Writing a book can be a daunting journey. When I wrote my first novel twelve years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. But having gone through the process over half a dozen times, I’ve learned a few answers to some of the questions I had as a younger writer.
This past month, I’ve been traveling across Europe, and I thought I’d answer some of your writing questions along the way. I received way more questions than I could answer here, so I’ll try to answer more in the future.
Now let’s get into the questions.
How do you make writing sound poetic?
There are a lot of different techniques you can use to make your writing sound more poetic, like alliteration or using similes or metaphors. You can also make your sentences more poetic by intentionally using structure in interesting ways, creating parallels or symmetry with your words.
I’d recommend looking at good uses of poetic writing in books. Make note of what you like, and what you don’t like. You don’t want to go overboard with poetic writing—at least, if you’re not writing poetry. If you do, that’s called purple prose, which is where you’re being excessively verbose.
How do I write a story with a lot of words?
I wouldn’t force it. Some stories are meant to be short.
But if you want to write something longer, you can increase the story’s depth, width, or both. Increasing depth means more detailed descriptions, longer conversations between characters, more exploration of your protagonist’s thoughts and beliefs on the page. Increasing width means adding more scenes, more locations, more subplots, more characters. If you want your story to be larger in scale, add width. If you want your story to still be smaller in scale, more focused, add depth. But remember, not every story has to be a novel.
How do you write outlines for a book?
My favorite outlining method is the Save the Cat beat sheet. I’ve used a lot of different story structures over the years, and sometimes simply wrote a chapter-by-chapter outline of the plot. It depends on the complexity of the story. And my outlines always evolve as I’m writing. You should never feel obligated to follow your outline to the letter; let the story naturally change shape if it needs to. If you want to learn more about story structure, I’d recommend reading Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody, The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, and Story by Robert McKee.
Should we just focus on our own artistic vision over worrying about pleasing the audience?
Depends on your priorities. Creative freedom is primarily the ability to be led by your own vision, not by concerns about external perspectives. I, like many writers, want a great deal of creative freedom. But in many scenarios, that’s not possible; if you’re writing for a company, or with a coauthor, or with the goal of selling a lot of copies of your book, you should care about other people’s expectations. “Writing to market” is a term that means writing a book targeted toward a specific audience. It means writing tropes, following genre conventions, giving readers what they want. It may not be pushing any artistic boundaries, but it’s a path many authors have followed to great success. So it’s up to you. And you can find a balance between following your vision and keeping your audience front of mind. Ignoring your future readers can result in writing that’s self-indulgent, and ignoring your artistic vision can result in writing that’s bland and uninspired.
If you could only write one genre for the rest of your life and it can't be the one you’re writing in now, which would you pick?
I’m currently writing a dark sci-fi novel. But if I couldn’t write sci-fi, I would write mystery, like an Agatha Christie–style murder mystery. I love writing twists, building setups and payoffs, and all the fun you can have with a cast of interesting suspects. I’ve gone through several phases of favorite genres over the years. When I started writing, I was really into fantasy. Later, I preferred a sort of mix of action-adventure and fantasy, sort of like Indiana Jones. More recently, I’ve really gotten into sci-fi and mystery. I think sci-fi is a particularly good genre for exploring big thematic questions, things like identity and control and free will. Some of those big questions are thematic elements in my current work in progress, Catalyst of Control. That book will be coming later this year. But I’ve written in almost every genre, including horror and comedy and historical fiction. There are fun aspects to all of them, but sci-fi and mystery are my current favorites.
How do I make something meaningful to the reader?
Make it meaningful to your characters first.
Say you have an important object in your story, and you want it to be more than just a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an object that’s important to the plot but doesn’t have any real meaning behind it. Give the object an emotional tie to one or more of your characters. Maybe it’s connected to their past, or symbolically represents their inner flaw. If it’s something like a weapon, clearly establish the stakes and how it can affect your character’s lives. The Death Star matters a lot more to viewers once it destroys the home planet of one of the heroes, not just some random planet.
You can’t force your reader to care about something. We don’t like to be blatantly emotionally manipulated. But if you focus on making something matter to your characters, your readers will naturally be more inclined to care, too. This applies not only to objects, but also to events, locations, plot twists, and even characters themselves.
How do you get successful as an author?
