Hey guys! I’m so excited to write this blog post. I’m sorry that last week I missed the post. I had a really life changing event happen with all my family and so I didn’t have time to post. To busy being congratulated. (And no I’m not getting married. Still single as a pringle.) So because I missed last weeks post I’m doing last weeks assigned post today. We’re nearing the end of the series and so I’m going to start winding down with this post and the one (maybe two) post(s) that come after this. So without further ado,
Getting Started: NAQ’s
Okay. So, we’re going to talk about the NAQ’s. The Not Asked Questions. The questions that young writers don’t ask but should. I’m also going to write a bit near the end about the questions that I get asked by young writers that I didn’t write a whole post about. Stuff that really only deserves a paragraph and not a whole sinking post.
One of the first NAQ’s that I don’t get asked but should is something that a whole lot of writers don’t like doing. How do you network? I know from meeting a whole lot of writers that some other writers are like me. Introverts. We don’t like talking to people. Fake people form other people’s books and fake people that we invented ourselves are the most socializing we do in a day. But networking is really important when it comes to writing. Mostly when you get nearer the publishing process. The more people you know the easier it is to find other people who could help you publish your books. If you know the right published author and they like the book you’re writing they might help you find a publisher or an agent. If your agent knows the right people then you might get published through them. Having networking is important. But how you network is actually the easy part. Make friends with other writers. Whether they’re published already or they’re just a friend that you made at a writers conference (seriously go to those) if you made friends with them you added another friend in your network. Networking isn’t really that hard but it really is scary sometimes. But I have confidence in you. If you can create a whole new world with a whole new cast of people to fill that world that I’m sure you can make some new writing friends.
Another important NAQ is How do you know when to stop writing a book? At the recent writers’ conference one of the writers there answered this question. They said that sometimes your favorite stories are the abandoned ones. But just because you like the story you’re writing doesn’t mean that you should just abandon it like that. A good reason to know when to abandon a story is when you can’t see the stories end. Here’s a good example. One of my favorite stories that I ever started was a story about a young writer who’s struggling to finish her story. She ends up stuck inside of it. I had some pretty funny inner dialogues and some cute character mushiness. My little sister loved the few chapters of that one that I wrote. But I couldn’t see an ending for it. So, I didn’t finish it. I dropped it. Maybe someday I’ll pick it up again but right now it’s unfinishable and so I’ve dropped it.
A third NAQ that I thought of was one mostly directed to writers who’ve written at least more than one thing and I think it’s a question young writers should keep in mind. Which piece of writing is your favorite? This question isn’t important because it makes you think about your writing. The important part comes from the author who answered it. J. Scott Savage said that his favorite piece of writing is whatever is new. But that doesn’t mean what he wrote before isn’t new to someone else. This is a good thing to keep in mind as a good writer. When you work on a piece of writing till its published you write that thing to death. You get sick of the story. You hate it. You wish you would never have to talk about it again. The new piece of writing is your favorite. But just because you don’t like it anymore doesn’t mean that someone else doesn’t like it. Sometimes you need to think more about your reader and not yourself. Sometimes thinking about your reader is the real motivation that someone needs to continue writing a book.
Here are some of the questions that young writers do ask me that I decided didn’t need a whole long post.
First of all, every writers bane, how to escape writers block. I don’t think there is really one answer for that. Everyone has their own way of escaping writers block that works for them. For me its to write something else. To write anything else. One of the writing quotes that I have hanging on my way says, “Start writing no matter what. The water doesn’t start flowing till the faucet’s turned on.” It’s by Louis L’amour. People get over writers block in all sorts of ways and you just need to find the way that works for you.
How long should a book be? Okay. This one isn’t as simple to answer. As I’ve mentioned before the word length categories of some books are all different. Find the one that you like and stick with it. How you define the length is how long it is. Here’s the word length that I’ve established for myself. It hangs on my wall in front of my writing desk.
That’s all I’ve got for NAQ’s and some questions from young writers that I get asked. Next week I’m hoping to have a post from one of my writing friends who is going to briefly write about how they got into writing and some advice that they have for young/new writers. So hopefully we’ll have something fun for you guys next week. So as usual,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!