[WRITING] 10 principles of good writing.

1. Work on the book everyday.
You don’t have to write more pages of the story every day. Work on a book involves much more than just “writing a book”. You can search for information on topics you want to cover in your book, from the geography of the city or country, through information on a specific culture to the construction of the arch (bow) or the cat’s anatomy. You can edit already written chapters. You can outline the next section if you are planning a trilogy or series of books. Working on a book is an extremely broad concept.

2. Don’t compare yourself to famous writers.
Just don’t do it. Comparing yourself to anyone is bad in itself, not necessarily when it comes to writing. If you’re planning to write a horror movie, don’t compare yourself to Stephen King. If you’re writing fantasy, don’t compare yourself to Terry Pratchett or J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien. Each of these famous authors is different. They works differently in creativity, have a different approach to writing and lives on a different level. Comparing yourself to a well-known name does more harm than good for the human psyche, especially if we are working on the first book or despite writing several stories, we have not yet been published on paper. Let’s focus on ourselves. Let’s be selfish. We should believe in our own capabilities and in our own stories that we want to tell so much. Comparing yourself to someone famous, it can cause that your own voice will not be heard, because your style will resemble someone else’s work. And this in no way will make us appreciated by readers.

3. Do not write for film adaptation.
If you have an idea for a story worth describing in the form of a book – focus on writing the book. If the first thing you think about with a specific story in mind is its screen adaptation on a big screen, preferably with a first-class cast – stop. Do not write. Do not write anything thinking about the movie “based on the book” before you write a single word. It’s a waste of time. It is true that every writer, aspiring or “advanced” has the heroes of his books in his head. After all, we as authors give them shape and form. Creating a “wish list” for a potential movie is not a sin as long as this movie takes place only in our heads. We need to know what the characters we’ve created look like. And we should limit ourselves to that. Let’s not think about the movie based on the books we haven’t even written. If we want to work this way at all costs, we can become educated as scriptwriters. Because we will not magically become authors of books in this way, and the authors of the scripts are also good at telling stories. Let’s think about it.

4. Don’t expect to be a bestseller author.
This point is related to the second and third point. This is a simultaneous comparison with famous writers whose books have broken through the silver screen mixed with imagining at the very beginning that our book will definitely become popular at an express pace and reach the rank of a bestseller, and film agencies will rush with cooperation offers. It does not work like that. The fact is, we should believe in our ideas. Without faith in the idea for your own history, it makes no sense to write it down at all. However, excessive faith in your own ideas, especially at the very beginning of our writing journey, is like digging a grave deeper than the proverbial 6 feet underground. Not every rookie becomes a hit. Not every famous author published the first book he was writing. Let us remember that writing is a long road full of sacrifices and wasted paper. Because talent cannot be wasted. Either you have it or not. Either improve it or not. The decision is ours, our approach, patience and understanding that not every manuscript will be accepted by publishers, even if in our own eyes they are bestsellers tailored to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Let’s just chill out.

5. Don’t expect literary awards.
Just as with the expectation of becoming a fast-wanted author of a bestseller, it is not worth waiting for the fact that after writing the debut book, literary prizes will fall in our direction. Nike, Nautilus, Orle Pióro, Silver Globe, Booker, Hugo, Pulitzer, and even Nobel, because our virgin manuscript is a work of art! Slow down! You have to wait for literary prizes. They may come, but they can also bypass us a lot, no matter how long we work on one particular book or how many books we write. If none is good enough (even if we can spend anything), the rewards will not get dust on our regiments. So, before we create an altar of adoration for statuettes in the apartment, let’s work on our own workshop. Let’s refine it, write how much and how long it can be done. Let ourselves gain consistency in action and humility in creation.

6. Set small, regular goals.
It is not worth setting goals that we will not be able to achieve at the very beginning. Especially having a job based on a full-time contract or study, which takes a lot of time every week. Let’s not assume that we will write 10 pages of the plot or 5000 words a day. Even if we can achieve it, after finishing the work we will find that what we have written is only suitable for pressing the “Delete” button. Hurry is not worth it. On the Internet you can find a lot of articles from the type “Write a book in a month”, but if we want the story to have the right pace, an interesting plot, intriguing characters and, above all, being suitable for sending it to publishing houses and agents, we should not act hastily. If you’re studying or working, break down your writing goals into small steps. Writing takes time for a reason. Set small goals spread out over time. You can decide that during the week after work or after school you will work on building the depicted world, do research or even watch a few videos on Youtube about writing, and on weekends you will write a total of 5-6 thousand words or half a chapter. This plan is more feasible. The book does not have to be written in a month. Give yourself half a year or even a year and you will gain peace of mind and confidence that the book will be better. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. No one is infallible. Nobody writes the perfect book on the first try, no matter which book they write. There is always room for corrections, edits and adjustments. Only practice and consistency in action can achieve effects.

