As a writer, you should always view yourself as a work in progress. The better you get, the more you realize how much better you could be or how bad you were. The Dunning-Kruger effect suggests we all suffer from a cognitive bias where we will overestimate our abilities based on a lack of subject knowledge. The more you know, the better you can estimate what you don’t know. At the age of 80, Socrates proclaimed, ‘All I know is I know nothing.’ Compare that to the average teenager who knows everything. Perhaps it’s because they have the internet and an iPhone.
When is Your Manuscript Good Enough
In the words of Leonardo da Vinci, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” That’s the way I feel when I give a manuscript to my editor. I get to the point where I can’t work on it anymore, abandoning it. If I just went through it one more time, I could make it better, but when is that one more time counterproductive?
Another witticism is that the perfect is the enemy of the good, or in the case of a manuscript, the good enough. When is your book perfect? Never. When is it good enough to publish? That’s a judgment call probably best made by your editor if you trust them, and if you don’t, find another editor.
After your fifth book release (or so), you may want to go back to review your earlier work. With e-books, revisions are simple. You may also want to update past work based on current events. Your writer’s voice may have matured, and you want everything you have published to be consistent. You may also need a break and not want to start a new project, but fine-tune an old one.
Self-criticism
We are our own worst critics, and I often joke, ‘The only writing I hate more than my own is everyone else’s.’ That draws a raised eyebrow or two, especially from writers who think they have reached some plateau of excellence. Keep dreaming. I don’t know a writer who is perfectly content with anything they’ve published in the past or present. I believe it’s in our DNA not to be satisfied. This is why external input is so important: it’s the voice of sanity.
Complacency
Complacency is something you must absolutely avoid. Get busy and get feedback, the honest kind. You could consider submitting your work for professional critique. You can find dozens of sources online, and many are free. I mentioned in another post my experience with a writer’s group, and that’s the last place I would seek feedback. I suggest strongly partnering with a trusted editor, the one who will be approving your final draft. As they say, two heads are better than one. I consider most editors good writers who only lack the imagination for storytelling. If your editor is a better writer than you, you’re in business.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Write as much as you can. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but the right kind of practice makes you better. The right kind of writing is one where you get consistent feedback. From story development to unique ways to describe a setting, reading books on writing helps far more than reading a novel to see how someone else did it. What if you’re following a bad example. There are a plethora of bad books and poor writers out there. Don’t fall into the me-too trap. Sounding like everyone else is boring, and a boring book is dead on arrival.
Develop a Motivation for Writing
Why write anything? It can’t be for the money. Start with your passions. What makes you get out of bed in the morning and turn on your computer? (assuming you’re a writer) I’m writing this post, and others, because I want to inspire others to write. I don’t care about creating more competition. One more writer won’t matter. I wish other writers felt the same way, and maybe I could be friends with a few.
Your passion could be playing an online video game. Surprisingly, people write about gaming for a living. The passion isn’t writing for the sake of writing but for the subject. I’m passionate about exposing corruption and dishonest people in power. I choose to do it through fictional narratives to teach a broader lesson. Some of my post-dystopian novels, such as “Ergot Fanning,” give a strong warning on what could happen if technology is abused. All of my Science Fiction and Conspiracy Thrillers have that underlying theme. Find your passion and write about it like no one else can.
Invest in Learning Human Psychology
What makes people do bad things? Greed and selfishness may be at the heart of most crimes, but the human psyche is much more complex. How well do you understand human behavior? The more you know, the better your characters will be.
One of my favorite character profiles is the protagonist who means well but causes a disaster. Trying to fix it makes the situation worse. How could you use that to form a storyline? The possibilities are nearly endless. In the last book of my Organized Crime and Corruption series: Sugar, two research scientists, motivated to help humanity, have created a drug that others want to leverage for power, and it spirals out of control.
Your antagonist isn’t pure evil. Your protagonist isn’t purely good. It’s more complicated. There’s an element of everything in everyone, and as a writer, you create the situation to bring it to light through the characters.
Writer’s Block and Procrastination
Writing is a contact sport. You must take action. You write the first draft to get the story in your head on paper or on the computer screen. It’s ugly, but that’s to be expected. Think of writing as plastering a wall. You first need to get the plaster on the wall and then smooth out the rough spots to make it visually appealing. You smooth out the rough spots in your manuscript to make it readable.
Another visual description is sculpting clay. The basis for the sculpture you want is there, but you must first get the clay on the table to start the process. You take away and add material until the sculpture is finished, which was there all the time.
Michelangelo said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble. I just have to chisel away the unneeded material.”
Michelangelo saw the figure before the first hammer blow. You see the story before the worst keystroke. So write something, anything. You will rewrite dozens of pages and even entire chapters by the time you’re through, but nothing happens until you have something to work with on the table.
Endeavor to Persevere
When I was a young man, I wanted to be a surfer. I remember watching the surfers from the beach with my new surfboard tucked under my arm. It looked easy, or the guys in the water made it look easy. It wasn’t easy. I sucked. I was yelled at by the real surfers to get out of their water. I was a nuisance, but the other surfers didn’t deter me. I found a section of the beach with fewer surfers because the waves were not as desirable. I also found other newbies like me. We all sucked together.
Writing is like learning anything new. I learned to ice skate at age 51. I was horrible at it. I still am by most standards, but I enjoy cruising around the rink like an old man – because I am an old man. That’s okay; I’m enjoying myself. Learn to write and tell a compelling story with the same conviction. Others may say that your writing sucks, but tell yourself that it won’t one day and strive for that day when someone will compliment your writing. It’s all up to you.