Essential Writing Tips for New Authors
- Livvy Skelton-Price
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
Starting out is one of the hardest things you can do. There’s a whole world out there to wrap your mind around. Your words could become the next biggest thing, start trends, or be lost in the abyss. With these essential tips, you’ll be able to keep a sustainable pace and move out of the beginner stage to become someone who writes writing tips for new authors!
Define Your “Why”
There are going to be a million obstacles that get in your way. If you know why you’re doing this, why you’re writing, why you’re putting in the effort, why you want this. You’ll be able to remind yourself in those moments when you want to give up. For me, I want to be creative, and I also want the freedom to leave my full-time job and be able to travel. For me, as much as I love writing in the moment, it’s not enough to motivate me when things feel tough. Try to think bigger than “I enjoy this.” What’s your why to keep you going in the moments you don’t enjoy?
Educate Yourself
Learn as much as you can. Writing the book feels like it’s the hardest part. Honestly, it feels like it’s the only part. But once you’ve finished the manuscript, there is so much more to learn. When I finished my first book to self-publish, it felt like the more I learned, the more I needed to learn. The amount of information out there can feel never-ending, overwhelming and contradictory. But the more you know, the more informed you are to make decisions about what will be best for you and your book. I recommend googling blogs as those will be updated regularly as times change. I love The Creative Penn; The Write Practice; And Livvy Skelton-Price (he he!)
Find Your Community
These are the people who will gas you up (make you feel good) when you are down, and give you advice when you are stuck. They’ll also celebrate with you when you achieve something — and this is invaluable. Your community can be online or in person, whatever works for you. We all need people to lean on and who understand what we’re working on and going through.
Start Publishing Your Work
It’s common to get to the end of a piece of writing and feel the nerves kick in. You don’t want to show anyone your writing. The thoughts swirl that your work’s not good enough, you’re not good enough, nothing is good enough. Listen. This is normal; we’ve all been there. Everything is scary the first time we do something. You don’t have to start with your novel. Publish smaller works. Publish a blog, write guest posts, write copy, get your words out there. Let people find them. Let people offer suggestions. This will help you build a portfolio and name for yourself, AND you’ll improve your writing way quicker than if you kept it to yourself.
Create A Routine
A routine is one of the most important things you can do. This will save you on days you don’t feel like writing. You know how you brush your teeth without thinking, how you just get ready for bed, how you go to work and do your thing — sometimes without even thinking about what you’re doing. You do things on autopilot. This is what your writing routine will become. With time, you’ll sit down and write a few words before you even realise that you have. You will have posted a blog post before you can even decide if you feel like writing today. With a writing routine, everything will become so much easier.
What are your favourite writing tips that helped you as a new author?
What do you still struggle with? Because we’re all still struggling.
My book, What’s Left: https://a.co/d/04vfTz1o
Website: https://www.livvyskeltonprice.com/
Substack: https://substack.com/@livvyskeltonprice
Medium: https://medium.com/@livvyskelton
Comments