11 pieces of writing advice that might just change your life.

I may not have my degree yet, but I do make a lot of mistakes (and occasionally I learn from them).

This week I’ve been reading Chuck Palahniuk’s 36 Craft Essays. One of these essays is a list of his 13 best writing tips, many of which I found helpful in my own practice. In that spirit, I thought I’d write a list of my best writing advice, especially since it’s such a frequently asked question on my Instagram page. I hope you find these helpful—take what serves you and ignore what’s not relevant.

1. Be patient with the outcomes. Rushing the process is probably the worst thing you can do to yourself as an artist. A little anecdote: When I was 12-16, I used to write and produce music. I quit because I was disappointed that I wasn’t an overnight sensation. I was literally only 16, but because I was comparing myself to famous teen musicians and musical geniuses, I lost all my motivation. I regret it to this day and constantly wonder how good of a producer I could’ve been now if I had only kept going. DON’T be like 16-year-old me! Be patient with yourself, even when you think your writing is bad and/or no one gives it any attention.

2. Don’t compare yourself to the writer you used to be. People are always saying that the only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. I think this is terrible advice for creatives, because improvement is not always linear. It’s okay to fall off and go through a flop era. It’s okay to not be as technically skilled as you used to be (especially after taking a long break). You just have to stick with it and not let negative progress stop you. Trust your ability to bounce back.

3. Avoid thinking about reception before the story is actually written. Like I said in #1, please do not worry about marketing or audience reception when you’re still writing. I don’t let myself think about any of that until at least the first draft is completed. Don’t scare yourself by wondering if people will like your work, because fear is the enemy of creativity.

4. When you’re stuck, look for buried gold. In other words, look at what you’ve written so far and find little details you can elaborate on or turn into a recurring image. For example, if a character attains an object in chapter 1, perhaps you can give it a purpose in chapter 5 (Maybe they lose it? Maybe they’re forced to trade it for something else? Maybe it’s revealed to be much more powerful than they thought? It’s up to you).

5. You don’t need fancy software. All you need to write is a laptop (or paper and a pencil). You don’t need a 200 page guide to worldbuilding. You don’t need to pay 20 dollars a month just to put words on a document. (Unless you want to. Tailor this article to how it best fits you). (Generally I try to reject hobby-based consumerism. Be critical of what you actually need and what’s just being marketed to you.)

6. Study grammar, vocab, and syntax. This will take your story from a 5 to a 10. Learn ways to vary your sentence structure, and be specific with your vocabulary.

7. Reading will actually give you superpowers. Read classic and contemporary novels. Fiction and nonfiction. Books in your genre and books you wouldn’t usually read. I was a voracious reader as a kid but stopped reading between the ages of 15-16. During that time, my writing was worse than it was when I was 13. When I started reading again at 17, my writing became 10x better within just a few months. I’ve been reading almost every day since then and have only seen improvement. Reading is the magic elixir of a writer.

8. Let yourself write bad stuff. Let yourself write terrible prose. Let yourself write cringy dialogue. Let yourself write a plot that makes no sense. But whatever you do, DON’T STOP, and don’t let it discourage you. A lot of people give up on their projects because their rough drafts aren’t as good as they hoped for. The only way finish a book is to let your work be awful and keep pushing on, even if it physically hurts you to read it back. (In my personal process, editing is 80% of the work that goes into writing a book. Draft hard and fast, and edit slowly and deliberately.)

9. Completion comes from self-trust. As a creative, you need to be able to trust yourself to finish projects. At first, start small—tell yourself you’ll write one paragraph a day, and consistently show up to do that. Several days of doing this will prove to yourself that you have what it takes to show up for yourself. Every time you swear you’re going to do something and don’t, you’re breaking trust within yourself and reinforcing the idea in your head that “it’s just too hard.” Keep proving to yourself in little ways that you can pull through on things you say you’ll do. It’s never too late to rewire your brain circuits!

10. You don’t know everything. And that’s a wonderful thing! Even people who’ve studied a topic for several decades will admit they only know a small piece of the pie. Keep reading, keep learning, and keep practicing. No matter how skilled you are, there is always more to learn.

11. Genuinely just be yourself. What excites you? What makes you feel something? What do you like to read? Whatever it is, write that. Ray Bradbury once said that you should take note of 10 things you love and 10 things you hate and write about that. Whatever project you decide to start will be the most enjoyable if it’s infused with your passion.

Hope this helps. Thanks for reading!

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