“Retrato de Mariano Goya” – Francisco de Goya |
Oh, to start writing again.
Such angst! Such vision! Such ambition!
What do you wish you had known when you started? What would you tell your younger writing self?
Mine is pretty simple. When I first started out I was very focused on the end result. I wish I would have known that whatever happens with any particular manuscript: It’s all worth it.
What about you?
D.G. Hudson says
Hindsight is always good to evaluate every now and then.
Like Rod Stewart sings (paraphrased):I wish I had known then what I know now. I also wish I had found a mentor who wanted to coach me for free. I could have used that.
I thought the writing would go faster, but I found out a lot of our interior selves goes into what we create. For me that means, thinking about the storyline (A LOT) and hashing it out with my Ideal Reader, and Best Crit Partner (my support team).
I also wish I had known I would enjoy blogging as much, because it allows me to integrate my love of photography into the writing of the posts.
Writing restores my equilibrium, and gives me an outlet for my imagination.
JP Kurzitza says
That most agents lost sight of their role, thinking that they were in the "selling to publishers" business, but rather are in the "helping their authors reach the greatest number of readers and achieve the greatest possible commercial and literary success" business. — Barry Eisler
Also, that going the Legacy Publishing route isn't the only way to make money and achieve the above stated ends.
Suze says
I would tell my younger self this is a long-haul proposition so settle my butt in for the ride.
Sommer Leigh says
I wish I had known there were resources out there that could teach me how to do it right from the beginning – or at least less wrong. I spent a lot of time writing really badly. Really. Really. Badly.
Geoff says
I would tell my younger self to start writing right then and there, instead of wasting a bunch of time figuring out other stuff to do with my life! Writing is it, but it took me ten years to figure that out.
Josin L. McQuein says
That by the time I finished a particular book, the market would be flooded with them.
Anonymous says
That the world will do it's best to distract you, derail you. DON'T LET IT.
Anonymous says
I wish I'd known there was an automatic line spacer button in Word. I double-spaced my first entire manuscript manually. D'oh!
Himbokal says
I would have told myself to get it on paper and worry about quality later. I spent far too much time trying to write brilliant first drafts. Or sometimes just waiting for brilliant inspiration.
I should have looked at it as the faster you get the bad stuff out, the quicker you get to the good stuff. I'd sum it up as: Never rejected. Never published.
Priya Parmar says
it is funny. there are things i wish i had known, like to be really consistent with names and nicknames of characters as fixing it all later is a nightmare and then there are things i am so happy i did not know. if i had know that it would be six years between beginning the writing and seeing it in barnes and noble, i might never have done it! but i am so happy i went into it blind and just kept going!
salima says
In practical terms, to OUTLINE!!!! To have some idea of where a story is GOING before just plunging in with what I thought then was lovely prose. (Ahem.)
But to my younger, child self? That what I think and feel matters, and that writing is a boundless place to explore all of that. That the confines of everyday life don't exist there.
v.n.rieker says
Anon(who wished for automatic double-space knowledge)–I had already written two whole books before someone showed me how to use the automatic-paragraph-indent in Word! I hadn't known such a thing existed. I couldn't believe how many spacebar hits I'd wasted! It was a glorious discovery. =P
Rob Smith says
I wish I'd realized that as busy as I thought I was in college, I was totally wrong and should have been using that time to get more writing done! So much Ninja Gaiden…
jongibbs says
I wish I'd known there was a huge list of things I didn't even know I didn't know.
Aimée Beatrice Jodoin says
I wish I'd told myself to never slow down, to keep on writing and writing and writing and writing no matter how much the ideas sucked! You can always make it better later.
Kristi says
I wouldn't tell my beginning writer-self anything. In fact, there are quite a few things I'd love to un-tell my current writer-self. Like how frustrating it will be to find an agent or a publisher. How disheartening it is to get critique advice from people who clearly don't like anything about your writing/genre/characters/voice. How many hours can be spent re-writing and re-writing and re-writing. And re-writing.
