Advice to readers from famous writers on literature. Advice from famous writers, creative motivation and secrets of literary work from professionals

• Ask an experienced person for advice. A good native language teacher is a great source of inspiration!
• If you travel, you can meet many people on the plane and gain inspiration from them. For example, a man with a beard can become the hero of your book.
• There must be a mystery in the book that the characters in the book will try to solve! It doesn't have to be a mystery story, but you can make sure that the characters in the book don't know what's going on and that even the readers don't know.
• 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 girls giggling or girls laughing at someone. You can also easily describe this in your book. You don't have 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 okay. We all have different opinions! But you should review your work and edit it to avoid repeating mistakes.
• Once you've finished your book, copy it onto your computer to simplify the editing and publishing process.
• Make a list of characters and ideas, and carry a NOTEBOOK with you at all times so you can write down new ideas!
• When drafting, try to use a heart, star, dot format if it's a short story. The heart is your main idea, the stars are important details, and the dots are examples from the text that support the details.
• If you ask friends for advice, be careful. Your friend will either say that you wrote an “excellent” book out of loyalty and fear of hurting your feelings, or he will say that it is terrible and will be merciless towards your feelings. If your friend says a book is good, ask him why he liked it, what he liked best and what he didn't like. If a friend says a book is terrible, ask him why he thinks so, and if he doesn't make a good argument, ignore his comment. If a friend gives a detailed answer, think about what they told you, because chances are other readers will think so too. Reader feedback is very important!
• If you're having trouble describing the characters, ask yourself if the characters have pets, secrets, or what their favorite food and activity is. Get to know them like your best friends!
• Don't worry if you make a mistake because no one is perfect. Try asking your parents or teachers to check your work.
• Drink more water and eat healthy foods to help you concentrate. Try to consume sweets and chocolate for energy.
• Show your book to a professional editor, and if you want to add illustrations, show it to an illustrator.
• Always keep a pen or pencil and a notepad with you.
• You must be a good typist.
• Once you finish the book, dedicate it to a loved one. For example, “To my friend, Christina.”

"remembered me a lot. Firstly, Anne managed to tell the story of her life in a very interesting way. Secondly, the book really has a lot of useful tips for writers that can be put into practice. It would be foolish to believe the advice of a writer whose book was frankly unsuccessful or uninteresting.

Finding advice for aspiring writers is not at all difficult. Only on Lifehacker there are already many more of them than . Therefore, I tried to choose the most interesting, and most importantly, previously unknown tips. I had to re-read the book almost a second time, but it was worth it.

You won't always like what you write.

Nine times out of ten I don't like what I write. When I re-read drafts and articles that were written on the table, I feel a little uneasy. Unfortunately, there is no other way to become better. In order to improve, you will need to write a lot. And you won’t always like the result. This is fine.

Getting published is not as important as many people think

It's like thinking that the tea ceremony is for the sake of tea. In fact, the ceremony is needed for the sake of the ceremony. So it is with writing.

A writer needs creativity in itself - in order to write. You should not strive to get your book or article published.

Publishing should obviously be high on your list of priorities, but don't put it first. Write for the sake of writing.

Writing well means telling the truth

It seems that the truth is easiest to write. After all, it is much more difficult to first come up with something, give it form and write it. In reality, this is not the case. Writing in a way that is interesting and understandable to the reader is as difficult as giving a cat a bath.

If you don't know what to write about, start with childhood

Write about the very beginning. About the time when you just began to become aware of yourself and the world around you. If your childhood was bad, you will get a dark story, if you had a good childhood, you will get a bright and colorful story. However, no matter what your childhood was like, the results of your work will still be terrible at first, but the main thing is to start.

Anyone who survives childhood has accumulated enough material to last the rest of their lives.

Flannery O'Connor

When you start remembering all the details of your childhood, there may be so much material that you won’t understand how you can even write about everything. If so, narrow your scope and write about specific events, time periods, or people.

