Land of Babble

I thought of a couple of points worth exploring so I'm gonna roll with it...

One thing is certain-- advice is everywhere and it's conflicting. For every writer that insists on a way of doing things, another will tear it apart. That's really the beauty of it. To be challenged, to defend your points, to be open to considering a new way of making your stories work. So what else is interesting to the writer's struggle to improve?

You Don't Have to Publish Everything You Write

This one stunned me a bit of only because I had tons of diaries and sketchbooks and notebooks full of things never shared. Some burned so no one could ever suffer it's mediocrity. I suppose the idea that all of it is worth sharing probably comes to younger people who grew up posting every garbage thought on social media. I wouldn't say discretion is simply for sake of your brand since variation and dedication isn't a bad thing. However, if you're a new writer and you're publishing everything to market without being edited and considered many times over, you could end up infamous for low-quality hurried work.

There are plenty of unofficial outlets for writing. Flirt with fanfic, do Twitter writing prompts, keep a notebook or journal handy. Writers are taken more seriously if they show value in the output. Even if you do officially publish most of what you write, tuck some quality practice sprints in there, something that aims for trying something new or improving a weakness. At least in the beginning, you might have an ego that vastly outweighs the quality. You will get a better sense of what really shows off your best work over time.

Reading Vs. Studying

Not the first time I've mentioned this but I've never really taken to the idea that writers should be voracious readers. I've said before that I was a voracious reader as a kid but this was difficult to keep up into adulthood. I was raising two young boys with social and trust issues (and though they still exist, I'm very proud of how they've blossomed over the years). Free time was when I got to sleep for many years there. When I was finally able to return to writing and drawing, I was stunned by how much I seemed to grow as a non-practicing artist and writer. 

Another article I stumbled on pointed to something that may be much more important: the studious creative. Rather than just reading novels, I had stolen moments where I researched something I was curious about, played a great video game for a little while or watched a YouTube video. I found that those bursts of concentration and even the inevitable interruptions were a crash course in discipline when it came to focusing in a flash. While I'd too often have to drop novels I lost my place on eventually, I found there were niches where I was developing without actual practice.

Keep in mind, I've also had a lifelong fascination with grammar and spelling and a natural talent for drawing (even with an unsteady hand) and color differentiation. It wasn't like I was just okay and suddenly I was brilliant. What it does mean is that those things, to me, fall under the category of remembering how to ride a bike in the actual way that relearning to ride a bike actually isn't. 

Getting on a bike after never having done it for 5+ years proves that is a lie. I had zero muscle memory left. Same with roller skating. Total Bambi moment there...

I know I'll say again and again that, if you don't know it well now, you will eventually realize that too many people will use deceptive wording to convince you that you can be successful if you just do this or that. Yet I've seen many new writers come from a place of arrogance then disappear when their debut was a bust. If you survive the letdown again and again, what happens is your stories tend to mature. Not necessarily in subject matter-- you just start to exercise more consideration and caution. If it didn't defeat you, you might become more critical of the work and dig deeper.

It's a bumpy road and all that. Lotta writers that gave up, making for some pretty gruesome speed bumps. For me, it's a cue to slow down and reevaluate. Hopefully, you're one of the enduring ones too.