Practical Tips for New Writers

(And good reminders for writers who are not so new.)

So you’ve decided to write a novel!

Maybe you’ve been thinking about it for a long time or maybe the idea just popped into your head today. Either way, you are probably already inundated with advice about how to do it, everything from how to create interesting characters to how to structure your plot and how to craft delicious prose and even how to revise and sell your book.

These are not those tips!

The advice I have for you today is not about the craft of writing at all. What I’m talking about today is everything that goes around the craft of writing. The practical tips that will help prepare you physically and mentally for the work ahead, so that while you are writing you can focus 100% on the story you are telling, and not everything else that goes around that work.

1) Find somewhere comfortable to sit.

Writing a novel can take a long time so, take care to ensure you’re physically comfortable while you do it, so that you keep coming back to do the writing. Whatever option you pick — your desk chair, a dining room chair, the sofa, a cozy coffee shop or a library — make sure it’s a seat that offers support and comfort.

Sometimes squeezing writing time into a buzy schedule means perching on a bar stool or bus seat, but too much writing in an uncomfortable posture will result in a sore back or achy neck. If that happens too often, you’ll start to associate writing with pain, and that’s not the mindset you want.

When you’re young, awkward positions don’t bother you as much — my daughter used to read with her legs on the couch and her head down on the floor and it never seemed to affect her love of reading. But believe me, this changes as you get older.

It’s also a good idea to keep some basic ergonomic principles in mind to protect our health. Things to keep in mind are screen height, wrist position, keep your back from hunching over, and not sitting on your legs or feet. Check here for more ergonomic basics.

2) Stay hydrated.

Staying hydrated is a good habit no matter what you’re doing. It doesn’t even really matter what you’re drinking — coffee, tea, sparkling water, and soda will all help keep your body and mind working their best.

What about alcohol? Some people find that drinking wine or other spirits helps them relax enough to ignore the inner editor that interrupts getting the work done, but in my opinion it’s a bad idea to link your writing practice with any kind of mind-altering substance. There are better, healthier ways to learn to deal with inner resistance.

Hydration can become a part of the ritual that helps put you in the writing mindset. The process of preparing a cup of tea, for example, gives you a moment to start thinking about what you’re going to work on. Or decant your favorite soda into a flagon to help put you in the right mood for creative exercise.

3) Listen to music — or don’t!

Whether you like to listen to music while you write or not depends on your own preferences. Some people can’t write with music on at all. Others create very personalized playlists that help them connect with the story on an emotional or maybe subconscious level. Just be careful to not get distracted listening to the music instead of writing! Personally, I like instrumental music in the background when I write — nothing with vocals that pull my attention away from the page, or at least not vocals that I can understand. If it has a fantasy vibe to it, so much the better.

Music or ambient white noise can also contribute to a distraction-free environment by masking noises and conversations around you. Anyone who has had to work in an open office or cube farm know just how valuable noise cancelling headphones can be!

4) Move.

When you’re working it can be easy to forget to move. You get focused on the work (or whatever online entertainment is distracting you from work) and before you know it three hours have gone by and your butt is numb.

It’s weird to think that you can injure your body by not moving, but it’s absolutely possible. To avoid this, set a timer and take short movement breaks every 30 to 60 minutes. These can include things like stretching, walking, dancing, yoga, and anything that gets the blood flowing. It’s not just good for your body, it’s good for your creativity.

5) Schedule time to write.

Life can be demanding and if you leave writing up to chance or whim, it will inevitably fall to the wayside. To keep that from happening, set up a daily, weekly or even monthly schedule for when and where you are going to write.

This schedule will be unique to you, and depend on the unique demands of your own life. In other words, don’t copy anyone else’s writing routine just because it works for them. Put some thought into it, experiment with different schedules, and find the one that works best for you.

It’s also a good idea to give yourself time to think about writing. A lot of the work a writer does is in our heads. We need time to play with ideas and solve problems in the narrative. The ideal time for this kind of rumination is when our bodies are busy doing something else — taking a shower, washing the dishes, going on a walk, driving home from work.

But with the constant stream of content going into our heads we sometimes miss our opportunities for our minds to just wander. So plan some “free time” for your brain — turn off the TV and the podcast and just think, daydream, and play in your imagination.

