I saw a question on a website for writers about what advice we, as writers, would give to young people who are interested in becoming writers. I may be completely wrong about this, but I feel like I have a slightly unique perspective on this, in that I started writing at a young age (I have a notebook of short stories I wrote beginning early in elementary school) and was certain I would be writing books all my life, but I almost completely stopped writing after college and didn’t take it up again until I was nearly fifty years old. I try not to dwell on regrets, but I definitely wish I would have maintained my writing interest throughout my adult life, even if only for myself. So, I have some thoughts on how to learn from me as a cautionary tale rather than a shining example. I guess I’m going to tell you some things I did that I wish I hadn’t and some things I didn’t do but wish I had.

Let me add a proviso here: this is not groundbreaking advice. To be fair, how much new advice is there when it comes to writing? The tools have changed a little and the avenues you have available to you for publication have grown, but the reality is a good story is a good story, and you won’t get to a point that you can tell a good story until you tell some bad ones, or at least tell some stories badly. And this advice is about getting yourself to do that. These ideas are common sense and have been given on writing sites seemingly forever. I guess I’m more here to use my own experience to help you see the ideas applied in real life.

First, continue reading, deeply and widely. To be accurate, I didn’t stop reading when I left college. That would have been a bit tricky, considering I was an English teacher. But, unless you go into teaching or some other job that requires you to read, statistics tell us there’s a good chance you won’t be reading many books. According to goodereader.com, a third of high school graduates will never read a book the rest of their lives, and a shocking 42% of college graduates never read another book. One would expect that statistic not to apply to writers, but two things make me believe it does. One is the number of students I’ve had in creative writing class who claim to be serious writers but simply don’t read. And the other is the number of books I’ve read that showed no evidence what ever that the author had read a book of any kind recently. Not even the one they wrote.

I was decidedly not one of the folks who quit reading after college. But most of what I did read, especially in the early years of my career, was nothing more than what I had to in order to teach what I was teaching. If I had to teach a play, novel, or shorter piece, I read that, which is fine on some levels, because I was flexing my reading muscles and, as a teacher of Advanced Placement seniors, it was mostly good stuff. But, like I said, I mostly only read what I needed to read. So, oddly enough, I wasn’t a well-read English teacher. Eventually, I got back into reading for pleasure, and I made a point of balancing what I like to call beach reads with meatier stuff, things that might show up on the list of possible titles on the third essay prompt on the AP Literature exam. I also made a point of reading in my main writing genre, soft boiled detective fiction, but also other genres. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two things happened as a result: I got more interested in writing, and I was better at it. The more I read and was exposed to better, deeper ideas and more elevated language, the more I wanted to write and the more powerful and flexible my voice as a writer became.

The second big thing I wish I had done more of since I got out of college to be a better writer is, well, how do I put this? Oh, yeah–write! And I don’t mean write something specific, just write. Keep a journal and write in it constantly. Take notes, notice people, jot down story ideas, write scenes, write poems. Just put words to paper. And get a book of writing prompts and/or exercises and use it. Two of my favorites are Voice Lessons by Nancy Dean and What If? by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter. They are both textbooks, sometimes used in high school and college level writing classes, but they are also amazing to use for individual practice. I’ve taught from them and used them myself as well. Those aren’t the only choices, obviously, but they’re the ones I know well and think are really strong options. I would definitely start with Voice Lessons. It’s made to help you build your voice as a writer by strengthening the elements that go into it: diction, detail, imagery, syntax, and tone. One thing I really like about it is the use of samples from great writing to illustrate the lessons. Once you work your way through that, What If? is an amazing resource that you will be able to use for years. You can jump around, or start at the beginning and work through it. One or two activities a week and you’ll have gained two things: a stronger command of all elements of writing and a huge collection of scenes and story starters.

So, there you go. Two shockingly mundane pieces of advice. Not new, not sexy, not earth-shattering, but guaranteed to grow your literary muscles big and strong.

Bernays, A., & Painter, P. (2014). What if?: Writing exercises for fiction writers. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library.

Dean, N. (2000). Voice lessons: Classroom activities to teach diction, detail, imagery, syntax, and tone. Maupin House.

Kozlowski, M., & Kozlowskihttps://goodereader.com/blog/author/michael-kozlowski, M. (2018, July 15). Reading books is on the decline. Reader. https://goodereader.com/blog/bookselling/reading-books-is-on-the-decline