Sit down to write at the same time every day

Lamott says that such a ritual will teach the subconscious to engage in creative activity. Sit down at the table at 9 am, or 7 pm, or 2 am - whatever you like best. For the first hour, you'll probably just stare at a white piece of paper or computer screen like an idiot. Then you will begin to sway from side to side. Then you will want to pick your nose - you should not avoid this. You will start cracking your fingers, stretching, petting your cat, biting your nails, or biting your lip. And only then can you possibly start writing. Be patient until this moment.

It's better to write in small portions

If you have an incredible task in mind, then fear of its size can cause you to fall into a stupor. Write in small portions. Don't be afraid to take breaks and rest.

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You only see what the headlights snatch from the darkness, and yet you can go the whole way this way.

Edgar Doctorow

You don't have to see the whole road right away - the nearest couple of meters is enough. It’s the same in writing: don’t try to master everything at once, but write in small portions - this way you won’t go crazy.

Don't be afraid of ugly sketches

When you read a book by Stephen King or Salinger, you think that they get these stories right the first time. But that's not true. All good writers have terrible first drafts. And then the second, third, fourth. Then comes the turn of a passable draft, and only after that does something sensible come out.

Almost everyone, even great writers, finds creativity difficult. And the only way to start writing is to write a weak, terrible draft.

Perfectionism is the writer's enemy

The desire to do it perfectly will haunt you constantly. On the one hand, this is good, on the other hand, it kills the life in the text. Trying to get rid of unnecessary garbage, you will scribble, reduce and change the text until it becomes dry and lifeless. Know your limits.

The author must be attractive

Think about your favorite actors. Each of you will definitely have a couple. You're probably ready to watch even the worst movie if your favorite is starring in it, right? What’s more, you would watch the weather forecast non-stop if it were hosted by your favorite actor.

If your view of life coincides with the reader’s views and you are able to express the thoughts that also came to the reader’s mind, then it is no longer so important to him what happens in your book. He will read it anyway.

Test your material on someone

Find a good friend, relative, or colleague and ask them to give you an impartial review of what you've written. They don't have to be writers either, because you probably write for ordinary people. It is much easier for an outside eye to see all the flaws and gaps in your text, and they are there, no doubt.

Writing well is a useful skill, and it's not that difficult to develop. The best way is through "", a free and cool writing course from the editors of Lifehacker. Theory, many examples and homework await you. Do it - it will be easier to complete the test task and become our author. Subscribe!

I constantly receive letters from aspiring writers and poets asking: “Read my work and tell me if I should write!”

What do we see here? The author is not yet serious about literature and himself in art. He wants someone to decide for him whether he needs to spend years on education and practice. If some unfamiliar aunt tells him “no,” will he stop writing? Such an author is worthless.

You can tell whether an author is talented not at the initial stage, when everyone writes poorly, but after five to ten years, when the mediocrities drop out, unable to “run a marathon.” Talent is a little ability and many years of training and practice. Mediocrity is not capable of this; they quit the race.

Tell me, auntie, can I get married?

Can you imagine a young man passionately in love who will come to a stranger and ask: “Should I marry this girl or not?” If a young man is serious, if he really loves his chosen one, he will move mountains on the path to happiness - at least he will try.

Moreover, it is easier for us, writers, there is not enough beautiful girl for everyone, and literature will accept into its arms anyone who sincerely loves her.

Inner emptiness

In 1923, Osip Mandelstam wrote an article entitled, where he complained that in Russia there was an incredible number of authors besieging editorial offices with requests “Publish me!”, “Look what I wrote here!”

As now, a hundred years ago, the reason for this phenomenon is that a person is dissatisfied with his life, does not know how to do anything, does not have knowledge, and in some foggy dream he dreamed that he would be able to exchange his stormy feelings, expressed as he it seems like “poetry”, for all sorts of “carrots”: recognition, connections, fame, money, etc.

Such people are not interested in literature - they are interested in themselves. They write exceptionally poorly precisely because they do not take their work seriously, do not see art in it, do not see in it something worthy of careful study.

