Writers in the Storm

Sarah Cy

According to the old adage, "practice makes perfect."

For a writer, reading and writing is practice. So the more you do it, the better a writer you should be, right?

In reality, reading and writing every day does not a great writer make.

Not if "reading and writing every day" means browsing news or fashion magazines over your morning coffee and scribbling memos to yourself in your notes app.

Not even if "reading and writing every day" means devouring blog post after blog post and then dumping out your stream-of-conscious thoughts in response.

Because it isn’t just practice that turns a mediocre writer into a great writer.

It’s deliberate practice.

What is deliberate practice?

According to Geoff Colvin, author of Talent is Overrated, deliberate practice is constantly trying to do a thing one cannot do comfortably. Therefore, daily reading and writing won’t help you improve if you’re only doing it leisurely.

When Benjamin Franklin was learning how to write, he didn’t just read a few articles and then begin writing Poor Richard’s Almanac. Instead, Franklin found the best writing available, dissected it, summarized it, and rewrote it. Over and over again.

If you want to write as well (or better than) Benjamin Franklin, you must do the same. You might not do exactly what Franklin did, but there are certain aspects to deliberate practice that will help you significantly improve as a writer if you use them wisely, such as:

Getting feedback

Without proper feedback, you can’t really tell if you are improving, or how much you are improving.

You need feedback from two sources: writers and readers. Feedback can come in many forms: statistics showing how many people read your articles, “likes” and “claps” on social media or blogging sites, etc.

But the best feedback is specific.

To receive specific feedback, you need to reach out to some trustworthy writing mentors, friends, and readers and ask them specific questions. Instead of “What do you think about my article?” you can solicit particular advice by asking questions like “What do you think about the [length, introduction, headline, etc.] of my writing?”

Use a mix of open-ended and targeted questions to get a broad range of feedback. And once you have the feedback, immediately implement it, either by revising your piece, or incorporating the best advice into your next piece.

Finding (the right) teacher

It is totally possible to improve your writing skills on your own, but if you truly want to speed up the process, and avoid many dead ends and common mistakes, it’s best to find an experienced teacher.

Today, finding a teacher is easier than ever — there are plenty of classes, both in person and online that you can choose from, no matter where you live.

But the key is to find the right teacher for you: What is the teacher’s background? What kind of work have they produced in the past? What kind of work have their students produced? Is this the kind of work you want to produce? If so, congratulations: you’ve found the right teacher for you.

Learning from a good teacher or mentor is more than worth the investment. Teachers not only have more experience writing, they can see your work from a different perspective and recognize common errors and methods of helping you be the best writer you can be.

Find writing peers

Writing can be a fairly solitary activity. But in order to improve, you need to become part of a tribe of peers.

Look for fellow writers who are a little ahead of you — they will inspire you to work harder so you can reach their level. Look for writers who are a little behind you — you might be able to give them a hand sometimes, and teaching is the best way to learn new concepts. And look for writers who are right at your level — you can be critique partners and inspire each other to improve together.

Read strategically

There is an endless amount of reading material out there, and needless to say, you don’t have time to peruse them all, and not all reading material will help you improve as a writer.

Instead, look for skilled writers and books/articles/writing that have stood the test of time. Find out what makes those particular writers and their works timeless, what attracts you to them. Then practice deliberately by trying to incorporate what you’ve learned into your own writing.

Don’t read strategically

The mind is like a muscle and needs to rest and wander now and then. Sometimes the greatest insights and most creative works emerge after you’ve allowed your mind to experience new things and read some not-necessarily-high-caliber books.

After all, reading disappointing writing may inspire you to create your own, higher-quality rendition, and reading a variety of random but interesting works gives your brain material to work with.

There is nothing new under the sun. Rather, novelty comes from making interesting connections between two or more previously existing ideas. So let your mind play once in a while. Immerse yourself in various life experiences and take time to explore other art forms.

Finally, you don’t always have to read strategically — just read whatever you have in front of you, and let your mind create unexpected connections.

And finally...DON’T read and write (every day)

Reading and writing in the form of deliberate practice can be draining. Don’t do it every day.

Rest, sleep, and play are crucial for creativity and productivity. It is during rest and sleep when your mind is allowed to wander and make interesting new connections. And play (whatever that means to you —either literally playing games, or exploring new places, watching movies, etc.) helps to refresh your body, mind, and spirit, giving you motivation and inspiration to buckle down and practice hard when the time comes.

So don’t read and write every day (unless part of that is leisure reading and journaling for fun). Rather, balance hard work with recovery time, and you will not only avoid burnout, you will find your skills improving much faster than you ever anticipated.

Being the best you can be at anything takes time. But it also takes intention.

Everyone reads and writes nearly every day (emails, texts, anyone?) But few of us reach our full potential as writers. Only those who read and write in order to practice deliberately will become great at writing — and more importantly, great at communicating important messages.

As a writer, you have an important message (or several) to share with the world — messages that only you can share, based on your unique understanding and background.

