Posted in useful advice. Tips from famous writers creative motivation and secrets of literary work from professionals

Aspiring writer- 17 secrets of success:

1. Never leave your very best for last. Reveal yourself immediately, and then see what happens. The better the start, the better the sequel.

2. Opening a paragraph, sentence, line, phrase, word, heading - is the beginning of the most important part of your work. It sets the tone and makes the reader know that you are a commanding writer.

3. The first duty of a writer is to entertain. Readers lose interest with descriptions and abstract philosophy. They want entertainment. But they feel cheated if they don't learn anything while having fun.

4. Show, do not tell or present tendentious.

6. The piece is much more important than anything. Readers (and publishers) care less about skill than content. The question they ask is not “How did you achieve becoming a writer?” But “How well is the work written?”

7. These rules are quite contradictory. This is the nature of rules in art.

8. All entries create conflict. Give quality attention to opposition and good lines. The power of the antagonists must equal the power of the protagonists.

9. Switch frequently. Try sentences of different structure and type. Create a good mix of narratives, descriptions, expositions and dialogues.

10. Be careful with your word. One word, like a drop of iodine in a gallon of water, can change the color of your manuscript.

11. Provide the reader with a conclusion. The last sentences of the story echo something that happened before. Life goes on in a circle. “If in your first chapter there is a pistol, then the book ends with a pistol” (En Rul)

12. By the end of the work, the conflict should be resolved. Not necessarily a happy ending.

13. Correct, correct. You will never get a good result on the first try.

14. Avoid excessive use of adjectives and adverbs; trust the accuracy of your nouns and verbs. Verb form: the shorter the better. Avoid passive language, clichés, and clichés.

15. Be interested in every offer. Be concise. Hemingway's first editor at Kansas City Star gave him the following rules: “Use short sentences. Use short paragraphs. Use emphatic English. Be positive. ” Hemingway later said about these tips: "These are the best rules of writing that I have ever known."

16. If you can be misinterpreted, you will.

17. There are no rules for writing well. Anyone who successfully breaks the rules is a true artist. But: first, learn the rules, practice, bring your skill to mastery. "You cannot step over what you do not know." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharai.

Any person can write a book, they are not born authors. Another question is just how good a writer you are, or rather, how good a storyteller you are.

It may be that a person created a unique story idea that could win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but if this story is composed of meager sentences and undeveloped dialogues of the main characters, such a writer is worthless. How to give birth to an author who beautifully expresses his thoughts, how to give birth to ideas for his stories, and in general how do real writers work? Read all about this below.

Work time

Surely many novice authors have come across such a great feeling as Inspiration, it covers a person with his head, and he is full of emotions, is able, without smoke breaks and jogging to the toilet, to build a literary text of several tens of standard pages in one evening. Here, on the so-called Great Inspiration, the pitfall of any novice writer is buried.

Remember once and for all - a professional writer uses a burst of creative inspiration only in order to create the very idea, the intention of the future text, and not to drive the text in Stakhanov's way with emotions all night long.

A professional writer every day, little by little, literally squeezes the text out of himself. He writes for himself and only for himself. The goal is to create a story that he himself would like to read. To write from inspiration to inspiration, really only poetry in three columns, but not like novels.

Ideas for creativity

The truth of any outstanding literary figure boils down to the following law: "To become a writer, you must first become a reader." Indeed, reading refreshes the narrator's thought process, making his train of thought more structured with a wider range of vocabulary. This is especially noticeable these days, when the average person reads on average one and a half books a year. And so, when this person (unexpectedly for himself) takes a book in his hands and reads it for an hour a day for a week, he begins to notice how his dreams have changed in a positive direction, in them he begins to see more colors, people and events. His speech has also significantly transformed, the “new” reading person, by his example, feels how his consciousness began to work much more efficiently, as if it were a just oiled clock mechanism. Indeed, fresh thoughts, gleaned from books, act catalytically in the human brain, giving rise to his own unique thoughts and ideas.

Your book will be popular with readers not because of the "light pen" of the writer, but solely due to fresh, unique ideas, implemented in the form of a literary text. Write about what no one has written about before, and you may become not just a “genius of the pen”, but also the creator of new literary genres. "Suck in" at least 40 pages of text a day, and you have a real chance to become a real writer.

Who's the story?

You can write from the perspective of the main character, from the author, from the hero and a number of other heroes, from the author and the hero, etc. Which option would you better ask? A good story is capable, no, it must, it must evoke emotions in the reader, the easiest way to achieve this is by narrating on behalf of the hero of the story. However, it is quite possible to be a successful writer by distributing the roles of narrators between author and hero, or author and heroes.

