There are authors who have a plot beforehand and there are authors who are as exited while writing as readers afterwards. Both ways can work when executed well.
Never outline. Just wing it, let it rest for a while (days, weeks, month) and then read it again. That last piece of advise is also from Stephen King. I believe from the newer preface of the Dark Tower series.
Statistics don’t lie, go for the cocaine!
There are only a couple pieces of writing advice I see people consistently agree on:
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Write something consistently, even when you don’t want to. If you’re a full time writer, that might be at least one page a day. If it’s just a hobby, it could be less. The important thing is to keep what you are writing somewhere in your head to keep the creative juices flowing eventually.
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Read. Read good books/stories to give you an idea of what to do and what’s been done when writing. Read mediocre or even bad books/stories to give you an idea of what not to do and what’s been overdone in writing.
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Learn about or experience some stuff to help spark ideas for writing.
- Maybe 3a. If you can afford, go someplace new and see if the new environment, new food, new people, if it sparks something in you. Best cure for a writing rut is a new rut
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What does this mean ?
It means authors recommend what works for them, not necessarily what will work for anyone.
Stephen King’s book On Writing is a pretty good resource for advice for aspiring writers.
For the high level points, writers should write. A lot. That’s his biggest piece of advice.
Writers should also try to “expand their toolbox”, meaning they should be able to use different methods. Just keep practicing writing with the tools you have and the techniques and tools you discover. Eventually, you’ll find what works for you. You can’t just expect to use a tool proficiently without practice. But everybody is different, so in the case of outlining, for example, if you practice with it and it just doesn’t work, then you’ll eventually know that it won’t work for you.
The last big point is to develop writing habits. Like, follow a specific daily schedule. Write a certain number of words each day.
I love to write but I also love doing lots of things so I only end up just writing verbose internet comments sporadically instead.
Sometimes I don’t even have time to
Time to…what? Sell me your book?! I’m a publisher, sell me your book! Sell me- gah, just missed him.
Wait really? Because I have a half finished book I’ve never had the heart to finish because that style of book has gone out of style
It’s a bathroom reader about bathrooms. I have STORIES. Everyone has phones now
The secret to how King achieved those three objectives (especially the first one)…? Cocaine!
IIRC, in On Writing, the bad habit he spends most of his time talking about is his drinking. And he claimed that when they took his booze away, he started drinking mouthwash. He was so blackout drunk for so long that he doesn’t remember writing one of his books. I think it was Cujo.
I outline, then I write, then I update the outline, then I write. Then I ignore the outline.
But when do you do the cocaine?
“Yes.”
-Stephen King
Cocaine gets recommended to writers / creatives all the time because (in my experience) cocaine makes it easier to write without editing / criticizing in real time. Your internal critic just gets overwhelmed by your internal cheerleader telling you everything you’re doing is awesome and it makes it much easier to just get something onto the page. It is possible to learn how to do this much more economically without cocaine, but a lot of writers who start using cocaine never figure out how to do that part without it. And there’s the whole addiction thing that makes writing a lot harder the longer you use it. Really tough to try to be creative when you’re jonesing.
Your internal critic just gets overwhelmed by your internal cheerleader telling you everything you’re doing is awesome and it makes it much easier to just get something onto the page.
The only way I was able to finish my final paper in college was adderal + weed + booze. I used to be completely unable to write anything because the internal critic.
Now, I do 5 minute free writes on paper. Set a timer, no corrections, do not stop writing until the timer goes off, reword the sentence you just wrote if you can’t think of anything else.
Also weed still. Weed lets me write and write, and write…
This is how you end up writing about kids running a train on a girl to escape from an evil clown with a balloon.
His internal editor screamed “no they were supposed to be playing with model trains. Like weird 55 year olds. Or cool 55 year olds who get way too into it so their sets are badass. It’s a sign of them turning into weird slash cool 55 year old men look I like model trains” and instead we got, well, Cocaine Stephen
The outline is like a scaffold for a building. Very helpful early on, but if it’s still standing when you’re done, you’ve done it wrong
I think as long as you’re constantly rewritting you’re moving in the right direction.
However sometimes it’s better to put it down for a while and go to something else. Just like with anything, you can get burned out and fixated on details, redoing things over and over in a circle.
Patrick Rothfuss confirmed greatest author of our age
Ow wow she got to meet Stephen King?
If you want to write effectively, you need to sit by a cafe window and look out at the street while it’s raining. If someone asks you what your book is about, sigh heavily, then say that it’s a think piece about furries in space.
Aren’t all furries in space time already?
Do a barrel roll!
You’re becoming more like your father!
As a writer, yes.
Brainstorm with shrooms. Always outline. Use cocaine to write.
One of those works better than the other 2 combined.
This is all good advice
