Six important advices for beginners
So, now you decided that you want to become a writer? Do you really want to? Are you sure about that? Well, let me say that this is the path to a very, very solitary existence. To sit on your personal table, and write articles all day long, is a very solitary task (and normally, doesn’t pay very well). Nevertheless, it can be exceedingly useful, if you have the opportunity to write about subjects that you really love – like I have – and this fantastic chance becomes the most grateful reward you will ever receive on being a writer, believe me.
I am a writer – almost full time – for a few years now, so I can definitely teach some lessons by personal experience. Beforehand, let me tell you that If you really want to pursue this occupation, you have the following options: you can be a professional writer, and do this full time (which is hardest), or you can be an amateur writer, and do this part-time (which is easiest). Alternatively, you can start as an amateur writer, and, when you feel completely prepared, try to become professional.
However, there is also another option: to purse writing exclusively as a hobby. This option has the advantage that, by following it, you will not have any expectations concerning the results. Something that – as a professional writer – will eventually befall over you, at least on an occasional basis. Nevertheless, even if you want to be a professional writer, you cannot be too worried about results, at least in what relates to the repercussion of your work, because, as you might guess, most of the time, they would not achieve any relevance in the literary community whatsoever.
Being an amateur writer is more secure and downplayed, because going this way, you can have a main job – a full time job – by which means you earn a living, and then you write on your vacant time (mostly weekends and holydays). The bad part is that, if you want to pursue ambitious literary projects – like writing books, literary essays or philosophic articles – you will probably not have enough time to dedicate yourself into it. The good part is that, by earning a salary, you will have financial stability, so you will not starve to death (like some professional writers almost did, like Charles Bukowski). Like everything else in life, you will find advantages and disadvantages, wherever option you decide to follow.
The hardest way, though, is definitely going on to write full time. This is more risky, but can work too. On this way, you will probably not spend all the time writing what you want, but writing commercial stuff to earn a living. Of course, this will largely depend on luck and flexibility. You, being able to find somehow related work – that also reserves for you enough time to be a writer practically full time. Sometimes you will work for you, writing what you want (generally, without payment [logically, because you will not pay yourself to write]), and sometimes writing what people expect you to write (with a payment). Unless you don’t have that ambition, and are happy enough being an amateur writer, that wants to pursue the experience more as hobby. And this is also highly recommended, because you will be motivated by an amusement that will drive off any expectations concerning potential results, and will feel more free to write wherever you want to write. With the additional benefit that you will not depend on writing to earn a living. Nevertheless, even if you want to pursue writing as a hobby, you will have to absolutely love writing, and to be ardently passionate about the subjects you will write about. Primarily, writing cannot be a burden. When writing transforms itself into a burden, be sure it’s time to stop. At least, to give a time off. A sabbatical year, perhaps – like many famous writers have done, for whatever reasons, like writer’s block, as famous Jewish-American author Henry Roth, or exhaustion, like James Joyce, after he finished his masterpiece, the epic novel Ulysses – until you feel yourself inspired to write again.
So, here, I’ve selected six advices that I think are positive and necessary for someone who is willing to – or, at least, thinking about the possibility of – become a writer.
I am a writer – almost full time – for a few years now, so I can definitely teach some lessons by personal experience. Beforehand, let me tell you that If you really want to pursue this occupation, you have the following options: you can be a professional writer, and do this full time (which is hardest), or you can be an amateur writer, and do this part-time (which is easiest). Alternatively, you can start as an amateur writer, and, when you feel completely prepared, try to become professional.
However, there is also another option: to purse writing exclusively as a hobby. This option has the advantage that, by following it, you will not have any expectations concerning the results. Something that – as a professional writer – will eventually befall over you, at least on an occasional basis. Nevertheless, even if you want to be a professional writer, you cannot be too worried about results, at least in what relates to the repercussion of your work, because, as you might guess, most of the time, they would not achieve any relevance in the literary community whatsoever.
Being an amateur writer is more secure and downplayed, because going this way, you can have a main job – a full time job – by which means you earn a living, and then you write on your vacant time (mostly weekends and holydays). The bad part is that, if you want to pursue ambitious literary projects – like writing books, literary essays or philosophic articles – you will probably not have enough time to dedicate yourself into it. The good part is that, by earning a salary, you will have financial stability, so you will not starve to death (like some professional writers almost did, like Charles Bukowski). Like everything else in life, you will find advantages and disadvantages, wherever option you decide to follow.
The hardest way, though, is definitely going on to write full time. This is more risky, but can work too. On this way, you will probably not spend all the time writing what you want, but writing commercial stuff to earn a living. Of course, this will largely depend on luck and flexibility. You, being able to find somehow related work – that also reserves for you enough time to be a writer practically full time. Sometimes you will work for you, writing what you want (generally, without payment [logically, because you will not pay yourself to write]), and sometimes writing what people expect you to write (with a payment). Unless you don’t have that ambition, and are happy enough being an amateur writer, that wants to pursue the experience more as hobby. And this is also highly recommended, because you will be motivated by an amusement that will drive off any expectations concerning potential results, and will feel more free to write wherever you want to write. With the additional benefit that you will not depend on writing to earn a living. Nevertheless, even if you want to pursue writing as a hobby, you will have to absolutely love writing, and to be ardently passionate about the subjects you will write about. Primarily, writing cannot be a burden. When writing transforms itself into a burden, be sure it’s time to stop. At least, to give a time off. A sabbatical year, perhaps – like many famous writers have done, for whatever reasons, like writer’s block, as famous Jewish-American author Henry Roth, or exhaustion, like James Joyce, after he finished his masterpiece, the epic novel Ulysses – until you feel yourself inspired to write again.