How do you come up with an idea?

Writers are divided into two conditional categories in terms of drawing up an idea for a future work. Some (I want to note that this is done by the minority) at the very beginning of writing the text work out in detail the plan for the course of the story of the story, carefully select in advance all the characters, the places of action ... in general, they do everything so that the story is created from beginning to end according to a strictly worked out plan. Others, write without any plan, at their disposal there is only a preliminary plan, everything that follows, the writer tritely invents in the course of writing. Which category to rank yourself in is a matter for each person personally.

How much do they write?

Professional writers, for whom such work is the main source of income, work almost daily, some write from 5 to 15 pages a day, and the most hardworking quite realistically manage to compose up to 30 pages in one day. Books consist of 150-2000 pages (meaning - 1 standard page equals 1800 characters without spaces). Amateur authors, at the very beginning of their careers, write short stories ranging from 5 to 20 pages, they usually cope with their stories in one or two days. At the beginning of your career, it is much more rational to master small volumes of text before moving on to literary volumes.

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1. Never use metaphors, similes, or other phrases that you often see on paper.
2. Never use a long one where you can get by with a short one.
3. If you can throw away a word, always get rid of it.
4. Never use a passive voice if you can use an active one.
5. Never use borrowed words, scientific or professional terms if they can be replaced with vocabulary from everyday language.
6. Better to break any of these rules than to write something blatantly barbaric.

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1. Use a complete stranger's time so that it doesn't feel like a waste of time.
2. Give the reader at least one hero for whom you want to root for your soul.
3. Every character should want something, even if it's just a glass of water.
4. Each sentence should serve one of two purposes: to reveal the hero or to move events forward.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be sadistic. As cute and innocent as your protagonists are, treat them horribly: the reader must see what they are made of.
7. Write to please only one person. If you open the window and make love, so to speak, with the whole world, your story will catch pneumonia.

Contemporary British writer, very popular with fantasy fans. Moorcock's key work is a multivolume cycle about Elric of Melnibone.

1. I borrowed my first rule from Terence Hanbury White, author of The Sword in the Stone and other books about King Arthur. It was like this: read. Read everything that comes to hand. I always advise people who want to write fantasy or science fiction or romance novels to stop reading these genres and tackle everything else, from John Bunyan to Antonia Bayette.
2. Find an author you admire (Konrad was mine) and copy his stories and characters for your own story. Be the artist who imitates the master to learn how to paint.
3. If you're writing story-driven prose, introduce the main characters and main themes in the first third. You can call it an introduction.
4. Develop themes and characters in the second third - the development of the work.
5. Complete topics, reveal secrets and more in the final third - the denouement.
6. Whenever possible, accompany the acquaintance with the heroes and their philosophizing with various actions. This helps to maintain the dramatic tension.
7. Carrot and Stick: Heroes must be pursued (by obsession or villain) and pursued (ideas, objects, personalities, secrets).

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American writer of the 20th century. He became famous for such scandalous works for his time as "Tropic of Cancer", "Tropic of Capricorn" and "Black Spring".

1. Work on one thing until you're done.
2. Do not be nervous. Work calmly and with joy, whatever you do.
3. Act according to plan, not mood. Stop at the appointed time.
4. When, work.
5. Cement a little every day instead of adding new fertilizer.
6. Stay human! Meet people, visit different places, have a drink if you like.
7. Don't turn into a draft horse! Only work with pleasure.
8. Depart from the plan if you need to, but come back to it the next day. Focus. Concretize. Eliminate.
9. Forget about the books you want to write. Think only of the one you write.
10. Write fast and always. Drawing, music, friends, movies - all this after work.

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One of the most famous science fiction writers of our time. From under his pen came such works as "American Gods" and "Stardust". However, they filmed it.

1. Write.
2. Add word by word. Find the right word, write it down.
3. Finish what you are writing. Whatever the cost, follow through on what you started.
4. Put your notes aside. Read them as if you are doing it for the first time. Show your work to friends who love something like this and whose opinion you respect.
5. Remember, when people say something is wrong or not working, they are almost always right. When they explain what exactly is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6. Correct the mistakes. Remember, you'll have to let go of the job before it's perfect and start the next one. is the pursuit of the horizon. Move on.
7. Laugh at your jokes.
8. The main rule of writing is: if you create with sufficient self-confidence, you can do anything. It can also be the rule of life. But it works best for writing.

