I have always thought of myself as a writer. Unfortunately, for about forty years I didn’t know how to write anything longer than a poem or a song. I wrote hundreds of poems and songs and sang them to my children, went to open mics, and performed in various bands.
During the 1980s and 90s, I listened to music on the stereo, writing my thoughts and ideas in a notebook while my kids did their homework. I drew dragons and fantasy landscapes and worked three part-time jobs to pay the bills.
My pen and ink ramblings weren’t writing as I see it now. However, they were frameworks containing ideas that later became full-fledged stories. In 1987, my father bought me a secondhand IBM Selectric Typewriter, and my writing addiction took off. My typewriter sat beside the hamster cage in the kitchen—not a wise placement choice—and while my kids did homework, I pecked away at short stories.
One of those frameworks evolved into a proto-novel in 1994 when we were given a secondhand Apple Macintosh Performa, and I began writing a novel. Five years and 225,000 words later (including a switch to a Windows 98 PC), I realized I had a mess on my hands that would never be finished.
I didn’t know what to do with it.
For most of my writing life, I was like a toddler given a package of magic markers and told to go wild. My enthusiasm exceeded my ability.
- I didn’t have the information I needed to make my work readable or know how to get it.
- I felt embarrassed for even thinking that I could be an author.
One day in 1990, I stumbled upon a book offered in the Science Fiction Book Club catalog: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card. The day that book arrived in my mailbox changed my life. Since acquiring that book, I have amassed a library of books on the craft. Some are brilliant, some not so much, but I always learn something from them.
Personal experience, good and bad, is a great teacher. So, here are a few things I wish I had known in 2010 when I stumbled upon NaNoWriMo and began this journey in earnest:
One: Make a style sheet (also known as a storyboard or bible) as you go.
Build a glossary of words and spellings unique to your story, and be sure to list names. I use an Excel spreadsheet, but you can use anything you like to help you stay consistent in your spelling.
And even though I think I am developing a thorough glossary, my editor will find many words to add to it.
Two: Develop a logical, consistent system for naming your files. Save your document regularly.
Save each version of your manuscript in its own master file, and give each subfile a different name so you can go back and retrieve bits you may need later. I use a system like this:
The master file might be titled: Lenns_Story- The subfile might be: L_S_V5.docx
That stands for Lenn’s Story version five. I work out of Word, so the extension is automatically a docx. Each master file will contain many subfiles before a story or book is published.
Three: Find a local group of writers to meet with and talk about the craft.
Authors need to network with other authors because we need to discuss the craft with someone whose eyes don’t glaze over.
I gained a fantastic local group through attending write-ins for NaNoWriMo, the Tuesday Morning Rebel Writers. Since the pandemic, and with several of our members now on the opposite side of Washington State, we meet weekly via Zoom. We are a group of authors writing in a wide variety of genres.
We’re like midwives, helping each other bring new books into the world through beta reading and critiquing. But more than that, we are good, close friends who help each other through life’s twists and turns.
Four: Never stop educating yourself. It requires dedication and a small investment of money, but you can do it.
Learn how to say what you mean with your unique voice and style. A college education may be out of reach, but you can buy books on grammar, style, substance, and writing craft.
Learn about structure and pacing from successful authors. Spend the money to go to conventions and attend seminars. You will learn so much about the craft of writing, the genre you write in, and the publishing industry as a whole—things you can only learn from other authors. I gained an extended professional network by joining The Pacific Northwest Writers Association and attending their conferences.
Five: Don’t even consider signing with the slick-talking publisher that contacts you out of the blue.
In 2010 I made my word count and became a firm believer in the principles behind NaNoWriMo. If you sit down and write at least 1,667 words every day, you will complete your novel.
I didn’t know that while a novel might have the complete story arc, it isn’t finished.
The year that followed was filled with mistakes and struggles. Legitimate publishers NEVER contact you. You must submit your work to them, and they prefer to work with agented authors.
I, of course, didn’t know this. There were some low points and a devastating falling out with my first publisher. Ultimately, I retained the rights to my work. After years of revisions, I did finally bring that novel back to a new life in 2020. But that is another story.
Ask yourself this: how can a publisher possibly want work they haven’t seen? And how did they get your email address?
Make use of SFWA’s Writer Beware site. You won’t benefit from the predator publisher’s “services,” but they will profit from your desperation to be published. They will charge you for services they don’t provide and publish your work in its raw, unedited form, and you will never see a dime.
Six: even though you’re writing that novel, keep writing short stories too.
Short stories and micro fiction are a training ground, a way to hone your skills. They’re also the best way to get your name out there. I suggest you build a backlog of work from 100 to 5,000 words in length. Keep them ready to submit to magazines, anthologies, and contests.
Every scene and vignette that rolls through your head can be made into something you can use.
Get the Submittable App and start submitting your work, and don’t let rejections stop you. Keep sending that work out to new places because someone will want it.
Seven: Never Stop Reading. Read widely and in all genres. Read critically and apply what you learn about writing, both good and bad, to your work.
These are a few of the many things that I wish I had known when I first started writing professionally but didn’t. I hope it makes your writing life a little smoother.
