I collaborated with other writers in an organized setting.

 

I found university invaluable too, in terms of building my writing skills, but I reckon you could learn a lot about writing without it too. I think joining a writing group or a critique site helps too, good ones can be very focused and raise your skill set considerably.