On Writing and Storytelling: Advice for Aspiring Writers

So, you want to be a writer. Adorable. Truly. I once wanted to be a writer too—back when I was young, cocky, undisciplined, and convinced that stories would simply materialize out of thin air if I stared at a blank page long enough. Spoiler: they did not. What did materialize was a long, slow parade of half-finished drafts, abandoned outlines, and the creeping suspicion that maybe I should’ve taken up something easier, like dentistry or lion taming.

It took me 47 years—yes, 47 —to write what anyone could reasonably call a “first novel.” Not because I lacked ideas. Oh, I had ideas by the truckload. I just assumed they’d obediently arrange themselves into chapters while I lounged around being “a creative.” Turns out stories don’t write themselves, no matter how dramatically you sigh at your keyboard. Who knew.

Along the way, I was scared, unsure, lazy, overwhelmed, overconfident, underprepared, and occasionally all of those things before breakfast. I treated writing like a magical destiny instead of what it actually is: work. Messy, maddening, exhilarating work. And once I finally accepted that, once I stopped waiting for the Muse to show up with a fully formed manuscript and a fruit basket, I started learning from people who actually knew what they were doing.

Which brings us to this collection of advice—sharp, funny, brutal, comforting, and occasionally deranged—from writers who’ve been through the wringer and lived to tell the tale. They’re the voices I wish I’d listened to sooner, back when I thought talent alone would carry me across the finish line.

If you’re just starting out, consider this your friendly warning: writing is glorious, ridiculous, painful, joyful, and absolutely not for the faint of heart. But if you’re stubborn enough to keep going—if you can push past the fear, the doubt, the laziness, and the seductive lie that “tomorrow” is when you’ll finally start—then maybe, just maybe, you’ll get there too.

Preferably in less than forty years.

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” ― Dorothy Parker

“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”― Octavia E. Butler

“Anyone who says writing is easy isn’t doing it right.”― Amy Joy

“I prefer to be on the side of losers, the misunderstood or lonely people rather than writing about the strong and powerful.” ― Núria Añó

“Some part of me knew from the first that what I wanted was not reality but myth.” ― Stephen King

“Writing, the passion of it, is often raw, akin to a double-edged sword.

Sometimes it pours from us like a torrent, while others, the well is dry, and a blistering drought falls over our creative brush.

At times, it isn’t pretty what we write: war, suffering, violence, atrocity. While other times, it is a bed of flowers, a sentence that makes the reader weep. It could be love, compassion, or even courage.

But it matters not, and is woven all the same.

Like all brutal truths, we should never consider offence and risk constraining our words. Let your passion guide the pen and astound your audience with whatever you pull from your soul, whether it is darkness, the light, or any of the shit in between.” ― S.L. Rutland

“Self-doubt is the dirty truth no one tells you before you start to write, all that hope in your heart. Hold onto that hope, that spark of joy, even when you’re thinking Eeyore thoughts. That’s what gets a writer through it all, that dream and that spark of a story. Focus on what you can control, which is the writing and improving your writing skills.” ― Cindy Skaggs, Dear Someday Writer: Finish the Damn Book!

“Being a writer means spilling out thoughts and feelings and suddenly realizing you had no intention of revealing yourself so completely, and then hitting the send button. That’s it, it’s that one little click with your right pinky that differentiates a writer from the rest. It’s the one courageous act of a coward, the one act of commitment from one who hates to commit to anything. It’s the introvert lowering his guard for an instant, inviting the world to see more deeply into him than the extrovert ever does. Or at least it feels like it. And if you do your job right, you get a bunch of admiration and a good dose of hate, and ultimately people will see you as an all-right guy who has some odd ideas but isn’t completely off his rocker.”― James Rozoff

“Writer’s block doesn’t exist, except it’s a very expensive block in Park Slope where all these writers live.”― Joyce Carol Oates

“If your life is a kaleidoscope of domestic chaos, a clowder of competing interests, plus a thousand other distractions, and you can’t set aside three to four hours to work on a manuscript, then writing is not for you. You can aspire to be a spinner of stories all you want, but unless you carve out time to work – for that’s what writing is – and spin a story, you might as well call it a day and move on to something else.” – Alex Diaz-Granados