Teacher-Authors: What’s Happening on my Writer’s Blog

A lot of teacher-authors read my WordDreams blog. In this monthly column, I share a popular post that writer readers enjoyed: 

For those reading this article who are either established authors, in-training, or anything in between, you probably have already figured out that the learning curve to become a  writer is steep and endless. I’ve read a ton of how-to books, attended more than my share of conferences, and meet with fellow writers twice a month to discuss our passion. In each of these situations, no matter how often I attend, I learn something new. So it is no surprise that I also find epiphanies in social media. Some streams offer one person’s insight that addresses a chronic problem I also have. Others answer questions I couldn’t put into words enough to get an answer from anyone else.

Tips

Here are some of the best writing tips I’ve gathered on social media in the past year:

1. Get over your perfectionist tendencies.
2. If you’re having trouble meeting the minimum word count, it’s probably because you’re not being specific enough.
3. Keep a notebook with you at all times, and write in it. A lot.
4. Don’t compare yourself to other authors. Find your unique voice and write your stories.
5. If your story idea involves zombies, it probably has been done already.
6. If your scene sounds too much like a TV show or movie you’ve seen, cut it!
7. Writing’s hard. Good writing is even harder.
8. To uncover the plot of your story, don’t ask what should happen; ask what should go wrong.
9. Don’t let your dumb show.
10. Perfect is the enemy of good.
11. There are those who can make a $75 off-the-rack outfit look hand-tailored. Not true in writing. You can’t turn a bad novel into a good one by attaching a pretty cover.
12. Boldly go where other writers won’t.

Criticism

To share the criticism I and friends have received, I broadened the scope from social media to query letter responses, agents at writer’s conferences, Amazon comments, beta readers, and well-meaning friends. Some of these are more for humor than to be critical:

1. What this story lacked in ambiance, it didn’t make up for with anything else.
2. More criticism from a trusted beta reader whose day job is doctoring: “I find you have idiopathic thinking.” When I asked what that was, she explained, “It’s thinking of unknown origin. In other words: What the f*** were you saying?”
3. From an agent who rejected my novel: I was whelmed.
4. About a too-complicated story I submitted: A bridge too far and a euphemism too short.
5. You promised a world-class thriller. I got a rerun of Fantasy Island.
6. “Why the h*** did you waste my time?” Sorry. Autocorrect. I meant to say, “Thank you for the submittal.”
7. I asked one agent for suggestions on fixing my story. Her response: “I got nothin’.”
8. “You wrote your MC right into a corner and she couldn’t escape, like a defective Roomba.”
9. “Nothin’ to see there.”

Have you found any great tips on your favorite social media?

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Man vs. Nature saga, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the acclaimed Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Endangered Species, Winter 2024