Mandelstam writes:

Try to shift the conversation from so-called poetry to another topic - and you will hear pitiful and helpless answers, or simply: “I’m not interested in that.” Moreover, someone who is sick with the disease of poetry is not interested in poetry itself. […]

Poetry writers are, in most cases, very poor and inattentive readers of poetry; […] extremely fickle in their tastes, untrained, born non-readers - they invariably take offense at the advice to learn to read before starting to write.

Sincere answer

Another beginner writes me a letter

For some time I think about how to answer so that he would at least catch something in my words.

I’m answering him only because I was like that myself: in my youth, I also ran around with manuscripts to all sorts of “Writers’ Unions” and famous authors. And she, too, was a beginner who loved herself in art much more than art in itself.

And these are the thoughts running through my head:

Guy, you came to me and demanded from the door that I give you my time, my experience and my knowledge. That is, you demand a piece of my life. What are you willing to give? Your stories? Thank you, but I know that newcomers who need “constructive criticism” write worse than Bunin. I’d better go and read Bunin.

It took me several significant blows to my pride before I woke up and realized that literature requires SERVICE, not consumption. You need to sincerely love it (that is, read other authors, study theory, write mountains of drafts), and not pour your complexes and problems into it, like into a sewer pipe.

And only after that things started to work out for me.

But this young man does not take himself and me seriously. In fact, in his eyes, my time and effort are worthless, and that is why he - completely without a second thought - comes and demands attention. And when he doesn’t receive it, he gets terribly offended.

How to make yourself interested?

But somehow you need to establish connections and communicate with colleagues? How to be?

Beta reading

You can exchange services with those who are at the same career stage as you: you need it, and so do they. Serious beginners are interested in how their colleagues write - this gives invaluable skills in editing and trains literary taste.

Consultations

You can get acquainted with those who give paid consultations. This is a fair exchange: we exchange time for money.

Small but useful services

No money? You can provide services: learn to do something and help someone whose attention you need.

But quality is important here: recently one lady declared herself a marketer and began to force herself on me as a friend. But it soon became clear that she had no qualifications at all, she only knew how to throw around clever words.

Friendship on the same level

And if you want someone big and accomplished to be your friend and provide you with services in exchange for the joy of communication, then you need knowledge, skills, a broad outlook and sincerity.

Which end should I approach from?

If you feel that literature is the love of your life, but don’t know which end to approach it, take my lecture. In it I will talk about how to lay the emotional foundation for your creativity.

Whether you succeed or not is determined not by higher powers or genes, but by your emotional background. If you can move forward with confidence, you will do something useful for your career every day and eventually achieve results. If you can’t, it means that you will either not do anything at all, or you will walk in circles - around acquaintances and strangers: “Look... And evaluate...”

If you don't have time to read, you don't have time (and skills) to write, said Stephen King. For those who want to become a writer, the site has selected several tutorials from famous wordsmiths, with the most interesting and original advice and which, among other things, will be interesting as works of art.

Writers love to share the secrets of their craft, their views on literary activity, and their own experiences of writing. Some give lectures and conduct creative workshops. Thus, Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky happily worked as a guest poet in a number of American and British universities, where he taught, among other things, the theory of versification, and the narcissistic, bile-spewing Vladimir Nabokov for many years sought a professorship at Harvard. Those who do not want to strain their ligaments and chew on what is obvious to them, encountering misunderstanding and even indifference from listeners, choose a different path - they write books where they talk about the principles of literary work, about things that are important for the formation and development of a writer, and give advice to beginning writers.

Ray Bradbury. Zen in the Art of Writing

The master of science fiction said: “In our time, the joy of existence lies in helping teenagers find ways to new frontiers...” This is exactly what he does in “Zen...”. Written in beautiful artistic language, the manual, which is at the same time a literary manifesto of the author, intersperses practical advice on creating an individual style and collaborating with a publisher with abstract reflections on literature, Bradbury’s favorite poems and interesting episodes from his biography.