So, here, I’ve selected six advices that I think are positive and necessary for someone who is willing to – or, at least, thinking about the possibility of – become a writer.
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1 – Put all your love and enthusiasm into it
This is relatively easy, when you write about subjects that you love – like I’ve pointed out above – and that you are really passionate about. When you have a lot of passion and enthusiasm about the subject of your text or dissertation, it will be very, very easy to write about it. There is literally no secret here. Just expose all your love about the subject, assuring that fits the natural context of what you are or will describe. And, of course, have a great amount of knowledge about it. This is what the next topic is all about.
2 – Have a decent degree of knowledge about the things you are writing about
In my case, I write about politics, economics, music, world literature and cultural topics in general – amongst other stuff – and I read everything useful that I can about these subjects. You really have to understand profoundly the things you will write about. First, read and research everything you can about the subject you are going to write. Do not rush yourself into it. Be calm and wise, try to assimilate everything that you find interesting, or whose core elements will be major auxiliary components to your study. Of course, you don’t need to have a Ph.D. or a master’s degree on the subject you’re about to write. But you have to have at least a decent knowledge about it. Otherwise, you will risk yourself on the composition of a precarious work, and this can have a disastrous implication, if the work achieves a decent degree of repercussion (and this is applicable to online texts too, not just printed material, if you want to pursue serious writing).
3 – Put all your soul, your sincerity and your energy, when you finally feel ready
This is not difficult – on the contrary –, especially when you feel motivated. Writing requires knowledge, but also passion, enthusiasm and energy. Therefore, it’s imperative that you can reunite all these elements, when you’re about to write a text. The more all of them are reunited, the more formidable, exhilarating and competent will be the text. However, do not exaggerate. Be careful not to write anything exclusively grounded on emotion. You want to be a serious writer, so you don’t want to write material that looks like a letter a sixteen year old college student wrote to her boyfriend. And this is serious advice. Professional humorist David Cross in the past frequently made funny jokes about the lyrics singer Scott Stapp wrote for his band Creed, as their level of maturity and sentimentality were, basically, of fourteen-year-old girls.
4 – Describe things using your own point of view and your own vocabulary
This is a thoroughly important topic. Tell your stories, your experiences, from your own point of view. You will sound true and genuine. The veracity in your text will greatly overflow the strength of your words and the authenticity of your narrative. Be true, be the only person in this world no other person can be, and this is yourself. The things only you can think and only you can write departing directly from your own personal point of view is a priceless thing. Be sincere, be true, be honest. But be careful: this doesn’t mean that you are absolutely free to produce mediocre texts. Revise, analyze, rewrite, revise and analyze again, until you are certain that the piece is finished, and no longer needs to be reworked. Of course, you don’t have to be a perfectionist martyr, but be certain that a decent work on revising the text before publishing it is a mandatory and necessary task.
5 – Practice, practice and practice again
Constant practice is the only way to get always better and better. After some time – especially after some years – you will find that practice is the best way of improvement in this art. You will naturally become better and better as time passes, as long as you keep writing (this is a golden rule, though all the rules have exceptions – along the history of the literary art, some authors have proved to be quite the opposite: they have started out marvelously, but declined severely in quality, as their careers progressed).
6 – Coffee will probably become your best friend
Never forget the coffee, it certainly will become your best friend in your working hours. You will have the cup of coffee permanently on your worktable. In my case, tonic water, and more sporadically now, beer – from several different brands – is also helpful to feel enthusiastic, renovated and with energy, especially if you will write for extensive periods. Nevertheless, do not exaggerate, in the beer, nor in the coffee. Notorious French novelist Honoré de Balzac may have died from an overdose of caffeine. He drank approximately thirty cups of coffee every day, in the course of his daily work journey. Of course, Balzac had an imperatively precarious lifestyle. He worked eighteen hours a day – from midnight to six pm –, and his exacerbated schedule, combined with the excessive coffee drinking, may have contributed to his premature death, at 50 years old. Another writer that may have been plagued by this problem was Finnish literary icon Timo Kustaa Mukka, which also suffered an early demise, having died at 29 years old, in 1973. He smoked heavily, and drank approximately three liters of coffee per day.
And since we have arrived altogether to this point, let me give you a final – but totally free – advice, regardless of the way you want to pursue writing, whether it would be amateur, professional, or as a hobby: write always as if you’re writing for yourself, and for yourself only. Forget all expectations about it. It’s a magnificent form of freedom, that you can only enjoy at the fullest, if you dismantle all illusions concerning this activity.
So, what do you think about these six guidelines for aspiring writers? Are you feeling motivated? Of course, these steps are only the beginning. As you become an experienced writer, the rest of the challenges you will discover for yourself.
Wagner
And since we have arrived altogether to this point, let me give you a final – but totally free – advice, regardless of the way you want to pursue writing, whether it would be amateur, professional, or as a hobby: write always as if you’re writing for yourself, and for yourself only. Forget all expectations about it. It’s a magnificent form of freedom, that you can only enjoy at the fullest, if you dismantle all illusions concerning this activity.
So, what do you think about these six guidelines for aspiring writers? Are you feeling motivated? Of course, these steps are only the beginning. As you become an experienced writer, the rest of the challenges you will discover for yourself.
Wagner