Credits and Attributions:
Image: Macintosh Performa, Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Macintosh Performa 5200.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Macintosh_Performa_5200.jpg&oldid=729233027 (accessed July 23, 2023).
Image: Markers, Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Caran d’Ache Filzstifte.JPG,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Caran_d%27Ache_Filzstifte.JPG&oldid=506240371 (accessed July 23, 2023).
Do you write your heroes with few flaws, or do you portray them as “warts and all?” That becomes a matter of what you want to read.
Still, I write stories about people who might have existed and have their own views of morality. In each tale, I try to get into the characters’ heads. I want to understand why they sometimes make terrible choices, acts that profoundly change their lives.
To me, the flawed hero has much to offer us. In my most recently published book, a stand-alone novel called 
The difference between the antagonist and the hero is the amount of grayness in their moral compass. When does the gray area of morality begin edging toward genuinely dark? What are they not willing to do to achieve their goal?
The commonly bandied proverbs of writing are meant to encourage us to write lean, descriptive prose and craft engaging conversations. These sayings exist because the craft of writing involves learning the rules of grammar, developing a broader vocabulary, developing characters, building worlds, etc., etc.
Then, there are the stories where the author leans too heavily on the internal. Creased foreheads are replaced with stomach-churning, gut-wrenching shock or wide-eyed trembling of hands.
Indeed, we shouldn’t be married to our favorite prose or characters. Sometimes we must cut a paragraph, a chapter, or even a character we love because it no longer fits the story. But have a care – people read for pleasure. Perhaps that phrase does belong there. Maybe that arrangement of words really was the best part of that paragraph.
Handy, commonly debated mantras become engraved in stone because proverbs are how we educate ourselves. Unless an author is fortunate enough to have a formal education in the subject, we must rely on the internet and handy self-help guides to learn the many nuances of the writing craft.
Then there is the marketing of the finished product, but that is NOT my area strength, so I won’t offer any advice on that score.
However, we must have a fundamental understanding of basic mechanical skills. These rules are the law of the road, and readers expect to see them. Knowledge of standard grammar and punctuation rules prevents confusion. Readers who become confused will set the book aside and give it a one-star review.
Ernest Hemingway
Each author is different, and the length of time they take on a book varies. Some authors are slow—their books are in development for years before they get to the finish line. Others are fast—their novels complete and ready to be published in a relatively short time. Regardless of your timeline, this is where project management skills really come into play.
But as I said earlier, I have no skills in the area of marketing and no advice worth offering.
Every world in which every story is set is imaginary. This is true whether it is a memoir, a cookbook, a math book, a sci-fi novel, a contemporary novel set in London, or an encyclopedia.
When writing our narrative, we want to avoid contradicting ourselves about our protagonist’s world. Keeping it all in your head is not a good idea, especially if you’re like me—too much data means I regularly have the eternal loading screen when trying to recall something. (I’ll never forget what’s-his-name.)
Just like we do when creating our characters, we want to begin with a paragraph that might be the encyclopedia explanation of where the action takes place. I write fantasy, so here is the one paragraph I might start with:
If I were to write a thriller set in the current 
The internet has information about every kind of environment that exists on Earth. All we have to do is use it.
Short story collection
Next, check out the community tabs. The tabs will be across the top if you are in full screen. If you have the screen minimized, the button for the dropdown menu will be in the upper right corner and will look like the blue/green and black square to the left of this paragraph.
By the time November arrives, I hope that those who want to “do NaNoWriMo” will have the tools they need and the confidence to get it done.
I aspire to write like my heroes, authors who create characters who come alive. While I’m in that world, I see the people and their stories as sharply as the author intends.
Polarity gives the important elements strength. It provides texture but often goes unnoticed while it influences a reader’s perception.
I use the 
Why do I say such a terrible thing? It’s true. All stories are derived from a few basic plots, and we have only so many words in the English language with which to tell them.
Overcoming the monster
For that reason, I have the 
Noisy
My Texan editor refers to those convoluted morsels of madness as “
Even if you have an MFA degree, you could spend a lifetime learning the craft and never learn all there is to know about the subject. We join writing groups, buy books, and most importantly, read. We analyze what we have read and figure out what we liked or disliked about it. Then, we try to apply what we learned to our work.
You have just spent the last year or more combing through your novel. This is another example of silly advice that doesn’t consider how complex and involved the process of getting a book written and published is. I love writing, but when you have been working on a story through five drafts, it can be hard to get excited about making one more trip through it, looking for typos.
When we first embark on learning this craft, we latch onto handy, easy-to-remember mantras because we want to educate ourselves. Unless we’re fortunate enough to have a formal education in the art of writing, we who are just beginning must rely on the internet and handy self-help guides.
We can easily bludgeon our work to death in our effort to fit our square work into round holes. In the process of trying to obey all the rules, every bit of creativity is shaved off the corners. A great story with immense possibilities becomes boring and difficult to read. As an avid reader and reviewer, I see this all too often.
However, (cue the danger theme music), once I have set it aside for a while, I will have to begin the revision process. That is when writing becomes work. This is the moment I discover the child of my heart isn’t perfect – my action scenes are a little … confusing.
What motivated the action?
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 