Advice to Myself

 

Terry here with our question of the week: What advice would you give to your younger writing self? Is there anything you'd do differently? 

 This will not be a long post, because the advice I would have for my younger writing self is simple: Take yourself seriously. 

 By that, I mean, pay attention to what you are writing and think about these things: 

 1) What do you hope your book will be in the end? The reason I would say this is that for several years I just wrote whatever struck me. I churned out novels without having the slightest idea what I wanted to say. I wrote okay stories, but they didn’t resonate. A nice story is not enough. The story needs to have a heart, a mind, and a philosophy behind it. That doesn’t mean it has to be deep into literary territory, but it has to have some thought behind it. 

 2) Have you chosen the right vehicle to tell the story? Don’t try to shovel a cozy into a thriller; or a psychological thriller into a police procedural. Make sure you know your genre. 

3) Are you writing what you mean to say? On every page? It’s interesting when you hear authors say “my character took over.” But that isn’t serious. It’s your world. Don’t let anyone hijack it. 

4) Are your characters who you want them to be? Are they fully fleshed out? Would you recognize them if you ran into them in the world? 

5) Have you done the proper research to get the details righ? 

6) Are you describing the action and the setting properly? Sometimes I write a scene and when I go back I think, “Where are they in this scene? Are they standing in the air?” And make sure the setting comes alive. Make sure the book couldn't be set anywhere but where you've written it.

 7) Finally, and most importantly, is this a book that comes from you? A book “only you can write?” Or is it a rehash of stories you’ve read. It may take some hard work, but you need to find your voice. Think about what makes it unique. Not sort of unique. Unique. One of the first short stories I wrote was critiqued by the great Max Apple at a conference. Very gently he said, “This is well-written. But we already have Eudora Welty.” He was right. She was my idol and I wanted to write like her. But…I had to find my own voice. 

 So if I could go back, I would tell myself: think. You don’t have to outline. You don’t have to know every detail. But you do have to know what makes you think this book is something people need to read.

When I first starting writing I would tell myself that I don’t need to address these things, that the “editor” would take care of the details. No. It’s up to you. I eventually learned that I didn’t have to address every single one of those things in the first draft, but that I needed to know my intentions. By that I don’t mean know exactly how the story would end. But what I hoped people will walk away with. 

 I read an enormous amount. And it’s fascinating to me that many authors I read write a perfectly good whodunnit. But it lacks heart. The book lacks a sense that the author has something urgent to convey. Or the book seems like I’ve read it before. 

And one more thing, I would say that taking yourself seriously means sitting down every day and writing as if it is your job, instead of waiting for “inspiration” to strike. Make the time to do it. If you value having a career as a writer, make it happen sooner rather than later. This last part is one that still eats at me because I think how much more I could have accomplished if I had taken myself seriously when I was younger. But…as my old friend Marilyn Wallace used to say, “You are the product of everything that has gone before, all the living you’ve done. That’s what goes into your work now.” Still, I wish I had known that earlier.