From time to time certain friends have told me that I should have a go at writing something, and I’m sometimes tempted. I am NOT fishing for compliments and the daft riffing bollox I come with is not to everyone’s taste of course. I also think I’m quite lazy when it comes to knuckling down to it, but if I do, I’d appreciate any tips as to the process as things come to me spontaneously and I have no idea how to cobble it together into a form/narrative that I could even consider approaching someone with.
Thanks 🙂
Rufus T Firefly says
Joining a writing class or group would be a good way to start and continue. Some of them are for novel-writing, others for screenwriting, which may not be what you have in mind. The great thing about such groups is feedback from peers, ideas and input from people who are close to your level and the necessity to keep churning out those pages, which can be hard – or unfocused – if you are working alone.
Rob C says
Thanks Rufus. The problem is I’m not really the joiner/group type. Apart from close friends, I’m more of a happy loner – my own company. I’m happy socialising, but more on the fringe so to speak. I’d like to find experienced advice as how to plot/knit things together, which I’m not sure is actually viable anyway re the sort of stuff I lark around with.
Rufus T Firefly says
You sound like many writers I know! Dorothea Brande’s “Becoming a Writer” is a good general guide (although it’s more than that) to applying yourself to writing. It’s been around for ages and still stands up. There is a huge number of screenwriting books out there (I’ll send over some recommendations if that’s an area you want to explore), but one of the best ones for just getting on with writing, and with wider applications than screenwriting is Viki King’s “How to write a movie in 21 days”.
Rob C says
Thanks again for your advice. I’m not a writer though, far from it. I tried years ago, ‘serious’ writing, and to honest my few attempts were pretty dire and dull. I’m considering the possibility of having a go, even if just for personal fun, at something whimsical/humorous.
Rob C says
ps: I’ll check out the Dorothea Brande book 🙂
chiz says
Rob, you have a gift for descriptive writing and a fabulously wild, idiosyncratic style which just needs taming a bit. There’s loads of advice online about story arcs and 8-point plots and 3-act structure and character development and so on. Most of it is pretty bleeding obvious.
Nothing beats just sitting down and writing every day. Something that happened that day; a girl smiled at you through the cafe window, but then you realised she was smiling at her reflection. 500 words. Do it now!
Kid Dynamite says
It’s simple, even obvious advice, but really the best thing I’ve ever been told about being a writer is that you have to, well, write. If you’re serious you should set yourself a daily word target. It doesn’t have to be a lot, as little as 500 words a day, but it does have to be achievable. Do that, and then make sure you get those 500 words down a day. They don’t have to be good. If you go back the next day and decide 250 of those words are rubbish, that’s fine. No one’s first drafts are any good. Cross the junk out, and start your next batch. It’s all about discipline.
Kid Dynamite says
(In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that just because this is good advice doesn’t mean I’ve taken it. I’ve had a couple of short stories published in recent years, but I could have done so much more if it wasn’t for Playstations and gigs.)
pencilsqueezer says
Discipline is the most important aspect. The world is full of people who claim to be a writer/artist/musician. If you don’t do the work you are none of those. You’re a wannabe.
One learns by doing, not sitting on one’s arse procrastinating.
ianess says
Totally agree with the above as regards the discipline required. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a very interesting and helpful read which I think would appeal to you.
Rec Room says
Write a bit every day (whatever that turns out to mean) and at least you’ll have raw material to create something further. For instance, take a random recent page, and another page from a few years earlier, and you’ll most likely find 2 different voices that when randomly juxtaposed offer up something else.
“I tried years ago, ‘serious’ writing” , so is your writing today non-serious? Copy/paste these two together. Are they enemies? Soul brothers? Who is the sad-case and who the enabler? Most “artists” don’t know what they’re doing, the important thing is to produce so that you have raw material to draw from.
It’s all a laugh.
Mousey says
I’m not a writer, but I think the advice to write every day is good advice. I love the cellist Pablo Casals reply to the question, when he was in his 80s, “why do you practice every day?” – “bacuase I think I might be getting better.
Certainly for me playing the piano everyday is essential, as is trying to compose something new and either scribbling it down or recording it.
There’s a great book called “The Artist’s Way” that you may like to investigate, if you want some structure.
I enjoy your wacky blog posts so you’ve obviously got originality and humour which is probably a good start
nigelthebald says
Wacky? Rob? Are you sure you’ve got the right person?
Poppy Succeeds says
1. Write for yourself. No, write for a mind-wiped version of yourself who at some point in the future will read your work and groove on the cool stuff you did. Make this future mind-wiped version of yourself your ‘reader’.
2. Think of what you’re writing as a trail of gold coins. Give the reader a reason to read on.
3. Make that reason something tangible like they need to find out what happens or it’s making them laugh. Not ‘I think this is a really cool description of raindrops on glass or the sound of a cigarette smouldering’. Style is just icing, story trumps it every time.
4. Don’t worry about finding your voice, it’s the worst piece of writing advice in the history of the world. Worry about finding the voice of whoever is narrating your story.
5. Activate sentences, energise verbs, reduce ‘ing’ words – all the usual advice that you should know and know when to ignore.
6. Edit. Rewrite. Remember that writing is rewriting. On which note…
7. Don’t be precious. The more ruthless you can be with your own work, the better you will be. Don’t forget that to reach publication you will have several sets of people insisting on amendments to your work. To alleviate the pain of that process teach yourself to be merciless. A good joke but it holds up the story? Fuck it, delete it.
8. Remember that if and when you ask someone to read your work you are asking them a favour. It’s not the other way around.
9. If your reader doesn’t ‘get it’, they haven’t failed, you have. If they like it then take their praise with a pinch of salt. If they don’t like it, don’t agonise over the reasons why or try to change their mind, just thank them and move on.
10. Use Times New Roman, 12 point, double-spaced.
11. Never listen to writing advice.
ianess says
I like adverbs. You may have noticed this, Poppy. Frequently.
Rob C says
Thanks for the advice folks. Much appreciated. I’m going to experiment with a daily scribble. I keep a notebook by my bed, sort of a dream diary, so I’ll just expand that habit into more of a routine, and as musician I’m no stranger to applying myself to what I enjoy doing (it’s not practice, it’s fun), so that will be the decider, seeing if it’s something I get into and enjoy on a regular basis. Quite different from the fun of spontaneous bollox riffing on here !
ewenmac says
Bruce Robinson’s advice to people who want to be a writer –
“Don’t do it; you’ll get kicked in the balls of your soul.”
He says he tells them this because he knows that a writer would ignore it anyway.
Rob C says
Oh I’ve had plenty of that, believe me.