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A master of short prose and a classic of Russian literature who hardly needs an introduction.

1. It is assumed that the writer, in addition to ordinary mental abilities, must have experience behind him. The highest fee is received by people who have gone through fire, water and copper pipes, while the lowest - natures untouched and unspoiled.
2. Becoming a writer is not difficult. There is no freak who would not find a match for himself, and there is no nonsense that would not find a suitable reader. And therefore, do not be shy ... Put the paper in front of you, take the pen in your hands and, irritating the captive thought, scribble.
3. It is very difficult to become a writer who is published and read. For this: be and have a talent the size of at least a grain of lentils. In the absence of great talents, roads and small ones.
4. If you want to write, then do so. Pick a topic first. Here you are given complete freedom. You can use arbitrariness and even arbitrariness. But, in order not to open America for the second time and not to invent gunpowder again, avoid those that have long been worn out.
5. Letting your imagination run wild, hold your hand. Don't let her chase the number of lines. The shorter and less often you write, the more and more often you are published. Brevity doesn't spoil matters at all. A stretched elastic erases a pencil no better than an unstretched one.

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1. If you are still a child, make sure. Spend more time on this than on anything else.
2. If you're an adult, try to read your work like a stranger would. Or better yet, how your enemy would read them.
3. Don't elevate your "calling." You can either write good sentences or you can not. There is no “literary way of life”. What matters is what you leave on the page.
4. Take substantial breaks between writing and editing.
5. Write on a computer that is not connected to the Internet.
6. Protect your work time and space. Even the most important people to you.
7. Don't confuse honor and achievement.

The profession of a writer seems amazing: a person creates the world, publishes books, and if they seem interesting, then he gets good money. Domestic practice shows that literary creativity is more a vocation than a profession. In this article, we will explore how to become a writer.

Who is a writer really

Writer is a person who creates works for public consumption. For the specified type of activity, he receives a reward. Another form of this activity is the recognition of a person by the writing community, critics, or other expert assessment.

Is it a hobby or profession

The writer must be:

Able-bodied - between the ideas in the head and the book in the cover there are hours of work; literate - no proofreader will correct a huge number of mistakes; seductive - the ideas that have arisen need to be able to be presented beautifully. To do this, you will have to spend many hours at the computer. Educated - many authors keep diaries in which they write beautiful speeches, sensations, scenes, etc. They will need this material for work. Be able to express their thoughts, feelings, mood.

A person who has talent can become a writer. The appropriate skills can be developed, the sense of style can be instilled. However, it is very difficult to train a person to beautifully transfer an idea from his head to paper. But probably.

Is it possible to make money on this

Typically publishers pay 10% of the cost of a copy, while retailers mark up 100%. The author gets about 5% of the book's shelf price. Novice writers publish works in the amount of 2-4 thousand copies. If the fee per unit is 10 rubles, then from this amount you can get 40 thousand rubles. You can also sell books via the Internet, setting the price yourself. All profits will be fully owned by the author. The circulation will depend on the popularity of the work.

How to start your writing career

Writing, like any art form, is built on clear rules. To become a writer and make a living doing this, you have to drive yourself into the framework of deadlines and topics. But first there is a lot of work to be done. 1. Choose a genre and your style A correctly chosen genre is one hundred percent hitting the target audience. Many authors believe that narrowing down a work to one genre would deprive them of potential readers. This thesis does not apply to aspiring authors. If the latter does not want to define the genre, then it confuses the potential reader, that is, the buyer. The reader wants to purchase a certain product. If in a matter of seconds the author cannot explain what book he created, then the reader will leave without a purchase. 2. Make at least 10 attempts Beginners and successful writers alike often face the challenge of maintaining their “unique” worldview. Before reaching the literary Olympus, you need to study what humanity has already chosen. Then the author's look will become truly original. In trying to ignore the culture of humanity, the writer runs the risk of being left alone with his vision. A lot about everything, try to choose the right words. Try to keep a fresh perspective on literature. This is best done using wit. In order not to get lost halfway, you need to believe in yourself and your strength, write as sincerely and well as possible. 3. Analyze the result Try to keep a fresh perspective on literature. This will determine whether the reader wants to study your book and tell others about it. To do this, you need to compare your work with the work of a famous author. This move worked well in communication with the editor. If a person at the first meeting says that he is writing in the spirit of Saltykov-Shchedrin, then it becomes clear to the publishers that they are facing an author who seeks to create an artistic and political satire. Finding style icons is important not only for comparison, but also for further learning.