First things first: define what success as an author means to you. Ultimately, we shouldn’t judge our own success or lack thereof by other people’s standards, but by our own. Do you want to make a living as a writer? Do you simply want to write something you’re proud of? Do you want to reach people in a certain way with your work? My own definition of success has changed over time, and yours may too. Only once you’re clear on what exactly success as an author means to you can you begin to see the steps needed to get you there. Depending on your definition, the steps will be different. And there’s practically an infinite number of paths to success as a writer. I’d recommend looking at how your favorite writers got to where they are. See how they got started. Learn from their successes and failures. But keep in mind that even if you try to replicate another writer’s path, your journey will inevitably go differently. But hey, it wouldn’t be very fun if life always went as expected, right?
How do you know if your writing is “good enough”?
For me, the answer is simple. If my writing evokes the feeling I want it to evoke in me, then it’s good enough. My standard of quality for my prose itself is always rising. You can do an endless amount of revising to fine-tune each and every sentence. That kind of perfectionism isn’t inherently bad, but if it prevents you from finishing what you’re writing, it’s a problem.
You’re never going to write a book composed entirely of perfect sentences. Besides, what counts as ‘good writing’ on a stylistic and technical level depends on the genre and audience. Simplistic prose might be out of place in sophisticated literary fiction, but work perfectly in a middle grade novel. If you obsess over the details, you’ll lose sight of what really makes a piece of writing great. So I ask myself instead: does this have the emotional effect I want it to? Secondarily, when I’m rereading what I’ve written, I ask: does anything here feel unfinished or unnecessary?
You might feel the urge to rewrite something just for the sake of rewriting it. But if you’re not careful, you’ll get caught in an endless cycle of arbitrary revision. So I ask myself these simple questions, and if the answers are satisfactory, then it’s good enough. And a book that’s good enough and finished is infinitely better than a book that’s perfect but exists only in the confines of your own mind.
When did you find your passion for writing?
I started writing fiction for fun when I was 5 or 6, then wrote my first full-length novel when I was 7. I was inspired by all the books I read, mostly fantasy. For me, writing was a form of play. I found that I really enjoyed translating imaginary worlds and characters and creatures into words on a page. I loved immersing myself in other writers’ fictional worlds through reading, but what I loved even more was immersing myself in my own fictional worlds through writing. I could take an active role in shaping the story. Whatever I could imagine could happen. That’s a lot of fun.
I don’t think it’s always been clear that writing is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I’ve done a lot of other creative work that I really enjoy, from filmmaking to acting to composing music. But writing novels has been a part of my life, at least in the background, for over a decade by now. For about seven straight years, I wrote a novel every year. So my passion for writing has been there just about as long as I can remember. I’ve gotten more serious about it in some ways, but I’d like to think I can keep that same childlike joy that got me started in the first place.
How do you get yourself excited about your work in progress if you start losing steam?
There are a few things you can do. First, take a break by switching to a different project. This can be either another story, or a project in a different medium entirely.
Second, re-read what you’ve written. Experiencing your story afresh can renew your motivation to continue writing it.
Third, dedicate time to immersing yourself in the story. Set aside a time to listen to a playlist based on the story, and don’t allow yourself to do anything other than think or write. You don’t have to force yourself to write, but your lack of options for what else to do can prompt ideas to surface. Boredom, plus the power of music, can be a powerful tool for inspiration.
Fourth, read or watch something similar to your story that you love. For my current work in progress, Catalyst of Control, watching a film like Blade Runner 2049, Oppenheimer, or The Tragedy of Macbeth would motivate me to get working on my story again. As those examples show, they don’t even have to be in the same genre; they don’t even have to be fiction. Watching or reading something really good can motivate me to get back to writing my own story.
What are some ways that writing delights you?
I love being surprised by the unexpected in the writing process. I always have an idea of how a story is going to go, but it’s always wrong. No matter how much I plan out a story, there will inevitably be moments where new and better ideas come to me in the act of writing. These spontaneously occurring scenes or characters or plot twists often end up being some of my favorite parts of the story. It’s fun to be surprised by how your own story unfolds.
Another way writing delights me is how magical it feels. Sounds corny, but it’s true. Writing gives us the incredible ability to capture ideas and emotions and transmit them across time and space. I can reread a story I wrote ten years ago and see exactly what I was imagining at that age. Writing fiction is like crystallizing a dream and recording it for posterity. It allows us to share imaginary worlds with other people. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.
Thanks for all your questions. I got more than ten times as many questions as I answered here, so I’ll try to answer more in the future. Feel free to leave any new questions in the comments.
If you want to watch the video versions of these blog posts, head over to my YouTube channel here, and subscribe for more videos on writing.
– Grayson Taylor
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