Tips for Writers

Prompted by a few of the more chaotic posts I’ve seen lately on the Writing Community social media platforms, let’s hit a few of my tips for writers. 

Sidenote before we start: I’m not an expert and never claimed to be. I’m just out here in the trenches with you and I’ve noticed a few things. Take it or leave it. 

1. Reviews are for readers. They’re important. We want them. But that doesn’t mean you should be reading all of the reviews that come in for your books and taking them to heart. It CERTAINLY doesn’t mean you should respond to them AT ALL. They’re not intended for you. No commenting. Just leave it. 
2. Everybody likes different things. That’s actually a GOOD thing, since it makes the world a whole lot more interesting. Where it comes into play here is that just because something isn’t YOUR thing doesn’t mean you get to talk bad about it. I keep running into writers (in person and online) who want to bad mouth other genres. NOT COOL. As a reader who reads EVERYTHING, this gets you on my mental DO NOT READ list so fast. 
3. You can learn something from a lot of other genres. Similar to the last one, there are so many genres out there in the world. If you’re not dabbling in them to try and pull some tips, you’re missing out. Learn how to make readers fall in love with the character quickly from romance, learn how to slowly heighten the suspense from thriller authors, learn how to keep secrets from mystery authors. I’m not saying you’ll have new favorites, I’m just saying you might learn something. 
4. Talk about your books. This is one I need to remember as well. You wrote them, they’ve available in the world, now talk about them! It’s always frustrating when someone says “oh, wow, I didn’t know you were an author”. I mean, I have 11 books available. Shouldn’t I be making this a bigger deal? Don’t be afraid to talk about them. At least a little. 
5. Read. If I hear one more author say they don’t actually read, I might scream. I’m not sure why authors feel compelled to admit this out loud in FESTIVALS FULL OF READERS but I keep hearing it. I was going to say it’s fine if you don’t read but, actually, refer back to tip #3 for why I don’t think that’s true. 
6. Stop judging. Cringing when a reader tells you a trope they like is not cool. Telling someone they must read “kids books” when they say they’ve read over 100 books in a year is not cool. This is a person who is TELLING YOU they’re a reader who may be in your intended audience. Why are we alienating them? 

Alright, that’s it for now. I’ll probably think of more right after I post this but that at least gets those out of my brain. 

Be kind. Quit Judging. Read More. 

See you next time.