My Favorite Piece of Writing Advice: Make It Good!

As a writer, it can be easy to get caught up in the details of marketability and whether or not an idea is trendy enough to be successful. But at the end of the day, that only matters if you have a good story.

In this post, I will share my favorite piece of writing advice: Make it good—as in your book.

Why Your Book is REALLY Being Rejected

Writers hear the uplifting advice a lot that you have to put up with rejections endlessly until someone "discovers" your work and loves it.

There is some credence to that advice. Great books are rejected all the time for numerous reasons. It may not be a good fit for the agent, or the storyline may be too similar to something already in the publisher's pipeline.

But your book is more likely to be rejected because it needs improvement (or to be thrown in the trash).

Image from Canva

Sorry. That seems harsh, but it is something that needs to be said.

There are a lot of books out there vying for attention, and only the very best will get noticed. If your book isn't up to snuff, it will get passed over in favor of better ones.

This might not be necessary advice for a great deal of you. But as a publisher who regularly reads fiction submissions and then has to go and reject those submissions, I can say with confidence that there is still a good chunk of writers out there who need to hear this.

But I'm going to share the best advice I have ever heard.

I got it from Stan Lee. Not personally, but I heard it from his mouth in an interview about why his work has been so successful. And now I'm going to share it with you.

If you want to become a published author, there is one fool-proof hack guaranteed to help you succeed.

What is this excellent advice?

When writing a book, make sure to....

....make it good.

Why "Make It Good" is a Piece of Writing Advice You Should take to Heart

I should explain.

Too many writers get bogged down in following "advice" (she says while giving you advice). They search Reddit and Google for all the best tips on how to write and, worse, what to write. They are told to keep their books under a specific word count, add certain characters and avoid others. They are told to follow this-and-this convention of such-and-such genre. And much, much more.

They then set to work on these novels, getting feedback along the way from people who rarely know much more than they do.

And I will not tell you this isn't an acceptable way to start a career in writing. Everyone has to start somewhere, and when you have zero knowledge of a topic, the internet can open you up to a ton of important information.

But the internet is also a landfill of ideas, not all bad, but overwhelming, confusing, and smelly.

It can be a very distracting business.

And unfortunately, most new writers don't have mentors to work under or pick knowledge from their noses. Most writers are in some way going it alone or in a group of equally clueless individuals.

The problem with this is slow growth, costly mistakes, and bad habits.

This is where the advice "make it good" comes in.

The best way for a new writer to learn (or an experienced one to improve) is to get off the internet and stop taking advice for a while.

Every writer has a favorite book. Why are you trying to become a writer if you don't? But there is a reason you love that book. It provides you with something. It gives you a feeling and taps into a memory.

It could be for a million different reasons that you cherish that book.

That book is the best teacher you have. Period.

Hopefully, your favorite book is good. At least in your eyes.

Now, what makes that book good? Figure that out! Don't just appreciate the book. Really think about what makes it so good.

• Characters? Why are they better than those from other books?
  

• Setting? What emotions does it evoke? How does it do that? What language does the author use to make it come alive for you?

Jack Tuesday by F. Nelson Smith

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Now that you know what makes YOU love that book examine how you can apply that to your own stories. You might not get it right the first time, but eventually, you will. I guarantee it. You'll know you are on the right track when you read your own writing, and it gives you chills. Or your own characters make you cry.

But remember this: What is good for you differs from what is good for everyone. Yes, your book might get rejected a few times even if you follow this advice. But do it repeatedly, and you will get better every time you sit down to write.

Though....there is always a chance that you are one of the delusional ones who write complete trash. Who thinks that gold spins from your fingers when you write. But those people are lost no matter how much they read.

My advice to you, even though it may hurt my readership, is to get off the internet and stop looking for tips and tricks.

Instead of worrying about word counts, marketing, outlining tools, or genre conventions, you must remember to "make it good."

But first, you'll have to figure out what that is. And blogs or Twitter can't tell you what that is. You'll have to read some good books to decide for yourself.

Next: The Right Mindset