Writing Advice For Your Younger Self

Every writer has been asked—If you could go back and give your younger fledgling-writer self one piece of advice, what would it be? It’s asked by other writers, at book signings, at presentations, during conference panels, everywhere. So?

For me, it would be: Get out of your own way and tell your story your way. Took years to learn that.

So, I popped this question our Outlier Instructors: 

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Don't worry! Everything  will be fine. You don't know exactly how yet, but you will. You never know what wonderful thing is around the next corner.

DiAnn Mills: Now is the time to begin. 

Allison Brennan: Care less about the noise. You only control the writing. Put your effort into telling the best story you can and learn to take constructive criticism without killing your voice or your joy.

Meg Gardiner: Don’t be afraid. Step out onto the high wire and write your guts out.

Tim Maleeny: It's okay to love your characters as long as you treat them like dirt.

Donald Maass: A story is not what happens: it’s what the reader experiences.

Heather Graham: Always write what you love and always write!

Jon Land: Don't be afraid to change horses in the middle of the stream. What you write is secondary to that you write. So consider making this your mantra: "The answer's yes--what was the question?" 

Tosca Lee: Write the next thing while you’re waiting to sell your first thing. Write copiously, even if it’s not a keeper.

JD Barker: 1. Hope is not a strategy—2. “Be there" in every scene. Don’t just tell the reader what’s happening. Live it. Experience it. You need to be in the room with the reader sitting next to you when the bullets start flying.

Matt Witten: Be hard on my writing, but kind to myself.

Cody Blocker: Don’t stop. Keep going. When you feel like quitting, keep going. Write to write on.

Douglas Pratt: Two things: Write like a fiend, but treat your career like a business.

Harry Hunsicker: Enjoy the ride—even the bumpy parts.

Paul Guyot: Don’t think about outcome or result - fall in love with the process and the rest will take care of itself.

Katherine Ramsland: Absorb being told no, because it's better than losing an opportunity you might get if you pursue it.

Jenny Milchman: Network, network, network.

J Todd Scott: There is no mountaintop, just more damn mountains

Steven James: I would tell myself to stop trusting the experts and start trusting the story. 

Stacy Woodson: Don't be precious with your words. Perfection is an illusion.

Boyd Morrison: Keep your eyes on your own paper.

Joseph Badal: When I first began writing novels, I was focused on the plot/action and relegated my characters to a subordinate role. This was a terrible mistake. Over time, I learned that readers, first and foremost, relate to characters.

Michael Bracken: The wheels of publishing grind slowly, so don’t expect immediate gratification.

Jennifer Dornbush: The writing life is a marathon, not a sprint. Enjoy the race but never look left or right to compare yourself with others! 

Sara DiVello: Be bold and do the damn thing!

Terry Shepherd: The biggest misconception I had when I started writing was that it was about the book. Seven years later, I’ve realized it’s the generous community who value me as I continue to learn, the blind resilience to keep at it when every rational part of my brain tells me to give it up, and (hopefully) the better person I’ve become in the process.

Mary Anna Evans: I would have gone to a convention for readers in my genre.

Nicholas Harvey: Identify bestselling books that are solid comps for what you're planning to write. Find them? Great, get to writing.

Tammy Euliano: You know that opportunity you're not sure about? The chance to attend a writer meeting where you don't know anyone, to moderate a panel that's barely in your wheelhouse, to introduce yourself to Lee Child?? DO IT!

Did any of these resonate with you? If so, embrace them, and get to writing.