People get work for three reasons or, at least, two out of three reasons: their work is good; they’re easy to get along with; and they deliver the work on time. – Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art”
writing
First, You Copy
The urge, starting out, is to copy. And that’s not a bad thing. Most of us only find our own voices after we’ve sounded like a lot of other people. – Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art”
I’m sometimes told my writing style has a distinct sound to it. I suppose it does, but it’s taken years of writing to arrive at it. My style did not emerge fully formed from my head. It took work.
You Have to Work on Your Craft
If you’re a writer, you have to work on your craft. You have to learn the mechanics. You have to study language and dialogue. You have to read other people’s work – both the classics and the contemporaries. You have to develop what Dean Young calls a “critical sensibility” that guides how you read and write.
Copy Editing Won’t Save Your Work
One of the final steps in preparing your work to be published is having it copy edited, which is to say that there are other steps. For example, your work needs to be revised. It needs to be read by beta readers, preferably ones who read critically. It needs to be read by an editor who will provide structural feedback.* It will then need to be revised according to the feedback and reception received. Then and only then is it ready to be hacked to pieces by the copy editor.
Writing with Love
But I know now there’s one thing you’ve all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered by human affection isn’t worth a damn…Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love.
– Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
How to Take Criticism
Criticism is a horse pill: hard to swallow but good for you.
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