I see this question all the time. Someone will say they want to be a writer. Then they will ask, “How do you become a writer?” The typical responses are usually all over the place. Some will say go to college. Others will say take a creative writing class at your local college. Others will say get a job at a newspaper while others will just blurt out “if you write, then you are a writer.”
Of course all, and none, of those are equally true and equally misleading. Yes it is true, if you write then technically you are a writer. While I never had any legit interest in journalism as a profession, I knew that several famous writers got their starts writing for their local newspaper. So that is what I did. I took a job at a local, small towm community paper. While that worked for me because I had gone to college, that’s not really what these people are asking. They aren’t asking for platitudes, or even encouragement. What they are actually asking for are instructions. You see neurotypical people have an understanding of the world that is foreign to nerudivergents. So what these people are actually asking for is a guide with specicific instructions they can follow.
Here I present a few tips on ways you can hone your craft while also making tangible progress as a writer.
Start small
The first step to learning any new skill is always the same, start small. Here I suggest to the aspiring writer to pick up a notebook, a notepad, and a journal. In the journal start by just recapping something that happened that day that stands out. It can be as simple as, “today I had pizza and I love pizza.” Then as you gradually make it a habit to write in your journal every day, eventually you will find yourself writing more details retellings of the most significant events, maybe even jotting down a fun story or anecdote along the way. The goal is to get used to writing every day so you train your brain. The notebook is used to jot down ideas, write word clusters, make lists of things that interest you, etc. The notepad is for writing down new words you discover. Again, the goal is to write something, anything, every day.
The second step to become a commited writer who completes projects, which is what I believe people are actually looking for, is not so obvious to everyone. Long before you can ever consider becoming a writer you must first do something even more critical to the process: read everytthing. Read books on any and every subject that interests you. Find magazines, websites and blogs that pique your interest and read those. And for the love of GOD, no matter what you think about the news, read your damn local newspaper. When I say read your newspaper I mean read every page. Read the hard news, the obituaries, the sports section, the ad copy, every single word on the page. Read comic books, cook books, coffe table books, encylopedias, etc. Read. Read. Read everything you can get your hands on. Seriously, you will never truly learn how to write effectively unless you study how others have already done so. Trust me. Reading and writing go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Read your damn newspaper!
After you spend some time getting used to writing in your journal, notebooks and notepad every day, after you have consumed every word others have written you can find, then you are ready for the next step. You have to make this decision for yourself. What do you want to write? Do you want to write fun and interesting articles about a topic you love for a publication such as a website, blog or magazine? I can offer you some tips there. Do you want to become a novelist? I have tips for that too. Are you seeking a career as an investigative journalist? I can help with that too. What if you would prefer to write for film and television, music or even plays? Yes I have advice for that too.
Let’s start with the basics. Before you can pursue any of these above mentioned paths you must first start with something else. The next step is to get yourself a blog. It doesn’t have to be one you pay for, there are plenty of great free options. What your goal is here is to hone your craft. The purpose of a blog is to have a place where you can try out your writing style while looking for your own narrative voice. This is also a good way to get something, anything, you have written published in a manner that others can consume. While you could start simple with just bringing your journal to cyberspace, I recommend keeping the two separate. However I suggest you just go nuts. Before you do anyting rash though, never EVER hit publish until after you have proof read what you wrote. Trust me on this. I fail to do so far too often and it always shows.
The goalwith a blog is to get practice writing in your own unique voice. The more you do this, the easier it becomes. No matter if your ultimate goal is to write plays, comic boo,snovels or films, make sure you have a blog where you can just jot down your ideas. I don’t recommend giving away the farm. Use a blog as a space to get extra practice writing where others can see what you wrote. Be prepared for criticism. Now let’s break it down by a few specific paths which I will further elaborate in a future series. For now here are just a few entry points to help get you started.
Suppose you want to write comic books. Great. But what do you do about the art work? Well if you lack that skill, which most writers do, then you will eventually need to partner up with a skilled artist. That comes later. First I recommend two solid approaches. First get a notebook that is JUST for writing your comic book ideas. Divide it into sections. I suggest using a 5 subject, college ruled notebook for this. Section one needs to be words. Just write down a two, to three paragraph elevator pitch for any comic book ideas you might have. Try to challenge yourself to make a mixture of existing characters you can write fan fiction stories along side as many of your own original creations as you can.
The second section should be just lists of every character archetype, genre and subgenre, as well as any settings you think you might enjoy. For example list things like demigod type, superhero, antihero, snow, dessert, Mars, etc. Just fill this section with words. This will help inspire you to come up with ideas. The last three sections sould be short stories you would love to develop into comics. Write them as you would any other fictional story. Get a second notebook and repeat this process. The goal here is to organize your thoughts and, practice, practice and practice some more. I can’t offer advice into how to get a job with Marvel or DC, for that you will have to seek guiadance elsewhere. IÂ am merely helping you hone your craft with tips, not rules, that you could implement if you so choose. The idea is to challenge yourself to write often. You can replace any notebook or notepad I discuss with computer word documents, if you prefer.
How do you write a novel? This I can assure you I have full confidence in my advice as I am a published auther of three books. Long before you set out to write a novel start small. Again get a series of notebooks, or create a series of Word documents, whatever you are most comfortable with. I suggest starting with short stories first because it is easier to write a complete story which will be far more satisfying than writing six chapters of your novel only to fall off becaue you didn’t understand how involved of a proces it really is.
Once you have challenged yourself to write a few, five to seven should suffice, short stories, then you are reasy to move on to your first novel. There are a few approaches you can take. You can write an outline of what you want the book to be about. You can try word clusters if you hit a brick wall coming up with ideas. You can also do the wing it and just see where the words take you method. Regardless of which method you attempt, make sure you have at least a list of your characters with their names and a two-sentence description. Trust me you don’t want to spend 15,000 words telling the tales of Dave the onboxious only to write the next 10,00 words calling him Buster because you forgot his name was Dave and whoops. This happened to me with the first novel I wrote. It is embarrasing but it can happen.
This is where I will tell you, again, to start small. Set realistic goals such as writing 500 words a day, or 4 full pages a day or just write as much as you can for a set timeframe such as 10 minutes a day. Be sure to set realistic goals. Then do everything you can, life permitting, to stick to the plan. The goal is to write every day but to do it in small chuncks. Trust me if you set a goal of, say, fifteen minutes a day, I promise there will come that day where the lightbulb goes off and you get so inspired you find yourself writing for the hours solid. If you have the time and the patience to dedicate to this tas, oyou will be okay, Remember do not rush it. You don’t have to write a 75,000 word novel in a weeks time. just stick with it.
Stay tuned for the next article in this series soon.
Stephanie Bri 