Half of What You Think You Don’t Know from James W. Ziskin

How long you’ve been writing, and what advice would you give to your younger self before you turned professional?

I have been writing seriously for about twenty years now. But before that, I wrote off and on for decades. That’s right, decades. As I’ve posted in this space before, I banged out my first novel on a portable blue Royal typewriter at the age of twelve. One hundred and ten perfectly fine sheets of paper ruined.

Random video. Nothing to do with today’s post.

But I knew I wanted to be a writer even then, so I kept plugging away. Each new effort was somewhat better than the last. I improved over time, which leads me to my first bit of advice to aspiring writers and to my younger self: 

1. Keep writing. 

This makes me think of Dory from Finding Nemo. Her mantra was “just keep swimming.” Mine is “just keep writing.”

Over the next fifteen years, while going to college and grad school, I wrote two more novels. Neither one was good enough for publication, of course, but they served their purpose. I kept writing and I kept getting a little better. I gained experience, made some awful mistakes, but learned to correct other ones. 

That’s my second piece of advice:

2. Keep learning. 

If you keep writing, you can’t help but learn.

 

And while you’re at it:

3. Keep the dream going. 

If you truly want/need to be a writer, you know what the dream is. It’s more than bestseller lists, movie deals, and buckets of royalty cash. It’s being a writer. Telling stories. Escaping reality and inventing new ones. If you only want money and fame from writing, you should rethink your career choice. Writing is not for the movers and shakers. It’s for the sitters and gazers.

Hey, a fella can dream...

Finally, I offer this extra bit of simple advice that works just as well in any of life’s endeavors:

4. Know that you don’t know half of what you think you don’t know, which is twice the amount you think you know. That is to say, what you might actually know doesn’t amount to even half of what you don’t think you know that you don’t know. Think about that . . . 

For the record, here is a list of what my writer’s journey looked like. I believe the four pieces of advice cited above have helped me persevere and achieve the modest success I’ve enjoyed.

First book = age 12

Second book = age 19

First short story published = age 23

Third book = age 26

Fourth book = age 31

Fifth book = age 32

Sixth book = age 45

First book published = age 53

Second book published = age 54

Third book published = age 55

Second short story published = age 55

Fourth book published = age 56

Third and fourth short story published = age 56

Fifth book published = age 57

Fifth short story published = age 57

Sixth book published = age 58

Sixth short story published = age 59

Seventh book published = age 59

Seventh short story published = age 63

Eighth book published = age 62

Bonus advice:

It’s never too late to start.