The Easy Way to Write - What's It About?


As I often do, I'm responding to a subscriber query recently about the type of writing advice I offer in my courses and Kindle books.

First of all I should state - again - for the record, that I believe the most surefire way of improving your writing is simply to write.

Studying is one thing.

I try my hardest to offer good advice on genre requirements and writing style to make it easier for the writer to compete in the marketplace and get published.

What I don't do is force you to study other writers and how they go about what they do.

I think to focus too heavily on how a particular author or three get their results is to slightly misunderstand the point of studying writing.

If you take a tertiary degree in order to study writing, you will be presented with lots of theories as to how writers go about creating stories and all the options available to a writer trying to emulate them.

But to me this is counter-intuitive.

Just because you have analyzed how Dickens or Conrad or Stephen King have achieved the final draft of their manuscripts, the knowledge doesn't necessarily help you when drafting your own stories or books.

Writing is a process.

Analyzing the final product tends to leave you in awe - and intimidated - when you should realize that a lot of changes and rewriting went on in order for the final product to look and seem so effortless.

That doesn't mean it was easy for the author, or that they didn't make lots of mistakes along the way - of course they did.

Nor does it mean that you shouldn't attempt to write something just as good.

When Robyn and I write books and get them published, we're often amazed at how different - and how much better - the final drafts are to our first efforts.

This is the process.

Writing is first of all about getting your thoughts down on paper. Then it's about clarifying those thoughts into a coherent argument - whether it's fiction or non fiction.

Next it's about polishing.

Then it's about submitting to publishers (or movie producers!).       

Then it's about rewriting, changing your writing to suit others and your readers.

What writing to me is NOT about is studying the greats over and over only to beat ourselves up into thinking that great writing is beyond us.

The purpose of the Easy Way to Write is to inspire you to get involved in the process of writing - and learn to enjoy it - and learn more as you progress and improve, based on feedback from the real world, not some classroom type environment.

Studying classic writers, while sometimes illuminating (once you know the terms of reference), should not be the focus of a working, or even aspiring writer.

Studying is for students. Writing is for writers.

Curiously, when certain (probably one in a thousand!) writers complain to me and say I haven't given enough in depth analysis of a particular topic, I ask to see examples of their work so that I can give them more specific, in depth advice on their own work.

Guess what happens to these students that prefer to study than to write?

They find writing too hard - and don't have anything to show me.

I don't want this to happen to writers.

I want them to come to the Easy Way to Write and feel encouraged, inspired, energized and raring to write.

That's what the Easy Way to Write is all about.


Keep writing!
Rob@easywaytowrite.com
Your Success Is My Concern

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Create Writing Success

Image
Here's a cute lie that most people believe: Writing is more than a skill, a pastime or a way of making a living. It is a vocation - like being a nurse or missionary. In order to commit yourself, and impress those that would read your work, you have to want to do it for nothing. Indeed this is how many of us become writers - it's something we feel compelled to do, whether asked to, required to or not! Certainly I've noticed that when you first start dealing with publishers, your enthusiasm, commitment and talent are of primary concern. Any talk of money too early in the process will see you ostracized very quickly. You're supposed to want to write for yourself - for art's sake - first. I guess it's about trust. The people that would help us get our work seen - in other words, published - need to be sure that our motives are sincere. That we write for some purpose other than just to make money. Tosh! I have discussed this aspect of the writer'...
Read more

Cash Management for Writers

Image
(Irrelevant picture but at least the copyright is mine!)  I'd be lying if I told you that being a full-time writer is all wine and roses and endless days of blissful creativity - especially at the start. It's rarely that for most. If you look at the lives of the great writers throughout history, they invariably grew familiar with the pain of rejection, the fear of failure, and often the gnawing ache of poverty. These days poverty is a relative term. If you have a computer and an Internet connection, you're by no means poor, no matter how you may feel. Recently I spent some time in Luxor, Egypt. There I met many people who thought regularly going without food for a few days was normal; people who thought you were unimaginably rich if you could afford to catch a plane; people who dreamed of one day owning a mobile phone. These people were by no means peasants, they were town dwellers with jobs and apartments who, despite living without electricity, managed to b...
Read more

The Times They Are A'Changin...

Image
It seems the longer time goes on, the more traditional publishers are shutting their doors to new authors.  Writers I speak to are getting their manuscripts back sooner and more frequently with those customary rejections these days, even if they've had publishing deals in the past. Anyhoo, where I live, South Australia has more than its fair share of successful writers - Sean Williams, who writes Star Wars novels, for one.  DM Cornish, whose Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy has a Hollywood option.  My wife, Robyn Opie, is the author of 85 internationally published books.  Janeen Brian is the proud author of 75 picture books, the list goes on. Wannabe professional writers should find this encouraging. Of course a lot more writers find success online these days, being independent and carving a niche as an authorpreneur. My subscribers often complain about how long it takes to gain some traction as an independent author. But don't forget it's never be...
Read more