I would dearly love to get back to that initial enthusiasm and confidence and sense of wonder that carried me through a NaNoWriMo with stars in my eyes.
I still love writing, but its like marriage. The newlywed days are over and now I have to face the day-to-day reality of sweaty socks and morning breath.
Kristin Laughtin says
It's OK to change your plans along the way.
Seriously. I'm cool with revising outlines, changing character names and titles and subplots and whatever, and most everything else now, but starting out, I was so rigid. I had to conform to my original vision or I was betraying something. Going with the flow makes me a lot less stressed out and probably prepares me better for dealing with the publishing world when/once I do sell a book.
Juliette says
I'm only just starting now, but I would love to tell me 10 years ago that it's OK to write with the aim of making money out of it, and that you're never too young to get started.
Kaitlyne says
I wish that I knew earlier what true editing entailed. I used to think it was all about fixing the wording. Now I understand that it involves so much more. Pacing, structure, plot, and so on.
I also wish I'd been less stubborn about not outlining back them. My books would have been a lot better when I first started if I'd planned better.
Dawn Simon says
I don't think I'd change things. I've learned so much since I started, especially in the last five years. It's a huge and incredible journey, and knowing too much would have made those first steps more intimidating.
I think while we're learning about business and craft, so much time has to be spent writing and editing peers (but especially writing) in order to grow properly–at least that's true for me. I simply wasn't ready, but I wouldn't have learned all I had if I had known that. I think the writing, the rejections, the critique groups–it all seasons us. And if we persevere, we turn out better for it.
There are still so many people who know so much more than I do, and there always will be. Always. But I'll learn over time, as I'm ready for each new discovery. The unknown helps fuel me because I continue to believe something great is around the next corner–and if not there, the corner after that. I wouldn't want anyone–not even my future self–to tell me otherwise.
Anonymous says
Since I came to writing a little later in life-43,I'm still learning the ropes. I have no regrets so far. Every mistake I've made I've learned from.It's a journey I have fell in love with.
RK Gold says
That writing a book is not as easy as reading one.
Sue Eves says
that I can't stop
Munk says
I wish I'd known how to bake an angel food cake and how to become invisible and how to fly.
M.R. Merrick says
That I'm not alone!
When I started the writing process I didn't know any writers. At first I never thought to look online and find some, then I figured I would write the first draft and deal with the rest afterwards. Had I known what an amazing community was out there, just waiting to be introduced to me, I would've gotten involved a lot sooner.
That being said, I can appreciate the way things have turned out so far. It'd have been nice to know I wasn't alone earlier on, but at the same time, I appreciate things a little differently having found them late.
Anonymous says
That maintaining a hard daily writing routine was far more important than any single book.
By 'hard' I mean truly working at getting better, studying others' work that I felt had power, actively trying out different approaches, not settling for – in the words of Edward de Bono – 'the first right answer.' In other words, that writing is more than merely typing words that I made up in my head.
Fortunately, I did figure those things out, it just took longer than I would've liked.
Still struggling with the 'daily' part, though.
DavidMalcolm says
I wish I could have told myself that even if I've seen some really lousy and boring books get published. That doesn't necessarily mean my awesome engaging totally unique book is going to have an easy time convincing an agent to take a chance.
I think I'd also have told myself not to put all my hopes in one dream agent with a dreamy smile. Cause when you get rejected by the one you'd been hoping for for your whole third draft … huts like a bugger!
Marilyn Peake says
Nathan, I like what you learned about writing. I agree that the journey a writer takes in creating each manuscript is an awesome experience – it’s like visiting a brand new world and walking around inside it every time you write a manuscript.
As far as what I wish I had known when I started writing … I wish I had known how much I would love it, and wish I had double-majored in Creative Writing in college and gone on to get an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. I originally went to college for Journalism, switched my major to Psychology, and later went to graduate school in Clinical Psychology. I still love Psychology and enjoyed working in that field, but I wish I had started writing novels much sooner than I did.
