Just Write
“Just write” is one of my least favorite pieces of writing advice because it’s often dismissive and unhelpful. Yes, it’s necessary to put words on the page to be a writer, but to actually improve in the craft, you need to know how to practice it. Real life is not a video game. In video games, you can often do the same action over and over until you level up, and when you do, you’re simply better. You can be better in so many ways, too, even when it doesn’t make sense considering what you did. For example, how does walking around and finding cool locations make you stronger? And how does hitting people with a lance make you more immune to magic? It would be awesome if reality worked the same way. However, in real life you can’t just do something repeatedly to improve: you have to do something repeatedly in the right way. In some cases, practicing incorrectly only wastes your time, but it can also lead to poor habits that make learning the right way more difficult.
To address this, I think it’s far more helpful to explain how to write. Writing is a skill, and like other skills, it has fundamental components that you can learn to master. When someone learns how to play the piano, they typically learn how to read sheet music, practice chords and scales (using the correct fingers for each note), and work on pieces that require different types of technical skill. The same is true for writing. Rather than “just write,” break writing down into simpler components that you can work on. Then, you can practice them individually as well as together.
Here are some examples of how to practice writing that, at some point in my writing journey, have been helpful for me:
- Write a scene using just dialogue. Try it without dialogue tags or without using the word “said.”
- Write a scene with no dialogue.
- Write a scene from different POVs or even different genres
- Describe a setting using all five senses.
- Find random prompts and write short stories about them
- Create some characters and place them in different scenarios.
A lot of what you write will probably sound awkward when doing exercises like these. That’s fine. Then, when you work on a real story (piecing all those components together), evaluate your work. Read what you’ve written, and, if you’re able, have someone else read it, too. Consider what is working and what isn’t working. What technical skills do you need to further refine? I practice writing descriptions because they’re something I naturally struggle with. They’re far from perfect in Coalescent, but they’re also far better than they were before.
Finally, don’t forget that plotting, writing, and editing a novel are also skills you’ll need to practice. Don’t wait until you feel like your prose is perfect to start drafting a full book, and also, allow yourself to write a terrible book. Just because you finish one doesn’t mean you need to publish it. Edit it again, if you want, or set it aside and work on a new project, learning from your past mistakes. Don’t be afraid to leave a draft undone either.
Writing is a skill, and like other skills, you can learn it. It just takes time.