My Favourite Writing Advice

I’ve been meaning to write a post on my favourite writing advice and tips for so long, so here it is.

A lot of these tips are things you’ll hear from other writers. I think that’s because often the best advice is the stuff that’s been tried and tested.

I hope some of it is useful!

Don’t make decisions based on how you feel. Make decisions based on what you want to achieve.

This is probably the most important tip on my list, and it applies to everything in life, not just writing.

Don’t base your daily decisions on how you feel or what your mood is like. If you do, you likely won’t achieve much.

Through the lens of writing, I never base my decision to write on how I’m feeling. I base it on my current goal. If I’m drafting something with a deadline, I write.

This doesn’t mean I don’t rest. Taking breaks is crucial. But when I’m writing and aiming to finish a draft, I’m locked in. My mind doesn’t even consider not doing it.

Get something on paper.

Too many aspiring writers spend excessive time worrying about what to write. Unfortunately, this can be paralyzing. Don’t worry about making your first few chapters or first draft perfect. Don’t even worry about making them good. Many writers (myself included) call their first drafts “vomit drafts.” The whole point is to just get it all out.

You can edit a bad chapter—you can’t edit a blank page.

Bullet points are your friend.

If you’re struggling to get started, try writing part of your story in bullet points instead. Forget about beautiful prose and perfect dialogue and focus on writing down what happens. Think of it like a play-by-play, or pretend you’re describing the scene to a friend. What would you tell them?

Your bullet points may never make it into later drafts, but you won’t have anything to edit or cut if you don’t write them in the first place.

Give yourself permission to be a beginner.

If you’d never played tennis, you wouldn’t show up to a court expecting to be great on your first try. If you wanted to improve, you’d sign up for lessons and practice consistently.

So it baffles me that people think they’ll automatically be great at writing.

Being able to write and being able to craft and sell a novel are entirely different skills. You have to seriously work at the latter. It takes time and practice, like anything else.

Prose doesn’t equal plot.

One of the biggest mistakes I see new writers make is focusing too much on beautiful words while neglecting the story behind them. You can have the most ethereal, lyrical prose, but without plot, readers won’t stick around.

This matters less in literary fiction, but genre fiction almost always requires solid plotting.

God really is in the details.

Here’s a sentence I just made up: “Laura crossed the street and went into the restaurant.”

Technically, as a reader, I know what happens and can picture it.

But if I add detail: “Laura crossed 12th Avenue and walked into Ricardo's”, it automatically creates a much sharper image.

I tend to add details like this in later drafts, usually after I’ve completed one or two rounds.

Your characters should change (or try to).

If your main characters are exactly the same people at the end of the book as they were at the start, that’s not a compelling journey for readers.

The exception would be if they tried to change but failed—that works because we saw them attempting to achieve a goal, overcome a fear, or take a chance. But if they don’t do anything, it doesn’t make for satisfying reading.

Understand the market you’re writing for.

This only applies if you want to sell your books. If you’re seeking a traditional publishing deal or planning to self-publish, learn as much as you can about the business, marketing, and sales aspects.

Understand what’s selling and try to figure out why. Are there elements you can apply to your own book journey?

Make your money another way.

I don’t think anyone should write with the goal of making it their main income source. It’s incredibly subjective, and (at least with traditional publishing) the business model doesn’t favour writers.

If it happens to become a career, that’s amazing! But it’s enormous pressure to have your income tied solely to book sales.

I also think AI is drastically changing the industry, and book advances will decline. We’ll probably see fewer book deals and more publishers pivoting to AI-written or AI-assisted books.

Write because you enjoy it first. If the money comes, you can cross that bridge when you reach it.

Move your body.

I said the first point was most important, but it should probably be this one. Writing is terrible for your body. I’m currently suffering from “library arms” from spending too much time at my desk.

Get movement every day. I do a combination of weightlifting, cardio, yoga, skating, and pilates. It doesn’t matter what you do—just do something.

I highly recommend workouts where you’re not looking at a screen. Swimming is perfect for this.

I also advise anyone who types extensively to exercise and stretch their hands. I get severe wrist and finger pain from typing, and I’ve found that exercises designed for video gamers help (you can find many on YouTube).

Other things I do to stay “writer healthy”:
- Never use a trackpad
- Raise my laptop so I'm not looking down
- Sit up straight at a desk
- Set a timer for every 25 minutes to remind myself to get up and drink water

If you don’t have your health, you have nothing. Take care of your body!

Stop looking for writing advice and just write.

You can spend all your time planning, thinking, and making notes about writing. But the only thing that will make you a better writer is writing.

Other tips.

I don’t want to overdo this, but once you’ve gotten the hang of the basics, this reddit thread has some of my favourite advice on writing, and this tumblr page is a fantastic resource for writing people of colour. 

Now go write!