That love at first written word?
You know what I’m talking about. Don’t act like you don’t. That first blush of prose, your heart racing with each word you write. Oh, and remember when your first short story or flash fiction story was published? Ah, love sweet love.
Short story, flash fiction, and Drabble – writing the great American novel couldn’t be much harder. Wrong. I have so much to learn.
Thank you, Sacha Black, for your recent post.
7 LESSONS I WISH SOMEONE HAD TAUGHT ME BEFORE I STARTED WRITING
It feels good to realize I’m not the only writer on the planet to stumble through the writing process.
I too had to face the fact, learning takes time. Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks but it may take a little longer and a lot more patience.
What I gleaned from Sacha’s lessons:
- I’m not alone. We can all learn to write better.
- Writing a short story is not the same as writing a novel.
- Research is a black hole.
- Studying is a black hole.
- Reading can suck you into a black hole.
- BLACK HOLES will distract me from writing.
- Focus on learning one writing technique at a time.
- Feedback should come from objective writers.
- Benchmark what other authors write. Deconstruct specific sections, dialog and figure out the why and how.
- Break down competition. Covers, chapters, length, etc. How will mine stack up?
- Make friends. Writer friends who tell me the truth. Sometimes the truth is overrated.
- Write-I should make more time to write. Shouldn’t we all?
Sacha goes into more detail on her blog, and you’ll probably get something totally different than I did so click and read the whole thing. You’ll be glad you did.
Were you naive when you first began writing?
What have you learned since you wrote your first story/book?
If you could share one lesson with the beginning writer (you), what would it be?
Jean's Writing 