Hi, loves!
The wonderful Ryan Hill, author of The Book of Bart and new release Dead New World, stopped by today to give us all a few pieces of advice. Dead New World, which released on October 13th through Curiosity Quills Press, is available at Amazon.
Pieces of advice every writer should
know
·
Let’s
go on and get the clichéd bits out of the way. The best piece of advice for any
writer is to WRITE. Whenever you get
a chance. It doesn’t matter what it is, always write. Like everything else, it
takes time to develop writing skills. You can’t just jump into this field
expecting it to become your day job.
·
Because
writing won’t become your day job any
time soon. For a long, long time. The road to being a full-time author is
much longer than you’d ever expect, full of obstacles and pot-holes that come
up out of nowhere. From what I understand, it takes having upwards of five
novels published before an author can even think about quitting their day job.
That said, it all ties into the fact that you should JUST KEEP WRITING.
·
Learn how to take criticism. Writers can be a fickle bunch. Many
are introverted by nature, making a solitary occupation like writing perfect
for them. However, every writer not only needs an editor, but they need BETA
READERS. Writers can’t hope to expand their skill-set and expertise without
guidance. You don’t know what you don’t know, right? That’s where editors and
beta readers come into play. They can point out inconsistencies in your work,
plot holes in your story, etc. Sometimes, this can get pretty brutal.
Sometimes, it can wound your pride, or even reduce you to tears. My advice? You
have to get over that. Push through.
The
first time I had a professor editor look at a manuscript of mine (it happened
to be DEAD NEW WORLD, out Oct. 13), there were well over 3,000
marks/changes/comments on the manuscript. I was heart-broken. Like most others,
I was convinced my manuscript was perfect. Turned out, it wasn’t even close.
But, I got over my wounded pride, sat down, worked the edits, and the novel was
greatly improved. Moral of the story? SOMETIMES
THE HARSHEST CRITIQUES ARE THE MOST USEFUL.
·
Overcome your shyness. As mentioned above, many writers are
introverted. This isn’t a problem when it comes to the art of writing. To
succeed in the business of writing,
that shyness can be a hindrance. Even before you land that agent or publishing
deal, you have to network with your fellow writers and others in the writing
community. As the old saying goes, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”
The only reason I’m a published author is because another writer I followed on
Twitter held a contest for writers, where they could pitch their work to agents
and publishers. Writers absolutely have to network to be successful, and the
easiest way to do that is utilize social
media. Yes, once you become published you’ll have to overcome your fear of
speaking in a crowd, but you’re not there yet. The most important thing right
now is to network in any way you can.
·
Don’t get discouraged. Face it. It’s really friggin’ hard to
land an agent or get your book published. There are thousands (probably
hundreds of thousands) of people out there trying to achieve the same dream you
are. The rise of Twitter/social media has also made it easier for writers to
connect with agents/publishers, making the field that much more competitive. That’s okay. You may have written a
fantastic story, one that everyone whose read it can’t stop raving about. That
doesn’t mean the manuscript will land you an agent or get you published. Sadly,
agents and publishers are more concerned with the business of writing, instead of the art. Agents and publishers are
always on the lookout for talent, but what’s more important to them is what
will sell, and your book, while
fantastic, may not have a great commercial angle. This is nothing to get
discouraged about. There’s a 99.99% change you’re not landing with a Big 5
publisher your first time out of the gate. There are plenty of other publishers
out there, all of whom are looking for something great. Getting published is
getting published, right?
But, what if that manuscript never lands with anyone? What if all of the agents
love your book, but pass because they feel like that particular genre is played
out at the moment? Yes, it’s disappointing, but look at the larger picture. If
an agent/publisher says something like that, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure.
It just means maybe the book is a better fit somewhere else. It only takes one
yes, you know. But if your manuscript never lands…
·
It’s okay to shelve a manuscript and
move on. It really is. Fun fact: My debut novel, THE BOOK OF
BART, was written AFTER my next release, DEAD NEW WORLD. How did that happen?
So glad you asked!
Several
agents read DEAD NEW WORLD and liked it. For whatever reason, they passed. So,
after a while, I decided to move on, and worked on a new manuscript, called THE
BOOK OF BART, which landed with Curiosity Quills. After they decided to publish
BART, I decided to pull out Dead New World. I gave it a quick polish, then mentioned
the book to them. They read it, loved it, and voila! Another book of mine got
published!
There
are two points to that story. The first is if I hadn’t moved on from DNW and
written BART, then at this moment there’s a more than fair chance I’d have zero
books published, instead of two. In the book world it’s about quantity as much
as it’s about quality. The second point is it’s okay to move on from a
manuscript. Why?
·
More important than anything is to keep
LEARNING and GROWING.
So what if your manuscript didn’t get picked up? You still wrote it! That’s a
huge achievement unto itself. Yes, it’s disappointing that nothing came of it,
but that doesn’t mean it might not happen down the road, with that manuscript,
or a new one. What is important is that you keep writing, learn from your
mistakes, and solicit criticism. The more you do those things, the more you’ll
hone your craft. Just because a manuscript didn’t get picked up doesn’t mean
you’re a bad writer. On the contrary, you’re a BETTER writer for having completed it. Malcolm Gladwell says it
takes 10,000 hours to master something. The same goes for writing. So, just
because your latest manuscript didn’t earn you fame and fortune, it did earn
you valuable experience and knowledge that will help you improve as a writer.
The
publishing stuff will take care of itself. That will happen when it happens.
It’s mostly out of your control. What you can
control, though, is the work you put into writing. If you keep writing,
learning, and growing, you’ll get there one day. Promise. On the other hand,
you might get published!
·
In which case, you remember that
mountain you had to climb just to get published? Get ready to climb one about
five times that size. Becoming
a published writer is the first step towards becoming a full-time writer, but
there are a few thousand more that have to be taken before you can claim the
mantle of full-time author. Now, you get to do the real work; learning the business of books, attending festivals,
speaking on panels, pitching (and selling) your book to strangers at festivals,
expanding your brand, spending gobs of money on advertising (yup, the publisher
only does so much), and OMGNOBODYSAIDITWOULDBELIKETHISBRAINMELTINGMUSTHIDEINCORNERANDCRY.
Good luck! J
About the Author:
Growing up, Ryan Hill used to spend his time reading and writing instead of doing homework. This resulted in an obsession with becoming a writer, but also a gross incompetence in the fields of science and mathematics. A graduate of North Carolina State University, Ryan has been a film critic for over five years. He lives in Raleigh, NC, with his dog/shadow Maggie. Ryan also feels strange about referring to himself in the third person.
Find Ryan on:
Twitter
Facebook
Website
xoxo,
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