The word "Zen" in the title of the book, which does not even have an approximate definition, which is a reference to the philosophical treatise "Zen in the Art of Archery", introducing the West to Zen Buddhism, means, in my opinion, pleasure - the pleasure that the writer receives from writing . The author of The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine sought to teach future writers not only to write well, but also to love creativity, to love as passionately as he loved it. The book ends with the words “Work is love!” Bradbury himself, an optimist and lover of life, believed that he would die if he stopped writing, and for many decades, until his death, he began every morning with work on his next work.

The secret to creativity is to treat your ideas like cats - just make them follow you.

So far, only the first essay, “Zen in the Art of Writing,” entitled “The Joy of Writing,” has been translated into Russian, and it can only be found in electronic form.

Selected tips:

“First of all, a writer must have a restless heart. The writer should be in a fever of excitement and delight. If this is not the case, let him work outside, picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows, these activities are healthier for your health.”

“Read those books that sharpen your perception of color, shape and world scale.”

“Imagine someone like you, for example, who wants or doesn’t want something with all his heart. Let him get ready to run. Then let's start. And - following, not lagging behind a single step. Before you even have time to look back, your hero with his great love or hatred will carry you to the end of the story.”

“Try to find little delights for yourself, look for little sorrows and give form to both. Taste them, give your typewriter a try too.”

“The story of any story should therefore read like a weather report: cold today, hot tomorrow. Set the house on fire this afternoon. Tomorrow pour cold water of criticism on the still smoldering coals. Tomorrow there will be time to think, shred and rewrite, but today - explode, fly into fragments in all directions, disintegrate into the smallest particles! The next six or seven drafts will be real torture.”

“The secret to creativity is to treat your ideas like cats—just make them follow you.”

Konstantin Paustovsky. Golden Rose

“This book is not a theoretical study, much less a guide. These are simply notes on my understanding of writing and my experience,” wrote beloved Russian writer Marlene Dietrich in the foreword to The Golden Rose. In his work, Paustovsky talks about how heroes always resist the author’s plan, and you need to listen to them; that it is not necessary to carry a notebook with you everywhere; compares the artist and the writer, demanding that the latter distinguish colors no worse than the painter.

The instructions are supported by statements from other writers, examples from one’s own experience, and fascinating short stories. Besides the nature of central Russia, the classic loved nothing as passionately as the Russian language, so it is not surprising that “The Golden Rose” was written in a polished, expressive style and, if only for this reason, deserves to become a reference book for every novice writer.

Paustovsky believed that “Every minute, every casually thrown word and glance, every deep or humorous thought, every imperceptible movement of the human heart, just like the flying fluff of a poplar or the fire of a star in a night puddle - all these are grains of gold dust. We, writers, have been extracting them for decades, these millions of grains of sand, collecting them unnoticed by ourselves, turning them into an alloy and then forging from this alloy our “golden rose” - a story, novel or poem.”

Selected tips:

“The one who forces himself to accumulate observations and rush around with his notes (“so as not to forget something”), of course, will indiscriminately collect piles of observations, but they will be dead. In other words, if these observations are transferred from a notebook to the fabric of living prose, then they will almost always lose their expressiveness and look like alien pieces.

You should never think that I will ever need this rowan bush or this gray-haired drummer in the orchestra for a story, and therefore I must observe them especially closely, even somewhat artificially. Observe, so to speak, “out of duty,” for purely business reasons.
You should never forcefully squeeze even very successful observations into prose. When necessary, they will enter it themselves and take their place.”

“One of the foundations of writing is a good memory.”

Stephen King. How to write books. Memoirs about the craft

It would even be strange if such a prolific and financially successful author did not write a guide for aspiring writers.

The book consists of two parts: “Biography” and “What is Writing.” The first tells about the events of King's life that played a role in shaping him as a writer, about the influence of the work of Howard Lovecraft on him, about the consequences of a car accident, after which he, by the way, decided to write this work, and about why he did not keep his promises to stop write.

In the second part of the book, King gives practical advice to young writers - for example, he recommends avoiding the use of adverbs whenever possible, shares secrets on how to develop a plot correctly or what character traits should the main character of a good “horror story” have, illustrates the instructions with works of famous authors and stories, written by him specifically for this book.

