If you have come here to find the key to good writing, turn back and look elsewhere; although trust me, you won't find one. Maybe there are guides that come close, but I'm not going to glorify the situation. This guide will not turn you into a New York Times favored author. It won't put your books on the featured shelf at Barnes & Noble. There isn't an online guide in existence that will. There will, however, be some of many resources to help you get there.
Writing is a science - down to the personal level. It's not something you can read a bunch of theory books on to immediately be the next Stephen King. Books only take you so far, which is true not only in writing, but in every skill that has ever existed in the history of Earth, and every skill that will ever exist in the future. Reading is only part of it, instruction is only part of it. What really makes you a good writer is practice and feeling. When you're told practice makes perfect,
listen! I know from experience that it's true.
1. Know writing is personal.
If you have to tell yourself this five hundred times a day, do so. Writing is an art; it requires personal effort and feeling, which eventually shows in the final product. People will notice if the book is something you sat down and pounded out for show, or if it reflects what you were feeling at the time. If you don't remember anything else from this guide, please remember this detail! It is the most important one!
2. Write often.
Practice makes perfect, so practice as much as you can. Whether you pick a topic and write for ten minutes straight, or have an idea so crazy that you
need to get it down onto paper, write as much as you can and as often as you can. The more you write, the more you will understand the flow. However, writing over and over again won't actually advance your knowledge and ability all that much, which brings us to steps 3 and 4.
3. Read often and analyze.
"I can't read books because I write books!"
False! Reading is important when it comes to writing! If you're reading a draft that you know is bad, but you have no idea how to fix it, you encounter a problem. Pick up a book you like. Open it. Ask yourself questions, such as:
What do I like about the author's style?
How is my writing different from the author's writing?
Why do I like reading?
What do I like reading?
Etc.
While it is good to figure out why you like reading a particular piece of writing,
don't completely copy the author's style or ideas! Doing so makes people think the writing is too close, and maybe even copied off a particular famous piece of writing. If you're going to write something taking place in the same universe as another book, file it under fan fiction and credit the author. The idea of the universe wasn't yours.
Don't be ashamed if you need to label something as fan fiction. Although the stereotype exists that it's all very inappropriate and adult, that in no way is true. Sure that stuff exists, but a surprisingly large amount of very good fan fiction has been written. However, don't expect to get your work published further than an online site dedicated to that particular genre.
4. Don't be afraid to share your work.
Sure, practice and reading can make you a great author, but how will you ever know what mistakes you make if you keep all your writing in a password-protected, encrypted hard drive locked in a safe with an eight digit combination in your basement, which is also protected under lock and key?
The answer is: you will never know. If you never show anyone, you will never know what you need to do better. I myself am guilty of this, as a small percentage ever leaves my personal story folder. Even if you ask one or two people to edit your story, you figure out what you need to do better.
5. Fail successfully.
As oxymoronic as that term is, it's true. If you are to fail, do so in the right way. Failing, and then telling yourself that you're no good and if you failed once you'll fail all your future attempts is completely the wrong way to fail.
If you fail, learn from your mistakes. Ask yourself the question: Why did I fail? Then apply the information gathered from that question and apply it to future attempts. Eventually you'll run out of things wrong and everything will be perfect! So don't think of attempts-gone-wrong as failures, think of them as learning experiences. All failure makes you a better writer.
This is true for all activities. Every time you fail, you get better at whatever you did wrong.
Now go out there and write something!