7. Do research!
It doesn’t matter if you write about elves, zombies, mutants, crocheting, gathering forest mushrooms in the dry season or about a wizard specializing in creating magic arrows and bows. You need to do research on any topic you want to write about. If they are elves – you are looking for information about elven races. One general is not enough. It’s like writing about people without race divisions. You deny the same multitude of differences between the races within the whole. If you write about mutants, you need to check the powers of different mutants. Controlling the elements is not the same as controlling electricity, and the gift of shape-shifting is not the same as controlling general magic. If the theme of archery appears in the book, you need to know what parts the bow consists of and how the arrow is built, and what alternatives archery has, e.g. crossbows, tubes through which arrows are blown. There is one conclusion: you cannot write about something you have no idea about. You don’t have to describe in the book the exact construction of the mechanical arc or the difference between the two elves. This knowledge is for you. You are to tell the story in such a way that the reader understands it. Don’t treat him as an idiot. You write for people who can use their heads just as well as you do. You need to acquire knowledge while giving readers a chance to place their own creativity, curiosity and imagination. Don’t shut up on new knowledge. Man learns throughout his life and your brain has enough space to contain any additional information. After all, you want to create, pass on to people what is in your head. And after the saying “Even from the empty Solomon does not pour” – an empty head will not suddenly spill words, if you do not know what you are writing about.

8. Read books. All genres that interest you.
The worst thing you can do as an aspiring writer is to focus entirely on writing. I’m not saying that once you sit down to write with all the information you need to do, you have to break away from it. With everything you need to write a book, the process itself takes several months. During this time, you can cut yourself off from any other way of spending time – within reason, of course. Writing a book, however, does not mean to completely detach yourself from reading other people’s books. First of all, writing 24 hours a day is not feasible. Not if you have other obligations such as school or work. You can’t ignore the life around you. Secondly, focusing all your energy on writing for too long is debilitating and leads to dramatic burn-out. Then you completely lose the enthusiasm for your own story, which fascinated you so much that you thought about writing it. Reading books doesn’t hurt. If at all, reading expands your vocabulary, stimulates creativity and imagination. It doesn’t matter what you want to write. If you aspire to be a writer, you should also be a reader. The passion for writing books in most cases comes from a passion for reading. For example, my favorite genres are fantasy, horror, urban fantasy, young adult and so-called contemporary (e.g. books by John Green and Jojo Moyes). I don’t limit myself as a reader just because I work mainly on fantasy books. The more books you read, the greater the chance that what you create will be good.

9. “Show Not Tell” is not a religion.
Many writers will tell you that if you can show something instead of describing it, this is the way to do it. The descriptions are said to repel readers. You might ask: which readers? Let’s not throw everything and everyone into one bag. There are readers who like descriptions. There are those who skip the descriptions. Step-by-step description of the fight is almost impossible descriptively. Too long descriptions can be tiring. Most will agree with this. The only thing I can say on this topic is the fact that without practice there is no success. When showing, make sure that our show does not change into a boring description. When describing, do not overdo it with details. Let’s leave the readers a chance to imagine what we are describing using their own imagination. Let’s remember that readers are not idiots. They can think and imagine what they read in their own heads. Thanks to this, each reader creates his own picture of the world that we originally created. And this is beautiful. By describing too much, we block the way to the so-called red herrings, plot twists and cliff hangers. By giving readers too much information at the very beginning, we close ourselves a retreat and a surprise. We do harm not only to readers, but above all to ourselves.

10. Follow your instincts. Allow yourself to be creative.
The rules of good writing written by famous writers do not have to suit you. How famous writers work doesn’t have to be your way of writing. Keep all ideas up to date and write them down as soon as you can. Some people carry a notebook and a pen. Others save everything on the phone. Each way is good, and it is better to write something down immediately than postpone it, because when the opportunity arises, it will turn out to be completely out of your mind. Do not reject the idea that appears in your head as something stupid. All information is important. And above all trust your instincts. If you think something is noteworthy – it is noteworthy. Just because. Don’t let anyone bring your ideas to the ground, because that’s not the point. You are the creator. It depends on you what and how you write. What matters most of being a writer is your own vision of the story you want to tell. If anyone tries to tell you how to write a book, tell them to fuck off and write it themself if they feel so clever. The stories in your head are yours. You are their master and ruler. You decide what you write, how you write it and whether you are ready to share your work with the world. Do not get manipulated or hurried. You set the tempo and rhythm. You are the conductor of your own orchestra. With this attitude, the whole world is open to you.

Good luck!