16 Lessons I've Learned About Writing
/In my life, I've written more than 10 million words (a VERY conservative estimate), including tens of thousands of blog posts, 100+ songs, 50+ short stories, 2 novels, 3 scripted podcast series, hundreds of unscripted podcast episodes, 500+ poems and so many other little things I can't remember them all. I've been a paid professional writer full-time since 2012 and part-time since 2004 and have been paid more than a million dollars in lifetime earnings from writing. Here are the truths I've learned:
1. Anyone can be a writer. Anyone with an IQ of at least 100 can be a good writer. Anyone with an IQ of at least 120 can be a great writer. People with lower IQs than that can also be good or great writers with enough support and commitment.
2. All it takes to be a writer is to write. Writers write. If you regularly write, you're a writer. If not, if you only think about it and talk about it, but never put words to paper (metaphorically speaking), then you aren't a writer.
3. All writing counts. There's no writing that "isn't real writing." If words are coming out of your head and you handwrite or type them onto paper or a computer screen, you are writing.
4. Writer's block is a myth. The only reason writer's block exists is because people say it does. The reality is that you aren't "blocked," you're experiencing an actual symptom of some other mental condition. Maybe you have imposter syndrome. Maybe you have problems with executive function. Maybe you have anxiety problems and your brain is focusing those on your writing. But writer's block doesn't exist. If you make up a new thing and claim you have it, then you can't solve it and you give up. If you recognize that this is just the same old brain shit you deal with when you aren't writing, the writing no longer becomes the focus of the anxiety (or whatever) and you are free to write.
5. The way to beat "writer's block" is to put words on the page. It literally doesn't matter what words, as long as they are on topic in some way. Shitty writing is still writing, but it's 100% the case that no matter how shitty you think your writing is, the reality is that it's better than that. Your brain is lying to you. Don't be duped. Put words on the page. Any words.
6. Everyone rewrites. All people. From the greatest writer to the worst. This is why those initial words on the page don't matter. Get something written and then fix it in the rewrite.
7. There's no such thing as a naturally-born writer. All writing is learned. When you are born, you don't have verbal language in your brain, much less written language. It's not even possible. So ALL writing skills are obtained environmentally. The #1 thing that makes people "naturally" good at writing is having read a bunch of writing early. Reading to kids helps A LOT with this, but at some point, it has to be an experiential thing and kids just have to read for themselves. But despite what people think, ANY reading counts. It doesn't have to be a book, much less a classic work of literature. Even reading social media comments increases literacy (including cultural literacy, as you learn about concepts that you didn't previously know, which expands both your knowledge base and your ability to communicate more precisely). And it's likely that the advances at young ages exist regardless of medium, as long as a kid is reading anything, they are becoming better at reading, writing and overall comprehension and intelligence. Most beginning writers mimic what they read, so the more you read, the better a writer you become and the more diverse what you read is, the more well-rounded a writer (and thinker) you become. Some people can instantly translate what they read into good writing, but that's a tiny percentage, most people, even when they read a lot, still need to be taught how to write (which is why classes on this are required at all levels of education except the lowest). Nearly everyone who has taken writing classes or personalized training in writing writes better than everyone who hasn't had such training, once you normalize for things like education, SES, access to books, etc.
8. People say you can't teach people to be a good writer. This is complete nonsense. You absolutely can. I have. To hundreds upon hundreds of people whose writing improved almost instantly with basic tips. And more advanced teaching can not only lead ANYONE to being a better writer, it can take people with above average intelligence and make them great writers. Easily and quickly.
9. Throwing away any writing is silly. Even if you don't publish something, there is value in your old writing. At a minimum, it's valuable to you as both a record of your past and as a baseline so that you can expand your skills and knowledge. It can also help you with later writing. An early draft of a novel I wrote, which wasn't that good, was later redeveloped into the first screenplay I wrote, which was pretty good. Just because you execute a bit of writing poorly now doesn't mean it can be useful later, either reworked or as a component of some new thing. Recycle your writing when you can.
