Letter to a Young Writer-by KRS
January 6, 2009Letter to a young writer
Colette wrote:
That was really good advice I am just a beginner I did not have any plans on writing for a magazine or anything like that I just want to write a book is there any advice for that to a person just now stepping into it.
KRS wrote:
The best advice that I can give you is this: Don’t take any advice from anyone. Writing is one of those things that cannot be taught. It just happens. I could tell you what works for me, but what good would that do you? I only know what works for me.
As a retired book and newspaper publisher, I can tell you that I have worked with a lot of writers. But I have never met two of them who worked in the same way. The important thing, and perhaps the only thing that really matters is that you have something to say. Precisely what it is that you have to say may take some years to discover.
You mentioned that you would like to write a book, but you did not mention what the book that you want to write is to be about. Perhaps you are merely in need of a means of self-expression, not sure exactly what you have to say but with a burning desire to say ... something. If that is the case, you are in the same class that I found myself in many years ago. And to be perfectly honest, I spent the best years of my life writing about not having anything to write about. But even so, I just kept moving my pencil across the paper. That is the best you can do, I think. Read the kind of books that you would like to write, and just keep writing, and writing, and writing. Eventually you will find your own voice, but not until after you figure out precisely what it is that you have to say.
Please tell me more specifically what kind of book you would like to write, and I may have some more advice for you. But whatever you do, don’t follow the advice that I give you. Learning to write is in many ways like learning to play a musical instrument: There is simply no substitute for the time you spend in practice mode.
On that note, I will make only one more suggestion to you, for now. Treat every little bit of writing that you do, even in these chat rooms, as if your sentence structure were a matter of great importance. Always strive for perfection, even if that may seem like an impossible goal. I mean, you will notice that your post contains five sentences but only one period. Use periods frequently, at the end of every sentence. The period is a reader’s favorite punctuation mark, because it gives one a break, and it makes your train of thought a lot easier to follow.
Posted by Laura Wood