Things I wish I could tell my younger writer self…
Step away from the thesaurus. Put down that list of SAT words. Yes, those are all great words to know, I agree, but maybe they don’t ALL need to go in one story?
Because the perfect word isn’t always the right word. Sometimes the perfect word is exactly the wrong word and, actually, several not-quite right words can come together and create a better whole than that one perfect word ever could.
“It was like a conflagration lit in his chest, swallowing his heart. ”
“It was like a fire lit in his chest; one tiny spark that jumped to a bush, to a tree, to a second tree, to a third, and soon there was an entire goddamn forest fire blazing inside him, swallowing his heart.”
Writearound the perfect word. Look it up, figure out the etymology, the specifics, the nuance, and then write that into the story. Think of the perfect word, by all means, but then strap it down, slice it open, and show us its guts. Expose to the air and sunlight the places where it’s joined, where it’s been comfortable, where it’s been safe, and teasethat apart to your reader. (See? Instead of “dissect” which would have been perfect but it wouldn’t have been vivid or impactful or right)
Perfection is an intangible idea, a spritely ever-changing tormentor who guides you down a path that initially seems so safe and soon becomes rocky and untenable. Don’t worry about pursuing perfection, actually, give up on the concept entirely.
Start setting solid goals.
Instead of saying, “I want my work to be perfect” say, “I want to be confident editing” or “I want to be able to craft my sentences with a consistent style” or “I want my character voices to be unique.”
These goals give you something attainable to aim towards and will give you a sense of satisfaction when they are fulfilled.
Focus on the act of Perfecting rather than the unreachable goal of Perfection.
The act of Perfecting will help guide you towards a place of pride and confidence in your work. It is a process of crafting and grafting, and learning, growing, and most importantly loving- yourself and your work. Perfection is a term we use to punish ourselves when we don’t live up to our own expectations.
As with all of Life, focus on the journey not the end goal and you will find yourself at the end of your project having grown in skill and confidence. Good luck!
It’s easy to think of yourself as an ‘Artist’, to look at contempt with people who talk about money, and advertising, and publishing laws when we discuss fiction, but by doing that you cut yourself off from the ability to really get your work seen.
There is no shame in writing for money, and it doesn’t make you any less of an ‘Artist’ to engage with the business side of publishing. Even if you don’t care how much money you make from your books you still want people to read them right? And for people to do that they have to actually know about your book: that requires advertising knowledge, a website, and internet algorithms, or traditional publishing. Yes: business skills.
It’s easy to think that people who meet you will instantly sense your ‘Artistic genius’, and that publishers will read the first page of your novel and realise you’re a prodigy but…let’s be honest… you’re not. And neither am I. In fact, the likelihood of anyone reading this blog being the world’s-greatest-writer-who-has-ever-lived is extremely low. That’s not an insult, just the truth, and learning to recognise yourself as someone who is pursuing a career (no more special or predestined than any other) and who is in a constant process of growth, will protect you from becoming buried by your own ego.
Don’t block yourself off from success! Don’t undermine your own work by shunning the business side of writing! You don’t have to treat the idea of being paid a wage with contempt in order to be an artist!
