Ten Mistakes ALL Authors Make.
Sometimes in life, you have ambitions. And sometimes, if you’re really into self hate and consistent nagging doubt, that ambition is to write books. But it’s not easy.
Understatement of the century.
It’s super fucking hard to write a book, guys. It’s hard to write, it’s hard to be a writer, it’s hard to get a book published, it’s hard to sell a lot of books. It’s just all super duper hard. I don’t recommend it, but unfortunately, I can’t help but do it.
If you’re like me, you can’t either. But you can make it easier - ish - on yourself. Here are ten things all writers tend to do that you should stop doing.
10. You’re jumping at the first offer of representation / publication / cover design, etc.
Self-explanatory. INSTEAD: do your research. Be knowledgeable about this industry and what it takes. Know what kind of agents and houses publish and work with your genre and category. Understand the red flags of these different facets of publication. Be choosy with your baby.
9. You’re being way too choosy with your baby.
I said what I said. You’re not Stephen King. People are not shitting their pants in 12 hour lines at Barnes and Noble on your release date. Do not expect a six figure book deal. Do not expect a huge advance. Do not expect to be handed a best-seller on a silver platter. It just doesn’t happen as often as you wanna believe. Period. INSTEAD: It’s okay to know what you want from a publisher, an agent, etc. You should. You should feel empowered to speak up and get what you need from the people you’re working with to bring your book to the masses. Just be realistic, manage your expectations, and understand the typical numbers for someone of your notoriety. In my case, I didn’t have any. So I knew I probably wouldn’t get an advance as a debut unknown nobody. I managed my expectations, so I wasn’t disappointed.
8. You’re not reading your book out loud.
If you are writing a book, it probably has dialogue. If your book has dialogue, it means two people are talking. If two people are talking, it needs to sound like...two people talking. But maybe you feel awkward about your dialogue. Maybe it seems stilted or off somehow. INSTEAD: Read that shit out loud. Have a full-on conversation with yourself. Read the narration in between dialogue in a dramatic voice-over voice. Act out certain quirks or movements to see if someone’s hand could actually move the way you wrote it moving. Even quietly to yourself, saying your writing out loud - especially the dialogue - can work wonders for making your book that much stronger.
7. You aren’t planning your full series out ahead of time.
I’m telling on myself here. I am in the process of finishing up the Thistlewolf trilogy, which is a YA paranormal romance horror series I published book one in October yeah we know ANYWAY. I knew what was supposed to happen in book 3, mostly. But I did not finish plotting out the arc of the final book in my series until November of 2018. A month after book 1 in the trilogy was already published and book 2 was on draft 3 or 4. Which means I have concrete rules of this world and relationships, etc etc, in PRINT. For the world to see. I can’t decide to change things in CB to fit better with what I want to happen in SW. I almost have to write SW around CB in order to avoid plot holes. INSTEAD: Plot your series out ahead of time. Know the major beats of every book and how their arc travels across from the first book to the last. Understand what you want the end result to be and build your previous books around that, not vice-versa.
6. You think you’re entitled to consistent inspiration, and you don’t see the point of working when uninspired.
If writers only wrote when they were inspired, there’d be approximately seven books in the history of the world. Inspiration is awesome. It’s exciting and freeing and fulfilling when you feel inspired to write. But it’s not as common as you’d think. INSTEAD: understand the importance of commitment and dedication over inspiration. Make time for it, and stick to it even when you don’t feel motivated. Push through the blocks and the slumps and understand writing for what it is: hard work.
5. You think your first draft is a book.
My sweet baby angel. It’s not. It’s just not. Don’t show it to people. Don’t query it. INSTEAD: Edit it. Revise it. Rewrite it. Edit it some more. Revise it again. Do more rewrites. Trust me.
4. You are sharing too much about your project on social media at too early of a stage.
Oh hi, all of my March and April videos. I wasn’t done with my garbage draft of BFAS when I started telling y’all all about it, and guess what? Total change of concept, theme, character names, relationships...literally just like the overall setting and message has stayed the same and that’s it. So now, sometimes when I go back to make edits, I feel bad because I’ve already said this thing is this way. Don’t do this. INSTEAD: Have a critique partner or an alpha reader that you can bounce early, terrible ideas off of with abandon instead of blasting your followers with every random idea about your project.
3. You’re treating your readers like they’re dumb.
A writer’s worst enemy is their tendency to over explain things. We spend months, even years of our lives learning and researching to make this book as realistic as possible, and we’ll be damned if we’re not going to include every single detail of how a 1957 Porche Speedster’s engine operates. But here’s the thing: the reader doesn’t give a single fuck about this. And they’ll tune right out when you try to shove unnecessary or plodding information in their faces. INSTEAD: leave them little breadcrumbs to follow. Drop hints and interesting little tidbits, but always leave them wanting more. Leave them asking questions and speculating on what certain things did or didn’t mean. It’s so much more satisfying as a reader to wonder about a story even after it’s over. And you want your story to linger in people’s heads long after they’ve read it. A great way to ensure that is by letting them fill in the blanks.
2. You’re not working on your platform because you haven’t published anything yet.
Oh, my sweet summer child. Social media is the most necessary evil a writer has to master, besides like, the great Oxford comma debate. Use them, shouldn’t be a debate. Anyways. This is the best way a writer can shoot themselves in the foot. INSTEAD: You should establish a presence on your preferred social media platform - or many - prior to ever getting a book deal, querying, editing, all of it. You should basically be trying to put yourself out there and network from the second you decide you wanna try to write a book. It takes time to build a following, and by the time your book is in the world, you want a built-in audience for it. Social media is the best and most widely available tool to do that.
1. You are sabatoging yourself with doubt and imposter syndrome.
If you missed my blog back in June about imposter syndrome, then you probably missed that I struggle with this a LOT. But the bottom line is, everyone gets in their own way from time to time. You are halting your progress and your growth because you feel unworthy or insecure about your ability. I hate to tell you, if you don’t believe in yourself and your work, you can’t really expect anyone else to. INSTEAD: fake it til you make it. Know you’re far from alone. And trust your process.
Please let me know if there’s anything I missed or if you disagree with the mistakes I mentioned here.