Recently, I asked many Substack writers to share their best advice that they received when they were starting out anew. Here’s what they had to say.
received this advice from his Dad who got it from his father:received this advice from his first and only creative writing teacher, words that has always stuck with him:Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, we (almost) always write about the real world, going outside makes us understand it better, making our writing clearer, interesting, and relatable. My dad, who is also a writer, got this advice from my grandfather who is one of the greatest poets of Assamese literature.
shares:Avoid personal cliches. They’re different from normal cliches that belong to the world at large. They’re words and phrases you find yourself falling back on needlessly when you can’t think of anything else. And they can be easy to miss.
who is an award-winning author, journalist, producer, podcast host, and a sought-after storyteller for top media companies as The New York Times, Hearst, and Condé Nast has this advice for new writers:You don’t have to get it right first time. Your voice will develop. Take the pressure off yourself and do what comes naturally. Then revise like crazy.
Write about what interests you, and not what you think interests others. Too many writers starting out psych themselves out worrying about writing something that someone else will be interested in. Write for yourself. If it's interesting to you, it will most likely be interesting for others.
But some of us, me included, did not get the required advice at the right time, to get us started, or to keep us going. But that did not discourage us. We persevered and hustled our way forward. I could relate to what
said:I don't ever remember receiving any advice in the writing realm. I just wrote. All. The. Time! But no one has really offered me advice. Is that weird?
Not weird at all, says
, who only received “very creative” kudos.I hope these words of wisdom will help you grow your presence as a writer. Maybe someday in the future when someone asks you for your best advice, you will share one of these.
I will leave you with what
shared with me, who has also written a post that offers seven different ways to get into your writing.I think if I had one sentence I would say "give your writing space to breathe".
Happy Writing!
As someone who is finally making time to commit to sharing my writing regularly I appreciated reading these words of insight from other writers. Thank you for posting the question and celebrating a variety of responses!
Such a helpful post with encouraging and actionable advice for newer writers. I particularly enjoyed this quote: 'You don’t have to get it right first time. Your voice will develop. Take the pressure off yourself and do what comes naturally. Then revise like crazy.' I recently fell into the trap of writing and publishing without much revising, as I thought this was what all the best Substack-ers were doing. But it just didn't feel like me. Following a prompt from the In Haste podcast, I went back to revising 'like crazy', letting things sit for a while before hitting publish, and I feel so much happier with what I'm putting out now.