Forum: Author Hangout

One Piece of Advice

markselias11 🚫

I've been thinking about this for a while now. Like many authors here I have a very vivid imagination. Many scenes within my stories are either variations of real life scenes that I have seen and/or experienced, or they are scenes that I have verbally acted out while driving down the road in my car.

One such scene that has played in my head over and over again is one where me (as the author Mark S. Elias) is doing an interview with some magazine and they ask me a question. I've thought about this scene COUNTLESS times while driving and the funny thing is that I've never been able to answer the question the same way twice. So I'm bringing this question to you guys.

As an author, if you could give ONE piece of advice (only one) to someone who is just trying to become an author. What would it be?

I know I'll get a lot of different answers so I think this will be a fun topic to read. Who knows, someone (i.e. me) may learn something.

As for my reply. I think my one piece of advice would be ... just write!

Just write whatever is on your mind/heart. It may not be worth releasing right away, but it'll give you a start. it may not make much sense, but at least you'll have an outline of what it is you want to do. If you're in the middle of a book and a particular scene/chapter is giving you trouble then keep writing.

Why keep writing if you are struggling? Different authors work in different ways. Some people may want to keep writing the chapter, even if it isn't the best, and keep going then circle back to that chapter and make it better after you're more inspired. Some people will want to skip that chapter and write ahead while they are inspired and then come back. Either way, keep writing.

If you stop writing you lose momentum. You can always rewrite something to make it better, but you always have to START writing. When you do ... don't stop.

Also I should note that I know there are times when, as authors, we are burned out and need to step away for our own mental health's sake. I am not referring to those situations.

Replies: bk69 Switch Blayde graybyrd joyR Emmeran Quasirandom Mushroom Goldfisherman

bk69 🚫

@markselias11

Why keep writing if you are struggling?

This is based partly on experience and partly on advice from a published author:
Keep writing for two reasons. First, it's your job (or you want it to be). So do it. Not everybody always likes their job, but they do it anyways. Why should you be any different? Second, routine. When something becomes a habit, that can help you through tough times. During some of my worse depressive states, the only time I left the house was to go to the gym... because I'd conditioned myself to get up and go. (Luckily, I'd conditioned myself before those times to do something beneficial to someone in depression, rather than conditioning myself to head to the pub every night...) With writing, just slogging through a tough spot can work because you just kept going until it gets easier.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@markselias11

I guess I'd have to ask a question before giving the advice: "What are your goals?"

Replies: richardshagrin

richardshagrin 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

"What are your goals?"

Like Mr. Spock, to Live Long and Prosper. (And make a V between my middle and fourth finger.)

The (lesser known) response is "Peace and long life."

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@richardshagrin

And make a V between my middle and fourth finger.

If you do it sideways, you're Mork from Ork

graybyrd 🚫

@markselias11

Read ... a lot!

Then write. And as markselias11 said, "When you do ... don't stop." Leave no room for the inner critic, that insufferable editor, to creep in and kill the work.

What's the goal? One's self, primarily. Sometimes (as I have) one can get so immersed in the writing, the flow, that emotions overwhelm and tears flow. Or joy. Or lust. Excitement. Peace.

So... best advice? Just do it. Get on with it.

joyR 🚫

@markselias11

As an author, if you could give ONE piece of advice (only one) to someone who is just trying to become an author. What would it be?

Ignore anyone who thinks that one piece of advice is sufficient.

Replies: Quasirandom Grey Wolf

Quasirandom 🚫

@joyR

Grey Wolf 🚫

@joyR

I don't think anyone said that one piece of advice is sufficient. It's maybe an exercise in prioritization.

I'd agree, though, that my first piece of advice to someone who is aspiring to be an author is to write. As I put it elsewhere:

I strongly encourage those of you with story ideas to try writing them down. [...] you can't edit what you haven't even written yet.

By definition this is aimed at someone who wants to be an author, and in addition, has an idea for a story. Everything else is secondary to writing something down, as far as I'm concerned. I spent far too long writing and rewriting things in my head. Putting them down in a fixed form is a necessary first step.

After that? Plenty of other things matter a great deal. One piece of advice isn't sufficient. But that one is necessary.

Replies: markselias11

markselias11 🚫

@Grey Wolf

I don't think anyone said that one piece of advice is sufficient. It's maybe an exercise in prioritization.

That's precisely what it was. The idea was never supposed to be that one single piece of advice would be sufficient. That's stupid. The point was to see what individual writers prioritized, but also it was supposed to be something along the lines of

"Well this author gave this piece of advice, so since he said that, then I would say this."

Emmeran 🚫

@markselias11

One is a silly and arbitrary number.

One of the pieces of advise would be to involve those around you. Sometimes when you are stumped they will say the most unrelated thing and you'll get a concept for that next idea and off you go again lost in the story.

Of course then they bitch about you being lost in the story again but that's a different issue.

Quasirandom 🚫
Updated:

@markselias11

Honor your process.

Had to think about this for a while, which made it a good exercise. My first reaction was something along the lines of Writers write, or Butt in chair, or Just write. But not only am I pretty sure that's going to be covered by others, I know that's not going to be useful to every writer. For a lot of beginning writers, yes, they do need the lesson of practice, practice, practice, but I've known writers with successful careers who don't write every day, or even every week.

But I don't know a single successful writer who does it while wrestling with how their creative brain works. One writes only on weekends, in two-day binges, getting out everything they've been thinking about through the week. One writes exactly five pages a day and stops at the end of that, even if it's in the middle of the sentence. One writes nothing for a couple of months then puts the thing down in a close to perfect single draft. One writes everything using at least five drafts. Some outline, some don't. Some do either, depending on the project. But all of them do what it takes to write.

Honor your process.

Mushroom 🚫

@markselias11

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

Goldfisherman 🚫
Updated:

@markselias11

I have written stories for several decades and only published for the last 3. The vast majority I did not publish because some nut took the fiction seriously and actually lived out parts. In the instances this happened it is a good thing I was pretty annonymous. The prosecutors would have likely also come after me.

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Forum: Author Hangout

One Piece of Advice

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