"Tradition needs storytellers."
- Dave Kindred
So you want to be a writer, and you would like to know if
I have any advice.
I sure do. My own and other people’s.
First, be prepared to commit a great deal of time learning
how to write and selling what you write:
"It takes a long time to learn how to write. Most of
the writers I deal with spent somewhere between ten and fifteen years learning to write
and establishing themselves before their work even began to sell. At the World Science
Fiction Convention this year (1986), I looked around and realized that all the hot young
writers were at least thirty-five years old." [Alan Rodgers, "Putting It on the
Editor’s Desk", How To Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction,
p. 147]
Second, if you want to earn your living writing, be
patient:
"Except for a very few, a solid writing career
usually arrives later in life." [John Jakes, "To Be a Writer: What Does It
Take?", Writer’s Handbook 1987, p. 11]
Third, you should be fascinated about writing. Not only
about the craft of writing, but about what others writers write and how they write:
"From that moment my career was decided: I felt that
the special call which is sent to every man had come to me, then; I felt a confidence
which has never failed me. Nevertheless I did not disguise from myself the difficulties
which such a life-work would involve. I knew that above all other professions this one
demanded deep and special study, and that, to operate with success upon living life, I
should first need to study `dead nature’ long and earnestly. Shakespeare, Corneille,
Calderon, Goethe, and Schiller—I laid their works before me, like on the
surgeon’s table, and with scalpel in hand, long nights through, I probed them to the
heart to discover the secret of their life. I saw by what admirable mechanism these
authors set the nerves and muscles of their creatures moving and working, and noted with
what skill they clothed and re-clothed with different flesh that framework which was
always the same." [Alexandre Dumas, quoted by H.A. Spur in The Life and Writing of
Alexandre Dumas, p. 23]
Fourth, be prepared to write your own stories in your own
style:
"I should like to define style in a somewhat
different way. The object of language is to convey thought and feeling from one mind to
another without loss of moving power. Style, as it seems to me, is that form into which
one may case his conception with reasonable confidence that because of this form his
conception will be able to operate without friction, i.e., without loss of power.
If in mechanics force be applied in an improper way, either the work will not be done at
all, or, if done, will be accomplished only with great waste of energy. If style is
adequate, the idea will have free play, and will even gain in power to move." [Nelson
Glenn McCrea, "Literature and Liberalism", Literature and Liberalism, p.
16]
Fifth, if you want to be a writer, go on and get writing:
"If you have a story that seems worth
telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is tell
it." [Dashiell Hammett, source lost]
Finally, when all is said and done, there remains the
mantra of all artists: "Practice. Practice. Practice." Well, that, and this
pearl of wisdom, which is still the best advice I have ever heard for beginning writers.
It comes from two very popular authors, Clive Cussler and Robert Louis Stevenson:
- Cussler: "Copy."
- Stevenson: "Damn it, it’s the only way."
Writing teachers howl at this advice. They insist that new
writers avoid imitating other writers so they can develop a unique "voice" or
what McCrea called "style." I am not arguing that a writer must develop a unique
style, just not right away.
I am also not suggesting you plagiarize. I am encouraging
you to imitate because imitation is the best first way to learn how to do anything. Trust
me, if you have talent, your "voice" will naturally develop as time goes by.
Few writing teachers realize that their student will
probably be drawn to authors with styles similar to the "voice" the student will
develop with experience. Such was the case with H.P. Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany (see
T.E.D. Klein’s introduction to Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. And, if
your favorite author also happens to write NY Times bestsellers…well…he
must be doing something right! If you’re going to imitate anyone, I say imitate a
winner.
Which dovetails with another pearl of wisdom. Stay the
heck away from naysayers and other cynics when soliciting advice about writing, or, for
that matter, about any endeavor. Never forget that the best advice comes from winners. No
one ever succeeded by whining or not trying, so, for the best advice, talk with successful
writers. True, cynics are frequently correct, but like Sean Connery said in The Rock:
"Losers whine about doing their best while winners [take home] the homecoming
queen."
While you are practicing and copying, I cannot
overemphasize the importance of following step three above. There is no more exciting way
to discover the basics of the writing craft then to read about an author’s life along
with how and why that author wrote what he wrote. I recommend any selection from the
Twayne Author series as a good place to start.
All right, one last final piece of advice. Perhaps the
most important. If any of this prep work sounds like drudgery, then don’t do it.
