The Best Writing Advice of 2021
The advice, tips, and inspiration we need to jumpstart our creative practices in the year ahead, from all across Medium
We see a lot of great writing and creativity tips and tricks on Medium. Some of it ends up here on Creator’s Hub, especially if we think it will help you in your Medium journey. But a lot of it is happily floating out there in Medium-land. Here, we’ve compiled 10 great, unexpected pieces of advice that we want to take with us into the new year, ranging from the hyper-specific and tactical, to the biggest of big picture:
Write with your reader in mind (i.e. without showing off)
Being sufficiently humble that you are willing to convey ideas into the heads of your readers at the expense of demonstrating your skill with words — that is the challenge. But as with all asceticism, there’s a sublime joy in restraint. The best writers must learn it. Writing is for the reader, after all. — from “On Writing,” by Nic Carter
Use a distraction-free writing device
I found a way to successfully transform the Pixelbook into a focused writing machine for myself, so I wanted to share the steps I took in case you, too, are looking for a way to write more using something you may already have. — from “How I Turned My Pixelbook Into a Creative Writing Machine in 4 Steps,” by Liam Spradlin
Blog every day
There’s another way that blogging makes my writing better: writing every day makes it easier to write every day. When I was a baby writer, I thought the injunction to “write every day” was purely aspirational, like “do an hour’s aerobic exercise” or “eat five helpings of vegetables.” I deeply regret the years in which I waited for inspiration to strike before writing (as I regret the years when I didn’t get adequate exercise or nutrition) because of all the practice I missed and the habits I waited too long to develop. — from “The Memex Method,” by Cory Doctorow
Outline like a screenwriter
I use/ interpret/ John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story, which is used by many screenwriters, to outline my novels… I’ve learned that I write better, and have more fun doing it, if I have a roadmap. And using a roadmap like Truby’s, which offers up the reassurance that I can make my story stronger by thinking about all of its elements in a calculated way in advance of writing it, is particularly useful to me. — from “How I Use John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story to Outline Fiction,” by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Look to other art forms for structure ideas
But when it came time to finally organize my fifteen stories, I leaned on art outside of books — I looked to Sondheim’s musical comedy Company. — from “Side by Side by Side: How Listening to Sondheim’s ‘Company’ Helped Me Structure My Story Collection,” by Christopher Gonzalez
Use this great trick for keeping the people in your story distinct
One mistake a lot of writers make is introducing their main character(s) by name once, and then never using their name again, resulting in a pileup of pronouns. To avoid this pitfall, use a character’s name for every 3–4 times you use a pronoun (he/she/they). — from “Fast Track To Publication,” by Courtney Maum
Write fan fiction (really!)
Fan fiction taught me that writing is not only fun, it is powerful, especially for people who are marginalized. — from “How Buffy Fan Fiction Helped Me Find My Voice,” by Eric Nguyen
Find a writing community
Join a group, and if you can’t find one to join, start one. Meetup.org has tons of these — just, scads and scads. Sometimes I do a Facebook search for exactly what I’m looking for: “women’s writing group Chicago”; “creative non-fiction writing group”; etc. Starting a group is also a surprisingly easy and interesting endeavor; in the past, I’ve posted on my social that I want to do a monthly writing group and then I watch friends I had no idea were writers come out of the woodwork. — from “How To Write More Often,” by Sophie Lucido Johnson
Revise, revise, and then revise some more
As my boss likes to tell me, “You’ve never read a first draft.” Writing is rewriting. There’s a reason they call them rough drafts: None of them are very good. Ernest Hemingway wrote 47 different endings to a Farewell to Arms before settling on the one we’ve all read. That kind of trial-and-error is necessary. It leads to a better final product. But it also takes time. — from “3 Principles for Writing Better,” by Paul Stansik
Take risks with your writing so that you can astonish your reader
Every important shift in my writing life took place when I got the supreme privilege of watching a writer do something I simply did not know or believe you were allowed to do with words…if you’re a writer, let me tell you: I’m here to watch you be free. I want you to steal my wallet. I’m here to be astonished. — from “I’m Here to Watch You Be Free,” by Sarah Smith
What did we miss? Drop a link in the responses to your favorite writing advice on Medium! And for more go to the writing topic page, or keep checking in here with Creators Hub. And thank you, as always, for sharing your work with us.