So read and write wisely, not just daily. Be the best writer you can be so that you can communicate those messages to us.

We’re counting on you.

Which of these tips have you struggled with? Getting feedback? Finding the right teacher or writing peers? Reading strategically, or not reading strategically? Or taking breaks from reading and writing?

About Sarah

Sarah Cy is a writer, tutor, and perpetual learner who writes serious, silly, and sundry posts while striving to help other writers improve their skills and find their purpose.

Sarah is on a mission to promote powerful, life-changing writing. For more information, get the free Write Purpose Manifesto and learn what it means to be a purposeful writer!

To connect with Sarah, say hi on twitter or email her at sarah@thewritepurpose.com.

 

I chose this entry to crit this month because, at its core, it sounds like an interesting story, and it could be a compelling beginning. But it's buried in adjectives, adverbs and asides. I can tell this author slaved over this. But believe it or not, we can try too hard. 

Black = original

Red = my thoughts/comments

Purple = text I added/altered

Sickly  Sunbeams muscled through the grime-streaked window, nudging nine-year-old Georgie from a precarious sleep slumber. She peeked through the holes of her soiled pink and white blanket. and reached up to scramble the dust motes dancing within the muted shafts. All was quiet—not often always a good sign.

We are well anchored — we're getting hints of what Georgie's life is like. Well done. But I've cut the clutter — things we don't need. The reader wants to move along, especially in the beginning, so they can settle into your world and find out what the story is about. Playing with the dust motes is unnecessary. Be sure every word in your beginning is essential. Also, 'slumber' isn't a word a young girl would think.

 

            Georgie never knew who or what awaited her on the flip side of sleep—a landlord banging on the door forcing her to grab her backpack and skedaddle out the window, or worse, one of her mother’s smelly dates, staring at her like she inherently knew they shouldn’t be. 

See how 'inherently knew' is the author's voice, not a 9-year-old's? You want the reader to relate to Georgie — so put us in her skin by showing us how this makes her feel — in a little kid's voice, like, '...or worse, one of her mother's smelly dates staring at her like she was breakfast,' or something like that.

            If she couldn’t sneak away while her mother was doing 'entertaining' otherwise occupied, she’d jam the ragged easy chair into a corner, hide behind it and curl up like a basement bug. It blocked the sights—unfortunately, but not the sounds.

'Otherwise occupied' is the author's voice — and I know 'doing entertaining' isn't grammatically correct, but it's how I think a young girl would use the word she heard from her mother. LOVE 'basement bug'!  I think pulling the adverb from the last sentence and making it simpler makes it more stark — more brutal.

            Georgie pulled her blanket over her head for a few beats, trying to will herself back to sleep so she could fly across the night sky with Peter Pan to Neverland where the Lost Boys welcomed her—after all, she was a lost girl. 

Love the 'lost girl' (should it be capped? Not sure). But the reader will get it before you think they will, so I don't think you need the last part. Once a reader understands, anything after that, they'll skim. And skimming is the beginning of a reader putting a book down.             

            She peeked from behind the chair—no boyfriends leered back at her. Her mother lay sprawled completely naked half-on and half-off the tattered couch. Georgie crept toward her. A fart ollowed byf and a couple of snorts let her know mom that Carol was indeed alive. She plucked the bright pink kimono from the floor and covered her mom before dashing out to face another day.  

Wait — she's not in bed — she's behind the chair? I didn't get that from the earlier paragraph. Thought that was something she did some nights, not last night. Easy fix: go up to that paragraph and edit to — 'Last night, she couldn't....' then make the rest of the sentence past tense: 'She'd jammed,' 'hid behind it and curled up.' See what I mean?

Okay, this paragraph. She wouldn't think 'Carol' — she'd think 'mom'. A subtle author intrusion — trying to slip in a detail you think the reader needs to know. At the end, give us a few details. I assumed she was in pj's, but apparently she slept in her clothes — that's a detail you may want to put earlier. Even if she did, I doubt she'd sleep in her shoes, right? Also, you mentioned her backpack earlier, and I assume it's for school —  wouldn't she grab that?

 

            Georgie had made friends up and down the streets of the South Bronx. Besides Mr. Ahman, the owner of the local bodega, there was the hawk-faced lady who stood on a box reading from the bible. Mrs. Toradelli ran the corner newspaper stand and Officer Ken and Officer Lee were two of the beat cops who patrolled her neighborhood during the day.

This is good — it anchors us as to where we are, and gives us a picture of what the neighborhood is like. You say, 'officer,' and 'patrolled,' so we know they're cops. 

Tom Robbins says, “Challenge every single sentence for lucidity, accuracy, originality, and cadence. If it doesn’t meet the challenge, work on it until it does.”

This is never more true than in your first pages.

What do you think? Anything I missed? Does this make you want to check your first pages for adjectives and asides?

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Laura’s next book is available for preorder! (You know how much preorders help authors, right?) Just click on the photo to be taken to retailers.

