In a perfect world, every emerging and seasoned writer would have a mentor, a person to consult with, discuss topics and share the occasional writer’s angst. Maybe even open a few publishing doors.
I’ve had encouragement and help along the way, but never had a true writing mentor. Did that stop me? Nope. I learned to be my own mentor and you can too. Promise.
Here are some easy ways to mentor your own writing.
Read in your genre. Wait. Don’t just read but examine and evaluate the work of published writers, whether you’re writing fantasy or cooking articles. Look at the lengths of each sentence, the use of quotes or dialogue, the descriptive terms and how everything is tied up (or not) at the end.
Evaluate good and bad, in your opinion, writing. If a technique works, for instance starting an article with a catchy quote or something shocking, then keep that in mind as you pitch ideas to this same pub. If you’re writing a romance and the main characters meet by page 3, in a novel that happens to be a best seller, this could be the key to getting your novel accepted by this same publisher.
Self-edit like crazy. Some of you know I always do about 10 full edits on writing to be submitted for publication. I wish it weren’t true. I long to have the first words that hit the screen as keepers. They ever are.
I recently was chatting with an emerging writer who wants to write but is never satisfied about how the writing sounds when she gets a few pages written. She stops. On the first draft. Never completes anything. When I told her about my 10 revisions, she was startled. Like others, she assumed she was a bad writer because those first words weren’t brilliant.
Talk with other writers about their writing goals. Find out what makes writing colleagues happy and worried. Find out how they launched their careers. Listen to their advice, if it’s applicable to you. You just might realize you have a source, concept, trick or connection they could use. You might be a mentor for another if you ask questions and listen. Then, if appropriate, ask for their input on your writing concerns.
Warning: Before you ask anyone to read or evaluate your writing, be sure that the person is qualified, understands your goals and that you want help/feedback and not judgmental or caustic responses. This must be someone with whom you share mutual respect. Otherwise, you’re looking at hurt feelings, bad info and useless assistance.
The bottom line to all of this? Make it easy for yourself and be your own mentor. Mentor the quality of your writing. Pretend you’re mentoring the writing of your BFF. Then go the extra mile to let writing cool, edit it until you’re satisfied and then take chances. If you are your own mentor, you’ll know intuitively when it’s time to submit the work and when you need another revision.
I appreciated you mentioning vigorous self-editing as a must for mentoring ourselves as writers. In a writers’ group I used to belong to, one member, an excellent writer, would occasionally ask the group to read her work, not for comments about the work itself, but rather to do a copyediting mop-up.
That irked me because I knew she had all the skills to do that “housework” herself.
Over a coffee one day, I finally diplomatically asked her, “How could we help each other in the group to get over the copy editing hurdle and onto next levels of our writing? For instance, maybe Zinsser’s “On Writing Well,” might help all of us.”
She got the message and again began to show group members clean, good work, ready for thoughtful feedback. (I am not talking about the issues in a piece that may remain after a honest copyediting effort.)
Hi Eva,
I’m taking your online class, “Travel Writing,” and enjoying it very much. I am learning a lot about writing and your lessons are very beneficial to me. Thank you!