When the U.K. newspaper the Guardian asked authors for tips, the results ranged from practical to insightful to just plain silly.
A few tips were repeated throughout: Cut everything you can, read your work out loud, you will never be satisfied with what you’ve written. (Seriously. Lots said that.) Many gave the age-old advice, read, read, read. But novelist Will Self said, “Stop reading fiction—it’s all lies anyway, and it doesn’t have anything to tell you that you don’t know already.” Another theme: Sometimes, you can break the rules.
Here are my top-five favorite tips from the article.
“Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.” —Roddy Doyle
“The first 12 years are the worst.” —Anne Enright
“Don’t look back until you’ve written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceeding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in . . . The edit.” —Will Self
“If you have to read, to cheer yourself up read biographies of writers who went insane.” —Colm Toibin
“Remember you love writing. It wouldn’t be worth it if you didn’t. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back.” —Al Kennedy
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Leigh Ann Otte is a professional writer, editor and blogger.
A version of this article was originally published March 25, 2010, on Leigh Ann’s previous blog The Doctor Writer: Helping Medical Professionals Bring Out Their Inner Writer. Read more posts from that blog here.
Image courtesy pdclipart.org.
