The Best Writing Advice by Steph Beth Nickel

So many writing adages . . .

• Write what you know.
• Show don’t tell.
• Write every day.
• Write to market.
• To be a writer, you have to write.
• Write what you want to read.
• Write what you need to read. And so on and so on and so on.

All these pieces of advice have their place. But do they apply to every writer at all times? Do any of them apply to any writer at all times?

My response: a categorical no.

The most insightful piece of information I’ve ever come across is this: Each writer is unique and must find their own best practices.

Following an A-Z list of How to Become a Successful Writer might be appealing, but there are too many variables that are beyond our control.

Plus . . .

Would any of us like to think there was a guaranteed formula that applies to every writer?

While there are times such a formula might be useful, for many of us, it would eliminate—or at least minimize—our favourite part of the process, creativity.

Likely the most challenging element of accepting ourselves as unique individuals is to commit to trial and error to see what works best for us.

Most of us would agree that writing only what we know has its limits. Using our knowledge and interests as a jumping off spot, however . . . That can be super helpful and may very well get the creative juices flowing.

While showing rather than telling adds depth to both fiction and nonfiction, there are times simply telling our readers a fact is the best option.

Some writers must write every day, if even for a few minutes. Others cannot commit to doing so for a wide variety of reasons.

The idea of writing to market has its upside and its downside. Each of us must weigh the pros and cons of allowing oft-changing market trends to determine what we write.

We are writers when we’re writing—and when we’re not. Writing involves so much more than putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

It’s helpful to enjoy what we’re writing. However, most of us can find a plethora of books that we enjoy, that motivate, encourage, and entertain us. So, enjoyment alone is rarely enough reason to write—unless we’re writing for our eyes only.

Writing what we need to read may be a more powerful motivation. Plus, we may very well find holes in the market, whether the information is outdated or missing a unique perspective that we could bring to the subject. 

As I said, all of the above adages have their place, but I would encourage you to embrace your uniqueness and explore what works best for you at this point, knowing that what worked yesterday may need tweaking. And what will work tomorrow? That remains to be seen.

Graphic Credit: Tips Tricks And - Free photo on Pixabay

Steph Beth Nickel is the former Editor of FellowScript and the current InScribe Contest Coordinator. Steph is an editor and author and plans to relocate to Saskatchewan from Ontario to be close to family in this year or next. (Headshot Photo Credit: Jaime Mellor Photography)

Best Writerly Advice by Sandi Somers

I thought long and hard about the question of receiving advice for my writing. I knew there wasn’t one piece that stood out and transformed my thinking. Instead, there have been a number along the way. Here is a selection.


Long before I devoted significant time to writing and publishing, I journaled my experiences in Colombia. Then later when beginning to teach ESL, one teacher recommended I journal; it was the best advice I received at that time. These two cross-cultural experiences were some of the most fulfilling of my life. I have kept my journal from Colombia and have referenced it in writing articles. With my ESL journal, I now have binders full of ideas, experiences, and relationships with my students. Such writing gave me practice in fluency and in capturing many significant details which complement my current memories—or have forgotten.

In 2011, I joined InScribe. One article in the FellowScript magazine, “Running on Empty”, by Loreen Guenther, brought to my attention that our mental, physical, and emotional energies can become depleted as we write. Restoring our creativity can be as simple as going for a walk or doing the laundry. I’ve found that once my mind relaxes, ideas often spring to mind. Also, leaving a work for days, weeks, even months or longer, (when possible), gives me a fresh perspective when I return to the work, viewing it with new eyes. (Thank you, Laureen!)

In one particular writers’ workshop, the speaker recommended planning in 12-week segments. While yearly planning helps with longer range goals, so many things can come in to interrupt the process, for example illness, family emergencies, or an unexpected trip. With a shorter timeline, I notice I focus more on what I can reasonably accomplish. I can more easily plan my work and then work my plan.

