How to Become a Published Writer in Weeks Instead of Years
Start Really, Really Small
This is for people who either want to start writing, period, or want to start publishing, either traditionally with an editor or through sharing on social media.
As someone who only wrote Really Big Things (books) for a long time, I’ve been loving publishing essays. They don’t take that long to draft! The editorial process is weeks rather than months! I also get paid faster, which is nothing to sniff at, people.
That said, as a novelist and the director of an MFA that focuses on novel writing, most people come to me for help writing the big thing: books. And yet I want to emphasize the importance of sharing your work early and often, in short form.
“But you went right to novels, Nicole!” jeers the peanut gallery. And that is, like most things, kinda true and kinda not. Yes, my first published work was a novel. But before that, I’d been sharing shorter works for years as a student and an English major. Every essay I wrote was shared and commented upon, either in class peer-reviews or with teachers and professors. I brainstormed ideas with other students or with tutors. Really, nothing I ever wrote (besides journal entries) was not shared.