10. If you have the ability to hustle, you can always find paying work as a writer. It's an infinitely valuable and scalable skill.
11. Most people aren't writers. Not because they can't be (see above), but because they either choose not to be (a decision that rarely, if ever, makes any sense) or they allow other people's bullshit to stop them. Anyone who ever tells you to stop writing is being a bad person. Writing is NEVER a bad thing in and of itself. What you write can be bad, particularly if you publish it, but getting things out of your head onto paper is, at a minimum, therapeutic. And usually it's more than that. Any advice that discourages you from writing is bad advice and I'd be super skeptical about ANY advice from anyone who would discourage writing for any reason.
12. As a beginning and/or nonprofessional writer, don't try to hold yourself to the standards of the professionals and established authors. It's just plain dumb. If I've been writing for one year, why in the world would my writing be as good as Stephen King? It's likely impossible, but it's also not necessary and NOT the goal. Nobody writes one thing and it's so good that they're a famous successful writer now. That's not how it works for anyone. You need years of writing on multiple completed works to be a great writer. If you haven't done that, it's basically not possible and you shouldn't want it to be. If your skills are learned quickly over a short period of time, you are likely missing out on much wisdom and are limiting your skills by doing this. Your goal each time you write is to be better at it than you were before. If this is true, then you are succeeding and any criticism is bullshit.
13. Other people's advice on writing is largely crap. This is true of most feedback, too. As a writer, you have subjects that are important to you and you want to write about. And you have experiences that others don't. And you have goals as a writer, and in life, that others don't. Unless someone shares your goals and experiences AND is more successful a writer than you are, it's likely their advice won't apply to you. There's no one way to be a writer and no one way to succeed. There are many of each. You should only take advice from people who share your interests, goals and level of commitment to writing and even then, take all advice with a grain of salt. It's rare for two writers to succeed in the same way. You succeed by forging your own path. Other people's advice is mostly an impediment to that, since they're advising you on what they would do with THEIR preferences and experiences if they were in YOUR situation. None of that is real, though, so the advice is sketchy, at best, and frequently wrong and counterproductive.
14. Typos and errors are not a reflection of how good a writer you are, no matter how many people bully you over it on social media. Typos and other such errors are ONLY a sign that you made a typo or error. ALL human beings make typos and all professional writers have copy-editors who fix this stuff for them. If you saw the original drafts of the greatest writers, living or deceased, the early drafts will almost all be riddled with errors. Keep in mind that the thing with Nazis was that they were both evil and wrong. This is true of "grammar Nazis" as well. Most of their corrections are pedantic and more about them showing off their own superiority. If you write something and people understand it, you communicated effectively, because that's the whole point. And in more formally published writing, there's ALWAYS someone handling the typos for you.
15. People suggest that it's a bad idea to read (or watch movies or TV or comedy) in the genre you write. This is fully terrible advice. The best writers are those who don't work in a silo, but are part of the world around them. Writing, by definition, is about communication. And in the vast majority of cases, it's interpersonal communication. In order to communicate well, you have to understand the context you are communicating in and the media through which you are communicating. If you are, say, a comedy writer and you don't know what other comedy is out there, you're likely to re-invent the wheel, recreating things done previously. But doing this without expanding up or commenting on the previous writing is largely useless for any audience beyond yourself and your friends. Other people do read and they know that larger context. Additionally, genres and forms are all evolutionary, so if you don't know the past and present of a genre or medium, you can't possibly contribute to its future, unless it's by accident. And we're deep enough into communication in English that there aren't a lot of accidental discoveries still possible. We've found them all. Everything left to write is a reaction to the old things or a reaction to new things that come out now. If you don't know what's out there and what came before you, you're having a conversation with yourself that is ignorant of the conversation your audience was a part of before you starting writing. Like ANY field, you have to know the field's past and present to be a notable part of it's future.
16. Stop reading and go write.