4. Listen to the opinions of others Submit your work for study not only to the editor, but also to those close to you. If they offer constructive criticism. Then you should listen to her. Unless you've contacted an all-knowing "haiter." You need to be able to distinguish the opinion of amateurs from people with professional and life experience and listen to the latter. Then work on the mistakes, that is, on the editing of the style and the accessibility of the presentation. The editor's advice is very useful. Most often he gets a raw product with a lot of errors. Its task is to correct shortcomings and create stylistically correct and light text. Sometimes it can be quite harsh and tough. Because in many respects the final success of the book depends on the results of his work. 5. Listen to yourself - is it yours or not The success of an essay depends on the author's ability to bring the reader to the center of the action. People don't care about the difficulties you experienced in childhood. If you can make sure that the reader is imbued with what is happening, learned a lesson, then the book will be successful. Another question is whether you can do this in an accessible way, as an author. You need to listen to your inner voice. 6. Continue writing no matter what Popularity is the result of painstaking work on mistakes. Becoming a writer is very difficult. Not everything depends on hard work and “training”. You can even sit for 6 hours with a laptop and a dictaphone, but as a result you get a dull piece. The desire to write does not always coincide with a person's talent. If you put in effort, improve your skills, read a lot, write even more and try yourself in different styles, then the chance to achieve success increases significantly. 7. Come up with a nickname An author with a nice name is easier to remember. How to come up with an alias:

Determine which part of the name you want to leave, for example, instead of Alexander - San. Choose a name that matches the genre. For a fiction author, initials are more appropriate, and for a literary creator, “soft” names that will sound nice. Think of some pretty pseudonyms and give yourself time to study each of them. Choose the one you like the most.

8. Try to publish your creations It costs a lot of money to publish a book. Even after passing through a strict selection of works and adjusting the style, no one can provide a guarantee of cost recovery. In addition, the works of beginners are published in a small circulation, so editors are advised to start with social networks and special online platforms. Electronic publication saves the author from several degrees of stumbling: he can go out to his own circle of readers and test various literary works. J.K. Rowling received 8 rejections before publishing the Harry Potter manuscript, and the Austrian publisher found Fifty Shades of Gray by E. L. James on a fanfiction forum.

9. Conduct a literary evening of your labors Another way to find your reader and listen to the opinions of critics is to participate in a literary evening of works. First, you should visit the event of a famous author, get acquainted with the “literary elite”, listen to current topics. The evening is held according to two scenarios: either fans read the author's favorite works, or the "idol" himself reads new works. Meetings are also practiced at which authors writing in different directions speak. At such events, aspiring creators share their sketches and listen to the opinions of professionals, including literary critics. It takes a lot of talent and self-discipline to become a writer. You need to be clear about what kind of prose you want, have an example in front of your eyes and follow it. The most difficult thing for a writer is to complete the work. You can't do it without patience; all really good books are striking in their believability. It is as if the reader himself experiences all the events and emotions. Only a good writer can give all this to people.

If you want to write a novel in three parts but don't know where to start, just sit down and start writing. This is the main tip for a beginner. This includes not only creating works, but also keeping diaries, blogs, letters to loved ones, etc.

It is not necessary to describe events in chronological order. A writer is a creator! First you can come up with an ending, and then the story itself. The Russian language is very rich. Try to use unexpected metaphors and comparisons when creating your works; it is very difficult to keep more than three characters in your head. Therefore, it is best to create a short description of each of them. The names should be chosen different from each other, but at the same time characterizing the heroes. Works with unexpected endings are strongly engraved in the memory and evoke a lot of emotions. The finished work should be given to someone to read. If it is not possible to use the services of proofreaders, it is better to give the work to friends and acquaintances, but do it anonymously in order to get an objective assessment.

This is how Stephen King creates his pieces. The author needs to have two copies of his work: a draft and a final version. The first must be created without anyone's help behind a closed door. It will take time to transform all expressed thoughts into a work. At that time, the writer advises to completely change the type of activity or leave to rest. The book should lie at least six weeks in a closed box. After the specified time, the first corrections of the text are made: all typos and inconsistencies are corrected. The main goal of re-reading the work is to understand whether the text is fully connected. The formula for the second copy of the manuscript = First option - 10%. Only after reaching this proportion does the book get on the table to the proofreader.

How to quickly want to write if the muse has left you

Inspiration can leave anyone. What to do in this case:

Are you worried about some burning question? Try to figure it out for yourself and help others do it. Stephen King recommends writing for one ideal reader. After all, it is no coincidence that books that have come down to us since ancient times are a letter to one person ("To myself" by M. Aurelius). There are no bad sketches. The task of the writer is to polish the text well. The source can be anything you want, trust your intuition. Inspiration can come at any time. Try to grab hold of it and make the most of it, and then work with the result. Another nuance: inspiration comes while you work. Work 110%. Write about what interests you personally. Then other people will find something familiar in the writing.

Develop your literary talent all the time

The author's job is not to create ideas, but to recognize them. There is no Idea Repository or Bestseller Island. Good ideas literally come out of nowhere. The task of the author is to recognize them. When a poet writes, he creates an essay for himself, when he corrects it, for the readers. At this point, it is important to remove all unnecessary things. Then the work will become interesting for other readers. The writer must develop his vocabulary. But by reading. The spelling dictionary is best placed on the tool shelf. Stephen King believes that any piece can be spoiled if you add a bunch of long words to it. The author should be quick and direct, and a good description is the key to success. It is an acquired skill that can only be learned with a lot of reading and writing. Description is a visualization of an object, characters, objects, which begins with the words of the author and should end in the imagination of the reader.

How to Become a Good Children's Writer

Making books for kids is trendy but challenging. A child's perception is not the same as that of an adult. They do not want fashionable books, but interesting books. The poet of children's books has a great responsibility. They should not contain violence, cruelty, bullying. Children's psyche has not yet been formed, therefore it is difficult for them to understand irony and sarcasm. A child writer needs to know the audience clearly. The younger she is, the simpler the stories should be and the brighter the characters. Little kids are good at reading fairy tales, and older kids are good at intricate stories.

I want to become a famous writer, how to achieve this

Make sure you really want to be a writer and are willing to work in that direction. It will be very difficult to move forward without self-confidence. Read as much as possible. Alternate short stories with serious masterpieces. This will greatly expand your vocabulary. Write a 10-page story in 10 days. Use your imagination to the full. Keep a diary for the future "bestseller" and fill in one page every day. It doesn't matter if it is an artistic or documentary direction. You need a diary to hone your craft. Share your creations to the general public. You can start promoting the book yourself, via the Internet. Listen to constructive criticism. Write yourself a short summary and leave it in a prominent place. Try to create real heroes and love your characters. Write about anything that interests you!

• Ask an experienced person for advice. A good mother tongue teacher is a great source of inspiration!
• If you go on a trip, you can meet many people on the plane and get inspiration from them. For example, a man with a beard might be the hero of your book.
• There must be a mystery in the book that the heroes of the book will try to solve! It doesn't have to be a mysterious story, but you can make it so that the characters in the book do not know what is happening, and so that even the readers do not know it.
• Find a secluded and quiet place to find new ideas and concentrate.
• If you see a sad person on the street, ask yourself what could have happened to him and write a story about him. You might see two giggling girls or girls laughing at someone. You can also easily describe this in your book. You don't need to know these people; just pretend you know the circumstances!
• Even if you are young and love to write, you should try to stand out from the competition so that you have a better chance of winning. If you don't win, that's fine. We all have different opinions! But you should review your work and edit it so that you don't repeat mistakes.
• Once you have finished your book, copy it to your computer for easy editing and later publication.
• Make a list of heroes and ideas, and carry the NOTEBOOK with you at all times so you can jot down new ideas!
• When drafting, try to use the “heart, star, dot” format if it's a short story. The heart is your main idea, the stars are the important details, and the dots are examples from the text that support the details.
• If you ask your friends for advice, be careful. Your friend will either say that you wrote an "excellent" book out of loyalty to you and fear of hurting your feelings, or he will say that it is terrible and will be ruthless to your feelings. If your friend says the book is good, ask him why he liked it, what he liked the most, and what he didn't. If a friend says the book is awful, ask him why he thinks so, and if he doesn't give a worthy argument, ignore his comment. If a friend gives a detailed answer, think about what they said to you, because chances are that other readers will think so too. Reader feedback is very important!
• If you're having trouble describing heroes, ask yourself if the heroes have pets, secrets, or what their favorite food and activity is. Get to know them as your best friends!
• Don't worry if you make a mistake, nobody is perfect. Try asking your parents or teachers to review your work.
• Drink plenty of water and eat healthy foods for concentration. Try to eat sweets and chocolate for energy.
• Show your book to a professional editor, and if you want to add illustrations, show it to an illustrator.
• Keep a pen or pencil and notebook with you at all times.
• You must type well.
• As soon as you finish the book, dedicate it to the person you love. For example, "To my friend, Christine."