Ted Fox says
That I'm at my best when I'm writing. I think that would've prompted me to start earlier.
Laura Drake says
I wish I'd have had something impossible; the long view.
Oh, and that it's addicting.
PatriciaW says
It's okay not to know what you're doing. The only right way is your way. So write. Just write. Process and craft and such will come later. Enjoy the freedom while you can.
Dead Man Walking says
The Art of conflict bridging and spoon-feeding tension. Oh. And to never tell ANYONE other than your spouse/sig-other that you're writing a book.
Nick says
500 words a day is better than 2,000 in the occasional flash of inspired brilliance.
And what Rob Smith said about Ninja Gaiden…
Ginny Kubitz Moyer says
I wish I'd known what Hemingway wrote about dealing with writer's block: All you have to do is write one true sentence. Just write the truest sentence that you know, and take it from there. It always works.
Mira says
What a powerful topic and comments. I'm flagging this to re-read.
For me, I wish I'd known not to ever ask other people about:
a. Whether I should write.
b. What I should write.
To trust myself.
Still learning that at deeper levels.
Bron says
I wish I'd started earlier. I'm still relatively young, but when I think of those long holidays I had at school and university, I wish I had spent some of those weeks writing. I have much shorter holidays now that I have a full-time job, and I want to spend some of them, you know, actually taking a trip.
Carolyn B says
I wish I had known I was living in the golden age of publishing. There were dozens of mainstream magazines actively looking for short fiction. I sold a few stories, then got busy with a job and stopped submitting. I thought I could always get back to it when I had more time.
Caroline Starr Rose says
Here's what I'm glad I didn't know: it would take eleven manuscripts, eleven years, and hundreds of rejections to sell that first book.
Thankfully, I was blissfully unaware and kept plugging away.
Ray Anderson says
I wish I'd known it's not the writing; it's the RE-WRITING!
Kristi Helvig says
I'm actually glad I didn't know at the beginning that the revising would be harder than the writing (for me at least). Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Livia says
That writing isn't about words. It's about being really good at imagining things — people, places, events, etc.
Mary McFalrand says
I wish I had known . . . not to buy writing chairs I didn't want my butt to grow into.
C.Smith says
I wish I had known I was going to try churn my hobby into a full-time career. At least then I would have had my story straight and my future outlined. And I wouldn't have burnt/shredded all those 200 page novels I'd handwritten because I thought they were utter poop. Would have saved me so much time than trying to start them again from scratch.
The stupidity of youth. *smacks younger self*
Laurie Boris says
I wish I'd known that a novel isn't done because you're tired of it. That it's done when it's done, when it's the best story possible. Like my grandmother always said about any recipe she passed along, "cook until done!"
Laura W. says
"Hurry the hell up and write the damn thing instead of noodling around on all these writing blogs!" 😉
Anonymous says
I second what Rick Daley said. Although, as a fan of cheesy Italian dishes, I immediately assumed that the speaker with accent of unknown origin simply could not spell "manicotti."
word ver: walibuse: the thirteenth attempt at hanging your favorite velvet painting (of the Virgin Mary posing with both Elvis and her son) on the flaking plaster above the fireplace…nothing to do with wallabies. NickB
Anonymous says
Seriously though, maybe: read more and widely. And yes, past self, it's okay to read when you Should Be writing. It's school. NickB
Nan says
I wish I'd known more about POV–I feel like I'm back in college creative writing class when I spend time with my crit group. It's good for me, but sometimes I feel incredibly dumb!
Joanna says
I wish I had known how much writing would consume me… and I wish I'd been able to prepare my family for the hours and hours I would spend behind the closed door. We've settled into a rhythm now but it took a while and it wasn't pretty.
Simon Haynes says
I wish I'd known it takes me 20-25 drafts before I'm moderately happy with any given manuscript.