I began writing just for the fun of it, with absolutely no idea what I was doing. I eventually figured it out, and my writing has improved more than I would have imagined. Still, there are things I know now that I wish I had known from the beginning, and learned the hard way. Do me a favor and learn from my mistakes!
10. Grammar is important, among the most important things in writing.
Something that I'm still working on! There are so many tiny facets of grammar to learn, so don't beat yourself up about not knowing them, but when it's apparent you've been making a mistake, put work into correcting it from there on out!
9. Write down everything because you won't remember anything!
That is certainly something I wish I had done. There was a project I was working on that I stopped halfway through to start something else, and it was going in a good direction. Now over two years later, I thought I'd pick it up where I stopped. That, sadly, is going to be harder than I expected because I didn't write everything down! Also related to this one; Save everything! Never trash a project, put it in a secure place to come back for later. Trust me, you'll want to.
8. Never be afraid to try something new!
7. Stick to one POV (point of view), wait until you have more experience to do more than one POV character.
6. Don't over think things! Just go and do!
5. Nobody can tell you how to write your story, or if you should. If you have an idea and you want to write it, go! Write!
There are far too many people who will go to forums and be like "I have an idea for a novel! (Insert idea here) Should I write it?!" People get so exhausted of telling them to just buckle up and write, that they start being sarcastic and saying "no, no you shouldn't." And some people take that seriously. Don't question it, just write it.
4. Your first draft is going to be terrible.
Not only will this be a first draft of your project, but it'll be the first draft you have ever written! Don't expect a beautiful novel from your first try, not even the authors with years of experience can get a perfect first draft. Do not be discouraged! Feel empowered! You wrote a book! Now, go make it even better.
3. Emotion is good, pack it in there!
I was very afraid of having my characters overreact at first, but now I understand that emotions happen. Sometimes they're simply uncontrollable. Everybody is always emotional, even if they're really good at hiding it, and you have to show those emotions. So have them get angry/sad/joyful! If your characters don't have a rollercoaster of emotions by the halfway point, you're doing something wrong!
2. Do not go posting your writing all over the Internet, for multiple reasons.
Reason one: You'll receive oodles of unwanted critique, depending on where it's posted. Reason two: posting large chunks of it can become an issue when/if you publish. Reason three: There are art thieves out there, sadly. They'll take your characters and your ideas, sometimes they'll just outright post it on another site and claim it their's. It's just not good practice. Posting in moderation is fine, but don't go slapping half the thing on DeviantArt or something!
1. Don't look back, down, or up. Looking bad causes you to edit, looking down causes you to fall, and looking up makes you dizzy.
Editing isn't all bad, in fact, I encourage going back and reading your book every time you come to a big point in the plot to fix typos and little holes, but the last thing, the last thing that you should do is deconstruct your book halfway through. I've made this mistake, and not that long ago! I cannot even put into words how bad and idea that is.
This is actually in relation to something I read just the other day. "Sometimes I think of my career path as being like the Wile E. Coyote law of cartoon physics: in the old Roadrunner cartoons, Wile E. Coyote will run off a cliff, and he'll keep going, but he'll never fall until he looks down. So I try not to look down." I can't really add anything to such a good analogy, but I will say this, I've looked down, and the outcome is always ugly.
Looking up makes you dizzy. In the movies and TV shows, whenever a character has an opportunity to look into the future, he's usually told not to, right? Well that's what I mean. Don't try to think ahead entirely too much because it can be overwhelming.
And that's it! The top ten things I wish I had known in my first year of writing. Hopefully this will be some help to you. Other than what's on this list, what's the one thing you most wish you had known when you began writing? Has anything on this list helped you?
Over and out!