This cowboy’s got one last chance to prove himself

Carly Beauchamp has loved cowboy Austin Davis since first grade. Ask anyone in their dusty, backwater New Mexico town of Unforgiven, and they’ll say “Carly and Austin” the way some say “big trucks and country boys.” But after years of waiting for a wedding ring, Carly’s done with being a rodeo widow . . .

Austin never meant to put his career on the circuit before Carly. She’s always been his future, his one and only. But now that she’s moved on, he’s beginning to see where he went wrong, and he’ll do anything to win her back. The only thing is, Carly’s suddenly acting differently, and she’s definitely hiding a secret—one that will test the depth of their love and open up a whole new world of possibilities.

Over the last few months, I've shared "Top 10" lists from J.K. Rowling and Stephen King on the topics of writing and success. This month I chose Neil Gaiman, because he has so much compassion and practical wisdom to share about writing.

The amazing thing to me in compiling these lists is that all three writers offer different advice. The same way three creatives will take a single photograph and create three different worlds, these writers define words like "perseverance" in different ways. It fascinates me.

Here is Gaiman's "Top Ten" list for writing success:

1. Make good art.

The world needs us to do what we do. They need us to create stories that resonate, that take them outside of themselves. If you have the ability to create, take the time to do it well. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the magic of creativity in Big Magic.

While the fate of the world does not rest upon art, art can reflect the state of the world and it's fate. It's a mirror into society's soul and a great use of your time. Never doubt it.

As Gaiman says, "Do what only you can do, and do your best: Make. Good. Art."

2. Do what you care about.

We spend months and years writing our books. That's a lot of time to spend with characters and ideas. If you don't care about your story, what is the point? If you don't care about your characters, why should your reader?

3. Do new things.

Study after study says the key to creativity is play. If you've ever watched children play with each other's toys, you will see that they love learning how to use their tried and true whatever-toy-it-is in a new way, based on the improvisation of their friends. They have rules and they trust in them. We need trust, both to play and be creative. Exploration, building and thinking with your hands, and role-play where acting it out lets you really get inside it.

Nurture this on the page, and in your critique groups. Look at your old story in a new way. Take a writing class. I just took a Donald Maass class through the Women's Fiction Writers Association that knocked my socks off - just taking the class made me look at my work in a different way.

4. Ignore the rules.

Gaiman isn't talking about ignoring a rule "just because." We're not tweens, we're creatives. If a rule kills your writing mojo, it's okay to ignore it to bring your art into being. His argument: If you know the rules of what is possible, that is what you will do. Often that is ALL you will do. If you don't know the rules, you will have no idea that you can't do something. That soul-killing word shouldn't won't rear it's ugly head. You will try. And often you will fly.

Entertainment tip: Anne R. Allen wrote a great post on "secret writing rules" and why we can ignore them.

5. You are unique.

Your favorite authors have let their inner writing freaks fly free. You can hear their distinctive voices in every book they write. Have you every picked up a Darynda Jones book? Ditto with Christopher Moore and Janet Evanovich? 

My friend Natalie Hartford's first tagline was, "Be yourself...everyone else is taken." That is never more true than when you are writing. No one else will tell a story like you, and the people who love your voice will follow you through just about any story you write.

When you allow your uniqueness to shine, your writing will too.

6. Just do it!

I've talked about daring to suck before. We all suck when we start. Just do it anyway. You learn to write by writing.

Gaiman: "The most important thing you can do when you are starting out is 'write the next one.' Assume you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones." 

7. Walk toward the mountain.

Gaiman: "If you feel like you were put on this earth to do something, then go do that thing. Which is much harder than it sounds." He puts it like this:

Imagine where you want to be with your life. Imagine it is a distant mountain. When you are doing that something with your life, take a moment to stop and see whether it is taking you toward the mountain or away from the mountain.  If it is taking you away, don't do that thing. Only do things that move you closer to the mountain.

8. Persevere.

Much to my lament (and Neil's), the heavens will not open with notes of glory and publishing contracts every time you send something out. When you first get started, they might not open at all. Laura Drake has a quote she loves, which I think every writer should post on their mirror/workstation/refrigerator:

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

9. Try more.

Gaiman urges you to think of your writing like dandelion seeds. Dozens will go out into the world, but for every five failures that float on the wind, perhaps one will finds some success. The more you send out, the more success you will have. The more types of things you try, the greater the chance of finding that success.

10. Enjoy the ride.

Gaiman credits Stephen King with the best piece of advice he was ever given, which he regrets not taking: "Enjoy the ride." Instead of enjoying his success, he worried about it - the next deadline, the next idea. He wished he'd let go and enjoyed the ride. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KXf1QT9GC0

Bonus Gaiman tip that I love:

A freelance life of art is like putting a message in a bottle and hoping that someone will open your bottle and read it, and send one back to you..Don’t chase money. Just do your ideas when they come. If you do work that you’re proud of, even if you don’t get the money, you still have the work.

Gaiman is very practical in his advice, and he focuses on the work. What fuels your work?  Which of these ten bits of wisdom do you struggle with the most?

About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18+ years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or here at Writers In The Storm.