What are the ten most important things you’ve learned in your time as a writer? Both useful and useless?
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| MOST IMPORTANT: Mum must love my books! Mum with my latest book - LOVE that the cover for her phone (knitted by my sister) matches the book cover colors! |
In no specific order my Top Five (not capable of a top ten, sorry!):
I was once told to stop doing it when it stops being fun: THIS WAS NOT HELPFUL.
Why?
However much you love doing something, and however ultimately satisfying doing
it might be, there are always parts of the process that are far from fun. My
writing is my working life, it’s how I pay bills, so – yes – I’ll work through
the “not fun” parts until I get the job done. This isn’t my hobby and, even if
it were, I know that people with hobbies find there are unpleasant bits, and
they don’t give up, either. So I suck up the not fun, and get on with the job.
I was told to focus on being a writer – the rest of it isn’t important: THIS WAS ALSO NOT HELPFUL
My writing is my livelihood, so not
understanding the way the publishing business works isn’t going to be helpful.
If I made jewellry for a living, wouldn’t you think it would be helpful to
understand what people want to wear, where they want to be able to get their
hands on it, and how the links between me making it and them wearing it work?
It’s the same with writing: I spent years building my understanding of how the
business works, which allowed me to see that there were options available to me
I hadn’t even dreamed would be as good as working with traditional
publishers…until I understood the way traditional publishers work. Writing is
either the business you’re in, or it’s your hobby. It can’t be both. Making a
decision one way or the other is the best thing to do, and neither is wrong.
I was encouraged to write from the heart…to write what I want: SOMETIMES HELPFUL, WITH CAVEATS
As I reader I am more than passingly
familiar with the fact that when I see the cover and title of a book, then read
the blurb, I am in the process of forming a set of expectations about what sort
of journey that book will take me on, and what sort of companions I’ll be making
the trip with. If readers have expectations (which we all do), then writers need to understand
them – even if, as creators, we then choose to subvert those expectations. So,
no, I don’t think it’s good advice to “just” write what you want, I think it’s
better advice to write what the reader wants – if you want to sell books, that
is. And this does allow for “surprising the reader”, by the way. That being
said, the writer has the opportunity to write HOW they want WHENEVER they want
– these books are called “passion projects” and usually don’t pay the bills,
but give great satisfaction to the writer in other ways: it’s about balance in
one’s creative life.
I was told I should have a schedule for my writing: HELPFUL, WITH CAVEATS
I cannot write my works of fiction
every day. No daily/weekly word count glowering down at me, weighing me down
with guilt. No number of hours at the keyboard every day, or week. BUT…scheduling
my writing time across the year is something I find helpful – and it allows me
to book my editors’ time across the year, too.
I was told I should understand my process: HELPFUL, WITH CAVEATS
Until you’ve tried a few different ways to write, you really don’t know what works for you, so – yes – try different approaches. If a daily wordcount/hours schedule suits you and your life, do that…if not doing it works for you, do that. BUT once you understand what works for you, don’t let the voices of others who poo-poo your process sway you. I write fast – I always did, it’s just that my traditional publishers didn’t know that.
Something I wish I'd known when I started out, that no one told me: being with fellow authors is one of the most rewarding things you can do, so try to do that whenever possible. You might not actually talk about writing, but you can enjoy something just as valuable...quiet times with people who know the pain and pleasure that being an author means!
I hope you'll consider trying my books! You can find out all about them at my website: https://www.cathyace.com/
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