Advice from Stephen King
Here’s a list of some advice from the master of horror himself Stephen King. He writes like a machine. Definitely, someone to listen to. It all comes down to one thing though, write, write and write some more. Practice makes perfect and I really need to practice harder.
If you don’t succeed, get a bigger nail.
This advice comes from the huge number of rejection letters that Stephen King got, the idea was he had so many pinned on a nail in his wall that eventually it fell loose. So he got a bigger nail and kept going.
Write 6 pages a day.
In his autobiography, Stephen King says something similar he also says he will “permit” a starting writer to start with a mere 1000 words a day. I think this is worth trying but man I bet George R. R. Martin would have apoplexy if he got told this.
Go where the story takes you.
As a self-proclaimed pantser this is very Stephen King. He doesn’t believe in plotting everything. There’s no way to be sure which I should do, but I have found planning very hard. Perhaps I should just write.
The good ideas will stick with you.
Seems like good advice. If you write 6 pages of content every day, there are sure to be good ideas that you can file away for later.
First, you read and copy other writers, then little by little you develop your style
I’m trying this with good dialogue, literally copying out conversations that I loved. It’s also true that I can hear when the language becomes too much. Writing dialogue is really hard.
Writing is self-hypnosis, you need to have a routine.
Christ, I need a routine in everything. My life is a mess. I have no good sleep or waking pattern. I need a new flat, with at least doors. I need a space where I can write and be on my own occasionally.
Start with short stories and let them develop into novels or screenplays.
Okay, good news. This I can do. Hell, this I want to do, I am more interested in finding out that there are no large websites for short story collaboration, etc. There is https://theshortstory.co.uk/ but it has more broken links and doesn’t seem to work.
Learn to write for different mediums.
I think I’ll start by getting good at just writing in the first place.
Look for ideas that you would really enjoy writing for longer periods.
This all comes back to me needing to write more and more and find what I enjoy. I wrote a lot of stuff that never gets put out there.
Get immersed in your writing process until the outside world is gone.
Easy to say, hard to do in a single room flat where I work, sleep, eat and cook.