Writing is not fun…unless you love to write, and sometimes not even then. The love of
writing should be the sole reason to want to be a writer. You can ignore this or any of my
other advice and plug away anyway, but, to quote Edward Van Sloan from the 1931 Frankenstein,
"You’ve been warned."
Good luck!
Books
The best books about writing that I have come across are (in no particular order):
If
You Want To Write by Brenda Ueland
Ueland, a notable author in her own right, taught writing for several years with
the philosophy that, "Everybody is talented, original and has something important to
say."
Zen and the Art of Writing
by Ray Bradbury
Not your usual how-to book. Unparallel advice about the craft of writing from one
of the grand masters.
Screenplay by Syd
Field
The basics of filmic writing by a former script reader. Simple and straight
forward. Field’s lessons are applicable to fiction writing in all media.
Backstory edited by
Pat McGilligan
This series features interviews
with screenwriters beginning with Hollywood’s golden era up through the 1970s. While
some interviews, particularly those conducted by McGilligan, strain too hard to paint
blacklisted screenwriters as persecuted victims, this is nevertheless an excellent series
offering something enlightening for the writer or anyone who enjoys good movies.
The
Writer’s Handbook
Since sometime back in the 1930s (I believe) The
Writer magazine has reprinted selected articles from the previous year’s
issues in an annual compendium called The Writer’s Handbook. The Writer
is notorious for publishing cookie-cutter articles; nevertheless, the magazine does
publish the odd insightful piece by a bestselling author or some lesser-known writer
respected in his or her particular genre or medium, and these pieces are the ones that
tend to end up in the Writer’s Handbook each year. This makes going down to
the library and reading the annual Handbook more cost- and time-effective than
subscribing to The Writer. (FYI: Of all the Handbooks I have read, far and
away the best edition is the one copyrighted in 1987. Stephen King’s
introduction and the articles by Clive Cussler, John Jakes, John D. McDonald, B.J. Chute,
and Elizabeth Peters are indispensable reads as far as I am concerned.)
How To Draw Comic Strips For
Newspapers and Comic Books!
By Alan McKenzie
The Storytelling Art of
the Comic Book Analyzed as the Medium
Approaches a New Golden Age
by R.C. Harvey
For anyone who wants to learn about writing for comics, you cannot do better than
kicking off your research with these two books. McKenzie’s book is the best nuts and
bolts book about creating (i.e., writing, penciling, inking, lettering, coloring, editing,
publishing) comics that I have found. He gives you the big picture. After reading
McKenzie, move on to Harvey, who has been analyzing comic book communication better than
anyone else for decades. Any book or article by Harvey is worth reading, but this 1996
book is as good as any place to start. One caveat, though, and that is Harvey’s books
tend to be difficult to find (this one is published by the University of Mississippi
Press). In case you come a cropper, I suggest you then go to any retailer bookstore or
comic shop and buy a copy of Scott McLoud’s excellent Understanding Comics.
The Basic
Patterns of Plot by Foster-Harris
Read this book before you plot anything. (FYI: For a brief introduction to plots, I
recommend visiting http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/plotFARQ.html.)
Elements of Style by
William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
Before you read The Basics of Plot, read this book. And, if you don’t
already own a copy…why not?
The
Chicago Manual of Style from the University of Chicago
Put this beside your dictionary, thesaurus, Information Please Almanac, and CD
collection.
AP
Stylebook by the Associated Press
Put this beside The Chicago Manual of Style for balance. Essential guidebook
for any journalist or any writer who wants to go Hemingway and write like a journalist. (New
York Times wannabes excepted, of course.) Also includes a brief but helpful
"Briefing on Media Law".
LINKS
Websites I frequent use when looking for work, networking, promoting, or researching.
Looking for Work
CREATIVE
MOONLIGHTER
FICTION
WRITER’S RESOURCE PAGE
FUNDS FOR WRITERS
WRITER’S MANUAL
Networking
CHICAGO SCREENWRITERS
NETWORK
FANTASY WRITERS WANTED
WICKED COMPANY
WORD THUNDER
Promotion
ASPIRING AUTHORS
AUTHOR’S DEN
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY:
Research/Reference
BABY NAMES BY CATEGORY
CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY’S E-MAIL REFERENCE SERVICE
iTOOLS (RESEARCH IT)
NEWSPAPER LINKS
POPULAR SCIENCE
