Writing Tips #2

Writing Tips #2- Do not get obsessed with what other writers around you are doing.

Writers enjoy the company of other writers. It is nice to spend time with people who understand the joys and struggles of being a writer. It can also be a great way to bounce ideas around and help out other writers.

It can also quickly become a way to get distracted from doing good quality work and instead become a competition to see who can finish their book first.

Every writer has their own style. While its true that if you look at a writer and dig into who their favorite authors are you will probably find a lot of similarities. This is because we take our favorite parts of the authors we like and add them to our own writing style. This is also true about writing processes. I have read up on some of my favorite authors and looked into how they go about writing their books. I then tried a few of their techniques out to see if any of them worked for me.

When I had first gotten into my current writing group I was the only one taking on the task of writing a fantasy epic that was going to break 150k words, not to mention be the first book in a series of 5.

Everyone else took the smarter road and tried smaller stand alone novels for their first work. We all spent months working hard and going through the struggles that authors go through but after only six months their books were finished and I was still no where near finished with mine.

I quickly lost sight of the reason I was writing in the first place and started spitting out poorly written chapters just so I could finish my book as well. It just made more work for me in the end because I was had to go back and toss all those chapters because they were not up to the standard of the book and I had to rewrite everything.

So take your time and make sure you are happy with your work. Do not sacrifice good quality writing and the story you want just to compete with someone.

This is it for this week but I will be trying to update and post new stuff every Sunday so check back next week!