Writers - The Only Real Mistake...

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” ~ John Powell

There’s a statement it’s hard to dispute and it can apply to many things in our lives, but I’m going to apply it to writing, and I’m going to take it a step further.

Actually you can’t make a mistake in writing. Yes, you can write poorly, but of course, hopefully you/we will learn from that so it’s not a mistake at all, right? Your grammar or your spelling may be awful, but that’s not unfixable, right? There are tools to help and of course you can, what was that again?, learn.

You can write for the wrong audience for you or you can write in a genre not suitable to your abilities, but again, those can’t be classified as mistakes as from doing those things you’ll learn --- not to do them.  Or you’ll learn to change and enhance your abilities or write better/more appropriately for those audiences you want to enthrall.

What I’m saying here is writing, like life, is a learning experience. And, more, the two are intertwined. The more you live, the more you experience, the more you let your curiosity lead the way the more you learn. And if you’re a writer, the more your writing will change, evolve, and improve.

And once we look at it that way, all the little booboos we make in life take on a whole new direction. If you’re focusing and understand the learning process for yourself then learning from mistakes is not that difficult. I mean some are obvious. In the big picture if you slam your thumb with a hammer you learn several things. It hurts, your nail may fall off and you’ll do your best not to do that again (whether you succeed or not, well that’s another question).

The same applies when you narrow your focus from the world at large down to your writing and getting your work out there for folks to read. If you make some big gaffs and the book doesn’t sell you may learn you really DO need to market that thing. Or you may learn HOW to market that thing. Or you might learn you didn’t write that very well and you need to rethink your creation.

All in all you can turn what many might feel to be a mistake or mistakes into something you can learn from and come out even better because of it.

These things are worth pondering at times because frequently we writers tend to beat ourselves up all too often over what we should have done or could have done or what we feel we did poorly.

So get yourself out of that zone and focus on what you did right and well and how you can learn from those other things we aren’t going to call mistakes. 

Oh, and apply it to the rest of your life as well. 

Writers Writing - Pondering the Whys

I use Grammarly to check plagiarism because a twist in the tale must be more than another writer's kink.

Writing.

Fiction in particular.

Why is it we do it? Why do we write?

Yes, we want to tell stories. We enjoy that part.

But doesn’t it seem new writers are forever asking established writers about how they work? I admit to that same curiosity when I was a new writer. There is that element of curiosity for me. Now it seems the new writer wants to absorb that information like a sponge; whether the well-known, respected writer prefers to write by hand or at a computer; whether he or she prefers to write in solitude or at a coffee shop; whether that writer writes into the wee hours of the morning or prefers the rising dawn as a time to write; whether said writer outlines or wings it. All of that like knowing such tidbits will somehow transfer by osmosis the golden ring of success. It seems the new writer believes/hopes that if he or she can just understand the mechanical workings of a ‘successful’ author then that method can be duplicated and create a similar bubble of success for the new writer.

Big news! Surprise!  There is no magic wand, no perfect formula, no recipe if meticulously followed, that will guarantee writing success. Heck, nothing to even guarantee mediocrity. There’s no important “thing” such as pen vs. computer, large desk vs. small or daylight vs. darkness that will hurl said writer straight into success.

Nope, for that we have to circle back to where this post began.

It’s why we write.

If the only thing driving your writing forward is the desire for ‘success’ then you might not be in the right field, or perhaps you need to get into commercial writing of some stripe. Maybe fiction writing isn’t for you.

I think it’s safe to say we’d all like to be the ‘big name’ writers who pull in the big bucks and can write comfortably from whatever environment we choose. Reality check. Only a very small percentage of fiction writers are able to make their living at the craft. And, by the way, luck plays a very large role in which writers actually become those ‘big name’ writers. It isn’t that those said ‘big names’ aren’t talented, but what had to be added to that was being at the right place at the right time with the right story and the right drive to get there.

So what to do? Keep writing. Write what you love and put yourself out there. Your manuscript won’t be published, your screenplay optioned if you leave it in a drawer.

Don’t expect to uncover some magic formula that creates success. If you’re curious about other writer’s methods, ask, sure, why not? Incorporate some of those methods if it makes you feel better, but remember that ultimately your success lies with you. Methods of writing don’t have much to do with it, other than simply getting it done. So gather your tools. Write, create, tell stories. Be in the right place at the right time with the right story.

No matter HOW you do it, writing the story is the only path that will lead you to writer’s success.

And Speaking of tools: 

Typing Tutors 

Spell Checker Dangers

Software for Writers 

Word Power Made Easy