6) Keep a writing journal or diary.

Writing about what you’re writing about feels like a trap, something that will eat into your actual writing time. But it can actually be a useful tool to help you keep on track.

You can use a writing diary to monitor your progress, like recording wordcounts or time spent writing each day. Filling in squares on a habit tracker can become a visual marker that you’re accomplishing something every time you write.

You can also keep notes about what you’ve been working on each writing session, and capture thoughts and ideas that come up as you are writing — things you want to go back and change, ideas for future scenes, random details you want to be sure to remember.

And while you’re at it, leave yourself supportive notes and encouragement as you go. Be your own biggest fan!

7) Learn to finish the work.

I don’t have any quick tips or tricks for how to finish a novel — it’s something I struggle with myself. A novel is a very long project, and along the way you will be tempted to quit dozens of times, to move on to another story or another hobby all together. In fact, most people who start novels never finish them, never get to type “the end” even on the first draft of their story.

If you don’t want to be one of those people, if you want to be someone who says “I wrote a book” then you have to figure out to how to write through to the end of the story and say “It’s done.”

And I promise, if I ever figure out the secret of how to learn this, I will come back and do another video about it.

8) Read your work aloud.

The most useful lesson I learned in my freshman English course was to read my work aloud. My professor graded all our papers in one-on-one sessions where I would read my essay aloud and then we would discuss it. The simple act of reading my work aloud made me relate to my words and sentences in a completely different way. It made it much easier to recognize when I was writing really well, and when I was writing nonsense.

If you don’t have a professor to read to or a friend who is willing to listen, try reading your work into a recorder and playing it back. By doing this, you remove yourself from the authorial perspective and engage with the story as if you were the audience. It can really help you figure out if your writing is working the way you think it is.

9) Find a community of writers.

Nothing helps us become stronger writers than offering feedback on other writers’ work. When you read someone else’s in-progress manuscript and have to verbalize why it’s working or not — not just “I like it” or “I don’t like it” — you hone your understanding of the craft and start internalizing all the lessons about writing you’ve been learning on your own. It’s a version of that old teacher’s secret: the best way to learn something is having to explain it to someone else.

You’ll also learn how to take feedback. If you intend to publish what you write, people will tell you what they think of it, good and bad. Having some experience with critique groups will help thicken your skin so that the bad comments don’t hurt quite so much.

Also, the fellowship of other writers is invaluable. Connecting with others who are doing the same thing you’re doing, facing the same challenges and woes, the same joys and pleasures, will help buoy your spirits in what can be a very lonely process.

Tip: You can find a community of writers right here at Magic & Ink. Subscribe to become a Wonder Maker!

10) Don’t get caught up in expert advice or following the rules.

There is a ton of how-to advice out there about writing. Books, websites, videos, online courses. Some of it is great. Some of it is not great. Some of it is contradictory and confusing! It can be very easy to get overwhelmed by how much there is and trying to abosrb it all will only delay you from starting to write.

But the truth is there is only one way to learn how to write better, and that is to keep writing. Pen on the paper, fingers on the keyboard, page by page by page.

I Can’t Teach You How To Write

Yes, the rules and advice are a place to start learning, but if everybody followed the rules strictly, there would be no innovation or art. Every novel would be exactly the same.

Plus, sooner or later, you will run into a problem in your writing you can’t find a solution for, no blog post or forum thread or how-to-write book that tells you how to fix it. At that point, you have to be able to trust your own writer instincts to figure out how to find the answer.

And the secret is that there is no right answer! The “rules” are guidelines, not dictates, and it’s up to you to decide what to do on each page of your story. Even if you pay a professional for recommendations, you still have to decide — get to decide — which advice you want to follow and which you will disregard. The only one with all the answers is the author.

Keep writing.

And that brings to my last bit of practical advice for new writers which is this: even if you get the “wrong” answer, you have to keep writing.

You will make mistakes. You will write things that you don’t love, and things that your readers hate. But that’s just part of the process of learning to be a good writer. Youi’re not going to become better writers if you don’t keep writing.

Don’t worry about making it perfect. We don’t get to be perfect!

All we can do is keep writing, embrace the process, and know that page by page by page we are getting better at the craft of writing.

Have I left off your favorite writing tip? Share it in the comments below!