In an email the other day, a virtual buddy of mine asked if I had any advice to give a beginning writer. This was my response:

As with any profession or craft, becoming excellent is simple but not easy. The best advice I can give to writers starting out is to READ.

Read really well-written books in the genre you want to write in. I heard this advice at the very first writer’s conference I ever attended many years ago, as well as the most recent one I attended.

One presenter, who has written dozens of books and is at the top of his field, even suggested that writers starting out read 100 books of whatever kind you want to write, before you even start writing. I heard gasps in the room when he said this. I have a somewhat softer take on that. I think you can start counting down the hundred while you are starting to write. And even if you read only 50, you’re still going to be better off than a lot of people out there.

It’s helpful to take classes or go to conferences or join a writer’s group (or several until you find the right one) . But the most important thing you can do, in my opinion, is to start getting words down on the page. Every day. Every day.

You can always hire a freelance editor to clean up your manuscript when you’re finished. There are hundreds of them. Many writers, offer this service, as well. They often rely on the income to keep writing. (In the past, I’ve done this myself.) An editor can do anything from line editing for typos and grammatical corrections all the way up to substantial editing around style, characterization, plot, etc.

There isn’t just one book about how to write that I would recommend. There are so many out there. I have a shelf full of them myself. Some can be quite helpful, like Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. But most didn’t have a huge impact on me. I can honestly say that what made me a better writer was to practice the craft every day. Get words on the page (even if it’s just a few), and don’t let anybody or anything, including your own negative thoughts, stop you. Just do it! And in the meantime:

READ, READ, READ