If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or skills) to write. It's simple.

Selected tips:

“How to Write Books” is useful, I think, only for those who want to write like Stephen King. And for them it is priceless. The work will undoubtedly arouse interest among admirers of the work of the “king of horror.” It is worth noting that the book was highly praised by the authoritative and strict film critic, long-time host of the Oscar ceremony, Roger Ebert.

“It all starts with this: put a table in the corner, and every time you start writing, remind yourself why it’s not in the middle of the room. Life is not a support system for art. It’s quite the opposite.”

“... try to write better and remember that writing adverbs is human weakness, writing “he said” or “she said” is the perfection of the gods.”

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (and skills) to write. It's simple." Some people think that writing a book - a very complex process that only a very talented person can cope with. Of course, to create a work, you need to have a large amount of knowledge in various fields, well-developed imagination, willpower, patience and, of course, some skills to express emotions and feelings. If several of these points apply to you, congratulations - sit down with the book now. In this article, we will give advice for aspiring writers

who will assist you in writing your masterpiece.

What to write about? First you need to think about why you need. What should you tell your readers? What idea should I push them to, etc.? As an example, you can talk about your life, your profession, well, or about famous personalities. Or, on the contrary, you want to create a fictional world and populate it with fictional characters. Your right. All these topics are quite suitable for a book. And it doesn’t matter at all what you are going to write: prose or poetry. The main thing is to start.

It is necessary to sketch out a plot plan for the future book. Writing a plot outline will keep you from getting confused about the content of your book. It will ultimately help create a coherent text, without plot defects.

How to start creating?

Very simple. Write about what is on your mind at the moment. When you're creating, don't think about how you'll arrange the chapters. The main thing is that there is ready-made content at the end. And the rest is a matter of time.

Write then edit

First you need to write, completely surrendering to the creative flow and inspiration. Write everything that comes to mind. Even the most banal stupidity. Perhaps inspiration itself requires it. And after a few days, you can safely sit down and make amendments to the material you wrote. The bottom line is that when you try to edit the material at the moment of creation, you break out of the creative wave, your idea is irretrievably lost.

How not to be distracted from work?

In order to fully devote yourself to writing a book, you need to create the most comfortable conditions for yourself. Decide what will help you create. Maybe peace? Pleasant music? If you write in a pleasant environment, the creative process will bring you a lot of pleasure.

How not to quit write a literary work? Tell everyone you know that you aspiring writer that you have started creating a work and want to finish it at such and such a time. This way, you will be ashamed of yourself for breaking your promise.

How to create interesting things?

A lot of stories! Readers love stories from personal life. Avoid templates and boring formal speech! Create your own writing style: your own artistic language, your own rhythmic structures, and so on.

Where to find inspiration?

Think about whether you need it at all. Consider your creativity as a responsibility. Set yourself a schedule: write a certain number of words every day or something like that. Because if you want to create a book only at the moment when inspiration supposedly arose, the process of writing a book will last for many years.

You can learn a lot of useful things by studying advice from famous writers. Who else but a writer can help write a book?!

We're sure these tips have inspired you to put pen to paper. Good luck to you! We will be waiting for your book.

How to publish your first book?

As you know, in order to become an aspiring writer, it is not enough just to write a book. Without reader criticism, no one will know about your book. Therefore, you definitely need to publish your work!

A printing house such as ROLIX can help with publication. Here you can publish books in editions of 10 or more. Little-known writers are usually offered to do a “pilot” print run with the subsequent possibility of additional printing. This allows you to avoid large financial costs if it is not in demand among readers.

Please keep in mind that the cost of one copy is affected by:

• Volume of publication in number of sheets;
• circulation (the larger it is, the lower the cost of 1 copy);
• soft or hard cover;
• paper quality;
• the number of inks used for printing;
• complexity of layout

The process of layout of a book and its printing can take from 1-2 months to six months. It all depends on the number of illustrations and the complexity of the layout itself. You can print a book. There you can also find a convenient calculator that will help you create an approximate budget for printing your book.

To learn how to make your new book popular, watch the following video: