There is hardly an educated person, who doesn't want to write their magnum opus, but how many actually have the talent or the nerve to do it? There are few who are passionate enough about their work to write it and then, have the courage to share it with others. If you have the passion and the wherewithal, then do it. Creativity is an essential part of being a successful author and I am assuming here that you have it in abundance. Another important element that needs mentioning is that you have to have excellent communication skills. Writing is all about communication. How well you communicate will finally determine your worth as an author. Now that the essentials are out of the way, here are ten tips to help you along.
Tip 1 - Read if you want to be an author
The first tip is to read. You have to be a passionate reader to be an author. Reading teaches you how to create a world that will engross the reader. It also teaches you the usage of the world, provides you with ideas to write, and more importantly teaches you to go within and contemplate. This is essential to creativity and you cannot hope to become a half way decent author unless you can tap into your creativity and experiences to put them on paper.
Tip 2 – Write every day
Practice makes a man or a woman perfect. This is so true of authors too. You need to write every single day if you wish to become an author. It is not essential that you write a whole story in one day, write something, just an anecdote from the day will do as practice. Go back to what you have written previously and go over it again to see if it still appeals to you. Let someone else read what you have written and give you a feedback. Do not be annoyed or afraid of criticism, it is what makes you improve and become perfect in your art.
Tip 3 – Mind your language
Well grammar and syntax is important but not as important as you would like to think it is. Sometimes deviating from the syntax can give you interesting results. Do not use words that are pretentious, it is overkill. Any good writer will tell you to avoid jargon. Use simple everyday words to communicate with your reader. Keep the sentences short and crisp, mind your voice, and avoid long paragraphs. Nothing intimidates an ordinary reader more than long endless paragraphs that go on, it seems, forever. Break the writing into shorter paragraphs, they are easier on the eye.
Tip 4 – Develop your Writing style
Each and every author has their own special style. Find yours and develop it. Do not copy or imitate anyone else, because in the end, you will be just an imitation and not very interesting. So look for your own style and develop it. How you use the words, what voice you use, how you use other literary elements in your writing will all denote your style. While developing it remember a few things, learn to write descriptions. If you intend to transport your readers to where you are, seeing what you are seeing, you will need to practice description. Be clear in what you are seeing and what you are describing. Do not use too much of symbolism. Author Stephen King advices against using excessive symbolism. To quote him - "Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create an artificial sense of profundity." This is sage advice, follow it.
Tip 5 – Keep your characters real
You can create outlandish characters, even super natural ones, but do remember to keep them real to life. Even the most evil of people have a streak of good in them, and the best of people falter. Writing about people requires a lot of observation and understanding of human nature. When creating a character look at all the facets of your character and help them conduct themselves as real people would do under the circumstances. Carry a note book around so you can record your observations or people and incidences to understand human nature and behaviour. After a few months, you will be surprised at the information you may have collected.
Tip 6 – Write for yourself
That is strange advice considering this is an article provide you with tips to become an author. But the truth is that all great authors write for themselves, for what they want to read. The simple principle behind this is that if you write for others? Who is it that you are writing for? The public, the critics, friends or family. It is pretty confusing to decide who you are writing for. You do need to select your genre and target age group, but when it comes to writing, think of what you would like to read in the genre and the age group, and write.
Tip 7 – Read and edit your work
Once you have finished writing, you need to take a break of a few days and then read over the manuscript again. This will allow you to see the weak spots, the unconnected parts and any other mistakes in your storyline, characters or events clearly. Edit your work, make it error free and as crisp as you may want it to. Prepare the final manuscript for submission to Publishers
Tip 8 – Find yourself a literary agent
If you are hoping to go the traditional publisher way, you will need a literary agent to intervene on your behalf. Most traditional publishing companies do not appreciate direct submission of manuscripts. Most of them will probably not even take it in. Since they prefer working with literary agents, find yourself one. Look for a well-connected agent who has a strong network in the publishing community. Talk to them and describe your work to them and see what they think about it. An experienced agent will be able to get you the best deal. You can shop around for an agent and test several before you are likely to get an offer.
Tip 9 – Get a Publisher interested
Once you have polished your work according to the vision of your literary agent, it is time to look for a publisher. The agent will now get to work and push your manuscript to an editor at a publishing house. Hopefully you will find an editor interested enough in the manuscript to accept it. Once accepted, you will have to work with the editor to clean up the book as per her vision. This means more editing and cleaning. Then it will be time for the little details like the book cover, the blurbs, preface, acknowledgements and other such details. Once all this is taken care of, it is ready to be published.
Tip 10 – Enjoy being an author
Whether you become an instant bestseller or not, you are entitled to feel proud that you have joined the ranks of published authors and be happy about it. Enjoy your moment but do not let go of reality, an author is only as good as his last bestseller. So keep writing and keep publishing.