A while back, I posted a link to fanfiction I wrote when I was 14. I’m not going to do it again; I’d like to spare you from further eye-gouging opportunities, especially in the likely scenario that you’ve never read any of my stuff before.
I’ve improved, I swear.
I think people have this image of a writer who walks into a coffeeshop with laptop in hand and walks out with a finished manuscript and a winning smile. The truth is a little closer to this:
And quite clearly this:
Writing is a craft. We may all start out at different levels, but the important thing to understand is that everything that you will write in the beginning is both beautiful and absolute garbage.
Beautiful, in the sense that it means you are getting started on something when other people are busy scratching their butts while watching Netflix. Absolute garbage means exactly that: you wrote something for the first time, which no amount of reading How to Write Your First Novel books could ever prepare you for. You’re going to miss almost every mark. Your characters are going to meander around, you’ll pull focus on all the wrong things, and your prose will have the effect and consistency of diarrhea.
I’m not saying your work is going to suck so much that everyone will hate it. Far from that–chances are, to even get that far, somebody must’ve liked your work and told you it was good and that you should keep going. But understand that this is not it. You reach a certain level of competence in writing (e.g. enough coherence to string sentences together) and then you begin a lifelong process of learning and understanding both the world around you and yourself.
The writers who go on to keep writing understand this process. They put in the effort to finish manuscripts, knowing that every one they finish puts them a step closer to becoming better at what they’re trying to do. What this is varies with every writer. Maybe you’re trying to create a better plot. Maybe you want to explore and develop your characters. Maybe you just want to write the smuttiest smut, like my good friend Julie Midnight (whose work you have to check out by the way…).
Writing isn’t–or at least, shouldn’t–be about building up a facade so you can brag to the world about how good you are. It is a means of communication. In the context of what I’m talking about, in fiction, you’re using the medium to express ideas, emotions, stories, or any combinations thereof. As you write over and over again, you discover what is important to you and what you are trying to accomplish, and the communication becomes easier.
If your work is shit now, write it again. And again. And again. I re-wrote Jaeth’s Eye four or five times before I was 90% happy with it. I think it could still be better, but I decided to move on because there is only so much rewriting you can do before you go batshit crazy.
See how I wasted an entire decade of my life with The Agartes Epilogues. Writing my ass.
