Night 3 Writing Tip

8 Chanukah Pieces of Wisdom (9 if you count the Shamash): Back to Basics

In honor of Chanukah, I thought it would be fun to talk about 8 things (one for each night) I’ve learned in my path to publication. And then I had to add an extra one for the Shamash or helper candle. (Actually, I came up with 9 and the Shamash was just an excuse to put it in!) Happy reading!

1. Write about things you love. No sense spending a year of your life working on something you don’t enjoy.

2. Research often helps with plotting. The more research you do, you’ll find that many times plot points will fall into place. (I wound up changing a girl character to a guy after speaking to one heart transplant recipient and hearing her experiences). Readers aren’t stupid—they can spot an inconsistency or false fact a mile away.

3. There’s no such thing as a bad first draft. Or rather, all first drafts are probably bad, but you just need to get them out and then you can make them shine.

4. Revisions, revisions, revisions. Nothing is perfect on the first shot and rarely on the second (or the third or the fourth).

5. Find critiquers who aren’t your mother or your best friend. They should be people you trust and people who aren’t afraid to show you where something is weak. Encourage them to tell you the truth.

6. Don’t cry when they tell you the truth. They’ll feel bad and never tell you the truth again.

7. Publishing is all about patience. You can write as quickly as you want, but then you wait for your critiques, you wait for answers to agent queries, you wait as they read (if you are lucky enough for them to ask to see your manuscript). Then when you have an agent, you wait for answers on subs. And if you are getting published, you are waiting for revision letters, covers, etc. I used to not have enough patience to chop veggies for a salad, but now I’m much calmer.

8. Don’t underestimate the power of a good cup of coffee in the creative process! I’ve written some of my best chapters with the help of a wicked caffeine buzz.

9. (the Shamash piece of wisdom) When you’re not writing, make sure you are reading. Read everything in genres you love and genres you are not as comfortable in. Read for pleasure and read to analyze. If you see the woman in the carpool line or in the bank line or in the stands waiting for her son’s basketball game to start with her face in a book, that’s me (I’d never read during the game, but why lose precious reading time watching them warm up).

Happy Chanukah everyone!