Valuable advice came from Grace Fox in an InScribe Fall Conference one year. These days, a lot of emphasis is on marketing, more so as we write for independent publishers. Yet the Lord reminded her—and us—that our writing responsibility is to “Feed my sheep”, as Jesus told Peter to do. I learned that as I concentrate on writing messages the Lord gives me, He will direct me to marketing strategies as my writing expands.

In regards to praying for our writing and our readers, I’m often drawn to what Janette Oke said, that she saturates her writing with prayer. She challenged me to pray for the overall purposes of my works-in-progress, and for my daily needs, such as solving a particular issue in what I’m working on. And to pray for my readers. Just yesterday the Lord asked me to envision and pray for as-yet-unknown readers to respond to specific articles.

This brings me to the best advisor of all: The Lord Himself. He gives me specific ideas, ways to develop my writing, time to write, and even nudges when I’m procrastinating. Then there are Scriptures, such as His advice to me to “Launch out into the deep,” which is my verse for the year. He's encouraging me to be bold and expand my horizons in new ways.

Listening and following advice from significant others and the Lord will guide me in fulfilling His purposes for my life and writing. This is my best advice to you, too. Make it yours.

Sandi Somers’ writing passion is to help readers grow their faith in Jesus, including their vision of what God wants them to be and do. She writes in several genres—devotionals, personal essays, and Biblical fiction. Sandi lives in Calgary, Alberta, the delightful city between the Rocky Mountains and the Prairies.

(My apologies for no photos--after my computer returned from being off-line, many of my other features were scrambled or not available. I've been travelling and so haven't been to Best Buy to get things sorted out.)

The Writing Advice I Needed by Brenda Leyland

 

Photo by Ylanite Koppens from pexels.com

Hard-pressed to choose the one best piece of writing advice I've ever received, I finally gave up trying. Instead, I created this short list of sage words that inspired and shaped my early writing life. Each piece was the best at the time it came to me.

1. For the unsure writer...

Listen to the call within to write. If God has asked you to write, he has also equipped you with everything to get the job done. These words dropped into my heart as I sat listening to Kathleen Gibson during the 2002 Spring WorDshop—my first-ever InScribe event. I recently found them jotted in an old journal and remembered how I drank in the stories Kathleen shared of her own early writing experiences. I had already begun to sense stirrings in my own heart to write. I felt the tug. That's why I signed up for the event. Though for someone who'd never forgotten her aversion to essay writing in school, this almost yearning came as a considerable surprise to me in adulthood. At first I wondered, "Are you sure you're talking to the right person, dear Lord?" 

2. You don't need permission...

You have the right to write. Really? I didn't quite believe it. Surely I needed someone wiser to encourage me along this path. I always thought 'real' writers knew since they were five years old that they wanted to write. That certainly wasn't true in my case. I was glad, therefore, for two fine books I believe providentially crossed my path (the first was suggested to me by my husband's aunt) that addressed the issue: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron and If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland. Both books became well-thumbed staples in my own library. With many statements starred and underlined, and margins filled with notations, I soon considered the authors my writing mentors. Their words reached down from the bookshelf to steady the faltering steps of one timid, aspiring writer.

3. On giving up the habit to put it off...

Stop not writing. No one cares if you write or not, so you’d better. Sit down at your desk and keep your butt in the chair. Write one passage, conversation, and let yourself do it badly. Oh, I loved these words attributed to Anne Lamott (another cherished writing mentor). I loved the twist of that first sentence, the phrase 'stop not writing'. It made me sit up and take notice... made me listen to what she was saying.

4. On getting down the first draft...

Anne Lamott notes that almost all good writing begins with 'sh*tty first drafts'. And believes these dreadful first attempts are necessary to produce quality work. Her cheeky advice released me from the unrealistic tension to get it right the first time. I could, in fact, scribble down terrible first thoughts, finally understanding that the Editor/Critic peering over my shoulder should go wait her turn somewhere else. Author Jodie Picoult's sound advice made that clear to me: You can always edit a bad page but you can't edit a blank page.

