Author of Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine, Shares her 7 Rules for Writing

 

By The Write Redhead 

Having written at least thirteen books, many considered classics now, Gail Carson Levine knows a little bit about writing.  If you ask her what kind of advice she would give new or aspiring writers, she’ll give you seven rules for getting a running start at becoming the writer you would like to be. And here they are:

1.      The best way to write better is to write more.

2.      The best way to write better is to write more.

3.      The best way to write better is to write more.

4.      The best way to write more is to write whenever you have five minutes and wherever you find a chair and a pen and paper or your computer.

5.      Read! Most likely you don’t need this rule. If you enjoy writing, you probably enjoy reading. The payoff for this pleasure is that reading books shows you how to write them.

6.      Reread! There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become part of you, in a way that words in a book you’ve read only once can’t.

7.      Save everything you write, even if you don’t like it, even if you hate it. Save it for a minimum of fifteen years. I’m serious. At that time, if you want to, you can throw it out, but even then don’t discard your writing lightly.

And no, the first three are not typos. She says this really is the best way to learn the craft of writing. After all, you can read every book there is on building houses, but until you actually start building one, you will never truly learn the ins and outs of the process. Learning to write works much the same way.

Her next piece of advice, of course, is to read. Many a writing career has begun with reading, including her own. She says this about her start: “I read novels constantly, as I always had, and one day while I was meditating I asked myself why, since I adored stories, I never made up any.” And, thousands of fans are glad she did.

Not to sound clichéd, but to be a writer you must be a reader. And not only that, but you must read the kind of books you would like to write.  If you want to write mysteries, read the ones you consider to be the best; likewise if you want to write sci-fi, read the best in sci-fi.

Saving everything you write may sound a bit trite, but it is always good to go back to see how you have improved, making it critical to your learning journey.

Regardless of the niche you write in, these seven rules can help you on your way to becoming the best writer you can be.