5.  Creativity begets creativity...

"I learned . . . that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness." Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write, p. 42-43

These words connected at some level and helped me to recognize that, through my own experiences as a young Sunday School teacher years earlier, I didn't have to work up the inspiration or rack my brain for ideas. The more I used my creative juices to make the lessons come alive for my students the more the creative ideas bubbled up. Creativity begets creativity. Use the idea you have and it will call forth the reserves for the next step. What a great reminder for my writing.

6. On establishing your work standard...

Aim to write your best work every time. Although I no longer recall who shared this advice, the words really struck a chord. And they still shape my writing to this day. Whenever I sit down to write I am compelled from within to give it my best effort. No 'sloughing off ' and no saying, well, this is just a blog post or a little article or there's no remuneration for this, so it doesn't really matter if I slapdash this together. No, no, no....

We've all been forewarned that whatever we send out into the world, particularly in cyberspace, is out there. Forever. Ever giving readers a glimpse of who we are and to Whom we belong. And me being a person who longs to reflect heaven's light and beauty in all I do and say, hoping to create little patches of heaven on earth in my corner of the world, this is specially true in my writing.

7. On giving yourself some slack...

Alongside #6 above, this is my own advice to myself: There will be days when I know it isn't my best work, but it's the best I have to give today. Life happens around us, and sometimes we don't have time or energy or we aren't skilled enough at this point to shape our work into something more polished—and sometimes we have deadlines to honour. Although I still don't want to be slipshod about anything I write, I know there will be days 'when good enough is good enough'. And on those days, when I can't quite find the best words to say it, I can at least spell them correctly and with proper grammar in place.

To wind up, here is one more bit of advice that gives me self-confidence to keep writing, whether or not someone leaves a comment (wink): "Confidence is knowing you [or your writing] are not everyone's cup of tea and being okay with it." as shared by @wiseconnector on X

Brenda writes from her desk by the window that overlooks her garden, the sky, and the birds. You can find her 'slice of life' writing on her blog It's (Still) A Beautiful Life. She is also on Facebook and Instagram (under Bren Leyland).

 

Do I Really Need Those Words? by Carol Harrison

  

Some of the best advice I have received came at the beginning of my writing journey. When I began writing, I soon got bogged down in trying to make the words flow. I finally became brave enough to share that first chapter with more seasoned writers.

One published author asked me if the memoir was for family or to go beyond to a wider audience. If it was meant to go to more readers than just family, she told me to cut this and this and this and start here. The chopped sentences could be woven in if I thought I really needed those words but at a later point in the manuscript.

After realizing I’d asked for help, I began a new word document, cutting extraneous sentences and began where the writer suggested. If I didn’t like the new start, I still had the first file to return to and see if I could muddle through. The story began to flow as I cut those sentences from it. I found I didn’t need them to reappear at a later point.

Later I took Marcia Laycock’s devotional writing online workshop. It taught me, among other things, to remove unnecessary words or even whole sentences to say what I meant in the least number of words. In one exercise she had us write a devotional and gave us 1500 words. But part B of the exercise was to cut it by half without taking away any meaning. Part C, should we choose to accept it, was to cut it in half again but still retain the full meaning. It meant asking myself, “Do I really need really need this word or that one?”

It taught me how to write tight. I’ve received that advice from others along my journey as a writer, sometimes at a workshop and at other times in one-on-one conversations with more experienced writers. I think the question, “Do I need these words?” is one we should ask ourselves often as writers. It helps us avoid being too wordy and slowing down the flow of the story.

Along with choosing our words carefully, we can also avoid filler words or words we overuse. Do I really need these words to add to the meaning of the piece or help the flow of the story? Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. It all depends on whether it enhances the piece or distracts the readers’ attention.

I think this is some of the very good advice I have received over the years in my writing journey. But I am still a work in progress at following it all the time.

 

Carol Harrison believes there is always more to learn about this craft of writing. But putting the advice into practice doesn't always go as smoothly as she wants it to. She writes from her home in Saskatoon, SK.